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Hey guys, I hope this doesn't violate any rules. I went back and checked and didn't see how it would, but I can be an airhead so if it does let me know. I thought I might could take some time each night and try to help a couple of people out.

I don't want to sound like I have a big head or anything, I know I'm not the best artist, but I think I do have a lot of advice to give. And I've been a professional (I live off my art) for about 8 years, so I do have some experience.

Here is the skinny, if you'd like me to give you a detailed crit to the best of my knowledge, I want you to post an image you'd like me to look at. Pick a good one, the best you have, ms paint scratches and things I suspect no effort was put into will be ignored. You have to put in some time before I put in some time.

One picture per person, if a line forms please be patient, I'd prefer to go slow and do this right. Include any info you'd like me to know as well, program you used, pencils, paper, anything.

I will tell you what I think, and what I think you should do, if anything with the work. It's just my opinion, I'm just trying to help out. ^^ If you'd like to see some of my work, scope out my art portal entries to gauge my skill, you might not need advice from a scrub like me afterall! =P

I know art posts require art, so below an image by me. I hope this turns out to be a good experience.

Not as good as i thought it was D:

Sounds like a very progressive and thought-provoking idea to me.

I assume it probably pertains more to people who are drawing figures and whatnot, but I'll put one in here anyway...

Trees Hi-Res
(Can't really get this one without seeing it full screen...)
Trees

At 6/5/10 05:47 PM, antiandy wrote: Sounds like a very progressive and thought-provoking idea to me.

Sounds a lot like the critiquing thread and/or the review system to me :|
But since you're not big-headed or anything, I suppose it couldn't hurt... your majesty.

At 6/5/10 05:58 PM, ReNaeNae wrote:

At 6/5/10 05:47 PM, antiandy wrote: Sounds like a very progressive and thought-provoking idea to me.

Sounds a lot like the critiquing thread and/or the review system to me :|
But since you're not big-headed or anything, I suppose it couldn't hurt... your majesty.

Oh, maybe you're right, I don't know my way around real well yet and am just trying to help out. Also, way to be an ass. *high five* I was nothing but nice.

Cool. Your awesome man. Please critique this one.

Hey, Posca. Her were my thoughts on yours. I also did a quick speed paint to illustrate my test.

Since this is such a close view, I feel like the should be a better focal point, as well as more dynamic lighting. We need to feel the air from the mouth, see the spit really 'move' across the page. I would try adding warm colors in the bg, to pull the eye inward towards the mouth. The human eye is naturally drawn to warm colors over cool ones in many cases. Also I'd blur the spit, not all of it, jsut some, to add a little life to it, like a photo was snapped rather than a painting painted. And lastly, texture. Just a little here and there, but I'm all about texture so I won't dwell on that. I also added some rim lighting to break the figure from the background, and I would never use gradients. I'm guilty of using them, but in very controled situations, the gradient background I think damages your pieces more than it helps. Try doing your gradient type color by hand, you'll be impressed how much it helps the final piece.

I like the picture, makes me think of some orc barking orders to troops or something, haha, hope this helped.

At 6/5/10 06:04 PM, Hyptosis wrote: Oh, maybe you're right, I don't know my way around real well yet and am just trying to help out. Also, way to be an ass. *high five* I was nothing but nice.

My apologies... I mistook you for another user with a similar name and a sense of humor.

At 6/5/10 05:12 PM, big-jonny-13 wrote: Shit man, you're awesome for doing this.

Hey thanks dude, and you're awesome for being awesome. ^^

At 6/5/10 05:47 PM, antiandy wrote: Sounds like a very progressive and thought-provoking idea to me.

I assume it probably pertains more to people who are drawing figures and whatnot, but I'll put one in here anyway...

Trees Hi-Res
(Can't really get this one without seeing it full screen...)
Trees

Alright, I took a look at it, and you're right, it isn't something to easily give advice on. But I'll do my best. I dig it first of all, it's cool, and has a lot of details, also, I'm a big fan of trees. They offer me shade, delicious fruit, and they're fun to climb, so I'm partial. Also I think squirrels are cute, and they like trees too. To me this reads as a book cover, with the word trees laying on the spine of a book, looks like it'd be awesome on some old hardback.

I don't really know how it could be improved though, I mean, this kind of art is busy, and it is supposed to be busy, so I think you did a fine job. I don't really think I can offer you any advice on it other than just letting you know how it makes me feel and what I think of it. Good work, it'd be awesome to see it in a nice shiny metalic relief. Good work, keep it up! ^^

Ok here's what I got so far for robot day. Still kinda sucks but I'm trying.

I tried to quote your post and it told me it was too much to quote or some such...but suffice to say...
Thank you for the kind comments, and the time you put in doing this to help people.
I appreciate your thoughtful and instructive advice and I know everyone else here probably feels the same.
You are a rare type of person to take on this sort of task and actually have insightful things to say.
Thanks again.

