Road to Darkness by LucidShadowDreamer on Newgrounds

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Road to Darkness

Hahha, well.

I'm not really that good an artist; I'm more of a musician. I still draw some odd stuff every now and then! :3

I made this during art class in my school. It's actually my first coal painting (serious at least). Sadly, this artpiece is not as well optimized as it could be XD

Just thought I might as well share this, since why not :'D?
What do you think?

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XwaynecoltX

2021-04-20 01:26:33

Awesome

Well i have to say this here was some awsomness the drawing itself is nice a dynamic view the details within the trees and mountains are crazy good would love to see you implement this into a computer form

~X~

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you for the kind words! I'm surprised you ended up here, as nobody has reviewed it in seven years xD
It's fun to know that uploads on the internet sometimes live a long life!

Cyberdevil

2014-06-19 03:17:26

This is a nice drawing! The trees really span the distance and give the road a sense of length. They don't blend into the mountain too much either, nice work on the texture of the range, the lines and shadows, and the snowy ground surrounding the road. It reminds me of Pokemon somehow, the suspense before that final cave, heading to the league of legends... nice work!

-cd-

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

How did I miss this o.O?

Thanks a lot for your review, Cyberdevil! :D

linda-mota

2014-04-17 03:52:41

First time with coal? What did you use willow or hard pressed? I see white did you use white chalk/conte?

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yup, first time with coal. I used willow coal. That white part is some kind of crayon, which I found very difficult to use. I don't know my tools that well, as I did this for an art class, and the tools were provided and chosen for us :)

Oh, and good job with the frontpage!

Sha-ne

2014-04-16 22:54:37

well hey I like it

sure those trees don't look natural, but that's it- they are the first things that caught my attention, and the eerie shape is complimented by the monochrome color scheme.
I was put off a bit by the lack of features on the landscape behind the trees, but I feel you made a good choice of keeping it that way; otherwise it would be too busy of a background, and it would rob the attention away from the center.

Intentionally or not, this piece has a really appealing format based off the "path" you had drawn. Simply put, the path leads viewers' eyes straight to the mountain, to the tiny cave like opening you added. Plus, the trees frame the path, they fence it- they too add to the effecting of drawing attention to the focal point.

Of the mountains in the background, there is room to add better texture- especially with charcoal. Additionally, they seem to blend together rather than stand apart.

well like I said, I like it

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I'm glad you like it!

Yeah, I never intended for this piece to look realistic, which is probably quite obvious. I simply like the theme. You might be right in that more features in the landscape would draw attention away from the center. The truth though, is that I found no other way to use that white crayon than on and off, basically. It's either full powered white, or none at all (it was harder than a stone, I promise!) There are probably many other people who know how to use them well :)

I'd like to claim that the center based format with the path is intentional, the question is only how well I succeeded. If I remeber correctly, the basic shapes of the trees where the first things I drew (after the 6 basic lines that I used for proportion). Lastly came the mountains :)

I agree with what you said about the mountains too. There is much room for improvement in several aspects when it comes to the entire piece :D

Thanks a ton for the review!!!

LunacyEcho

2014-04-06 21:23:49

To me, this looks good. Then again, I'm no artist. If I was, I'd probably say something like 'the chiaroscuro from the dichromatism evokes a sense of haunting ambience'. But I'm not, so I won't.

I really enjoy the shading you did on the mountains. Sure, it's not the best shading in the world, but I think that the shading is what makes the mountains seem surreal, not necessarily the shape. (Sorry, TheDoor!)

The trees look creepy and spooky, but they don't necessarily look like trees. I think trees should have a larger concentration of branches higher up on their bodies. Right now, they look way too skinny and scrawny. Also, that one tree on the far left? The one that has a branch that just sticks out? The OCD in me is bothered by this. Another thing: Why are the trees on the right smaller than the ones on the left?

I'm also kind of confused by the long, beige-ish strip in the middle. It sort of looks like the whiter ground is snow, while the beige-er ground is clear of snow, but that doesn't really make sense. Why would the snow choose not to fall in a single area? And if it's supposed to be a different color because of all the people who traveled on it, why aren't there footprints/tire imprints/elephant tracks/etc. on it? It's like the point in the middle is hell, and all the damned driven there via Zamboni. There's an interesting image, I guess.

The one-point perspective was pretty well done. The smaller trees on the right side make it feel kind of lopsided, but even if this was a mistake, it gives a sense of skewed-ness, which I like. It really plays upon the image of an insane, manic depressive, schizo, psychotic individual that everything you put on Newgrounds seems to help portray. :D

This was one of my most nitpicky reviews of all time. I really enjoy it, though. And it's a thousand times better than my artwork, trust me. Great job! Four stars for effort and putting up with my scrupulousness!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hahha, wow! Thanks for such an amazing art review! I never expected to get 3 reviews, not to speak of GOOD reviews, on this artpiece that I just casually uploaded XD Especially since I'm not a scouted artist! One can't help but love you people :3

"Then again, I'm no artist."

=> You know, everyone keeps saying that, as if I were an artist, lol!

OMG, the lighting and the shading from the two colors used give the piece a spooky atmosphere? Good one, LunacyEcho ;)

I'm glad you like the shading one the mountains, since I experimented a bit with that :p And I agree with both you and Andrew about the surrealism!

"The trees look creepy and spooky, but they don't necessarily look like trees."

=> Fair enough. I agree that they should have more branches if this was to be a realistic piece, since I don't think that these trees would have any chance of keeping their leaves otherwise. I guess I just really didn't care XD
I'm sorry for disturbing your OCD while it was napping D: ! It's not the only branch that sticks out, but it's probably so close to the "camera" that it's irritating :) It would be the same if this was real life, and you had an irritating branch that covered part of your visual field this close to you; maybe I'm just sadistic >:)
Actually, I looked at the original today, after I found where it was hidden, and this image doesn't include the very edges, due to poor optimization. Oh well :p

Why are the trees bigger on the left side? (*the excuse generating machine starts working*).

Oh, you see, isn't that obvious? The slight tilt of the "camera" and the twisted nature of the piece, not to mention other things that alter the perspective, only give the illusion that the trees to the left are larger! Ehem...
I don't really know. Some of the trees are same sized, but you're right in that the trees - especially the closest ones - are smaller on the right side :/
Meh :'D

"I'm also kind of confused by the long, beige-ish strip in the middle."

=> Actually, I was about to do somthing about it, but my art teacher told me to leave it be :p So that's the story... (I think she just wanted me to be finished, so that we could move on to the next subject...).

Let's just pretend that it is indeed the land of the dead, and it's so dry and empty of life that not even snow dares come close to it >:( !!!

"It's like the point in the middle is hell, and all the damned driven there via Zamboni."

=> Yup, that's why.

"The one-point perspective was pretty well done. The smaller trees on the right side make it feel kind of lopsided, but even if this was a mistake, it gives a sense of skewed-ness, which I like. It really plays upon the image of an insane, manic depressive, schizo, psychotic individual that everything you put on Newgrounds seems to help portray. :D"

=> Awwww, thanks :') It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, knowing that I'm filling all of your minds with terrifying nightmares, dark thoughts, as well as the growing suspicion that I might be mentally unstable :'D

"This was one of my most nitpicky reviews of all time. I really enjoy it, though. And it's a thousand times better than my artwork, trust me. Great job! Four stars for effort and putting up with my scrupulousness!"

=> And I enjoyed your review for sure!!! I'm sure you can do incredible pieces of art, if you just spend time on them! Personally, the only reason I was inspired to draw was because I couldn't really do much else in art class XD
Thanks again for the review!!!