At 6/5/10 06:05 PM, Fifty-50 wrote: Cool. Your awesome man. Please critique this one.

Heya Fifty, I see you all over the art forum but we've never really spoken I don't think. So 'Hi' ^^

There isn't a whole lot I can crit on yours as it is kind of a diagram/design, like it doesn't have a lot of composition or visual stimulous. Which this kind of drawing relaly doesn't need a lot of. When I first saw it, especially with the colors you choose, I thought "Blue prints." And not like super good/professional ones like you'd see for the iron man suit, but something scribbled by a troubled mind in some disasterous lab on the fringes of civility. So I thought 'what might could be done to better reflect this' and simply I was thinking of the conditions of the paper it was scribbled on.

So What I did was add some texture, a coffee cup ring to show the mad man's dischord, and some little notes scratched about certain parts. Dimensions maybe, or where to buy them, what to make them out of, etc. Ih ope this helps some. I thought about going into detail on each part, but ultimatly I thought it'd boil down to me just redesigning what you've already got, and I don't think that helps you. The design is fine, I'd work on tightening up my pencils but the best thing you can do for that is to just keep drawing, which I'm sure you're doing. So stick to it, good work! Hope I helped/inspired some, haha ^5

At 6/5/10 06:16 PM, Hyptosis wrote: Hey, Posca. Her were my thoughts on yours. I also did a quick speed paint to illustrate my test.
-Lots of awesome here-
I like the picture, makes me think of some orc barking orders to troops or something, haha, hope this helped.

Thats alot man, It has helped alot..
I love the way that you've redrawn it and showed my how to inprove, Ill keep it in mind, and ill try to make it a better peice, and give you a link to see if ive inproved myself, maybe not any time soon, beucase im stuck up in the Robot Day stuff, but i would sure love to get back to you.
Befor i read what you had said, i say the warm colours, and I was drawn to the mouth, being the main place to look..
Thanks so much, that was brilliant, i've never been too good at the whole life shading sort of thing, but you've helped soooo much. and for a speedpaint, thats alot better than mine..

Thanks man.
-charlie

At 6/6/10 01:50 PM, antiandy wrote: I tried to quote your post and it told me it was too much to quote or some such...but suffice to say...
Thank you for the kind comments, and the time you put in doing this to help people.
I appreciate your thoughtful and instructive advice and I know everyone else here probably feels the same.
You are a rare type of person to take on this sort of task and actually have insightful things to say.
Thanks again.

Haha, thanks dude, I just wanna try to give back to the community a little. *high five*

At 6/5/10 06:47 PM, ReNaeNae wrote:

At 6/5/10 06:04 PM, Hyptosis wrote: Oh, maybe you're right, I don't know my way around real well yet and am just trying to help out. Also, way to be an ass. *high five* I was nothing but nice.

My apologies... I mistook you for another user with a similar name and a sense of humor.

Ahh, sorry I misunderstood. You're not the first to say I have a terrible sense of humor though, sorry about that. ^^ I mean no offense.

At 6/5/10 06:50 PM, TurkeyOnAStick wrote: Crit pliz!

Done deal, awesome work bro!

Wow! Thanks a lot Hyptosis! The things you added made my pic look epic. Thanks! That robot pic, it really is like a blueprint. I made it that way because it's like a "scratch". It's like the plan on how the robot on my actual entry will look like. :D

Yoz Hyptosis! You're an awesome person for wanting to critique other people's work. Of the Artwork on you page, your portrait of Morgan Freeman is incredible.

If I have to chose one of my pictures to be critique I'd chose this one. I have difficulty drawing armor, and showing some muscle when someone is wearing a black tight shirt.

At 6/5/10 08:41 PM, MajesticBob wrote: Ok here's what I got so far for robot day. Still kinda sucks but I'm trying.

Hey bob, here I goze, hope it helps. Please ignore typos, I'm typing this while working on your paint over, so the keyboard is kind of out of reach.

First I need to know if you have a tablet. If not, you need to get one. This looks like my art not too long ago actually, when I was first learning the ropes in photoshop. But to tell you the truth, and this won't sound as fun, I became my best at photoshop once I stopped using it for it's tools. I literally only use the lasso tool and a hard edged paint brush for 99% of my work. Don't use gradients, don't use noise filters, none of that until you know how to get those effects withouth the use of those tools. I'm not preaching, I'm just saying, if you stop using photoshop's tools, you can save a year or two of learning by just diving in and doing it the hard way. If you didn't use photoshop, the just swap the word photoshop for the name of your software.

First I think you should try to think more in layers, and atmosphere. You need the background to be in the background, right now your's feels like it too is in the forground. Also, it is usually a bad idea to make your backgrounds, even if they're graphic like this, to make them mirrored, especially if the character too is mirrored. It ruins the creative discovery of the image. The human eye enjoys exploring, it is why we like photos of nature, why we like detailed and thoughful painting, good film, and picture of naked people. But the human eye is also lazy, if you draw half a picture and then reflect it, the human eye won't want to bother with the second half. It sounds silly, but it is true. So if you reflect an image, paint over the reflected half to make it once again interesting.

So I would suggest keeping some parts of your design symetrical, and some parts asymmetrical, so the eye wants to explore.

So when doing a picture like this, think about shape(silhouette) and atmosphere (background objects get lighter the further away that they are).

My paint over is sloppy, but I want to do as many of these as I can per night. Hope it is enough to illustrate my points.

At 6/7/10 12:29 PM, Posca wrote: Thats alot man, It has helped alot..
Befor i read what you had said, i say the warm colours, and I was drawn to the mouth, being the main place to look..

Thanks man.
-charlie

No problem man, it's what I'm hear for, haha. Good luck on robot day!

Er, meant 'here' for, but I've been on a roll of typos of late, so don't hold it against me please, haha. ^^

At 6/7/10 12:43 PM, Otto wrote: I would be delighted and honoured.

sorry I don't have a scanner, and could just about do this with macro on an average camera. It's tiny.

Hey man, I'm not even going to try any kinda of paint over or anything, because for 1, I'm not good at this kind of art, and 2, I don't think it would help you if I did. This reminds me of street art, good tagging, when I was 14 I was arrested for painting bridges, I've never done it since. =P I'll give you some comments and my thoughts, but I'm not sure how much help they will be.

It's a busy picture with an urban feel, but this kind of art usually is busy. You scan it with your eyes trying to see what the creator has hidden inside. You search for meanings, messages, secrets. At the top I see what feels like chaos, explosions, lines flying up, almsot like debris. At the bottom, eyes, little lines that look like hairs, mutated shapes, running paint, saddness, melting, sickness.

It'd look pretty damned rad on a brick wall I suspect, I dig the bold color choices and the "I'm not afraid of anyhting" aproach, but I don't think I can give you any advice otherwise. It's outside of my scope, hope that is alright. Good luck, and keep it up man. ^^

At 6/8/10 12:12 AM, Fifty-50 wrote: Wow! Thanks a lot Hyptosis! The things you added made my pic look epic. Thanks! That robot pic, it really is like a blueprint. I made it that way because it's like a "scratch". It's like the plan on how the robot on my actual entry will look like. :D

Yes, that is what I suspected. Good luck man, keep on grinding away at the ol' drawing table. =]

At 6/8/10 03:14 AM, Ryajin-Geki wrote: Yoz Hyptosis! You're an awesome person for wanting to critique other people's work. Of the Artwork on you page, your portrait of Morgan Freeman is incredible.

Hey thanks man, and I enjoy helping.

If I have to chose one of my pictures to be critique I'd chose this one. I have difficulty drawing armor, and showing some muscle when someone is wearing a black tight shirt.

Okay, well first I need to say that if someone is wearing a jet black shirt, you're not going to see their muscles. Black absorbs all light, and to our eyes reads in a very 'shadow-like' way, meaning little to no form can be seen outside of the shape or sillouette o fthe figure.

I just picked vin diesel at random, because he tends to wear tight shirts. Check these out, he is in black.

ONE
TWO
THREE

Now check him out in a lighter color.
ONE
TWO

I'm gonna stop posting now because I'm startin' to feel a little gay, but you see what I mean, the lighter color reflect more light into our eyes (the camera) and more detailed information about the shape is recorded. So if they're wearing solid black, most of the time unless there is a super intense lightsource, you're just going to floodfill that area.

On the picture, this doesn't look like an illustration, it looks like a concept drawing. A character sheet, something to work from, not to put on the cover of a book/movie. So I'm not going to hit on any of my usual stuff because I think this was your intention here. I'll move on to design.

When designing armor, I usually think 'function' first and then 'coolness' second. I'm super guilty of making armor that doesn't function however. If you have a 3d modeler following you up, he's gonna kick your ass if the armor doesn't work, things are going to clip, and it'll just be a terrible experience. I usually ref real armor, and then comb back over it to make it my own. I'll show my steps on a small piece.

Just remember, your armor is also your character. If the armor is worn, but wlel cared for. That tells us about the character, he's a proffesional, he's seasoned, utilitarian, maybe even ex military. If it is battered, mismatched, etc, he's a barbarian, a vagabond, a scrapped, a thief. And if it is all shiny and perfect, he's rich, he's powerful or successful, he's got enchanted gear? Or, he's a prince or something and hasnt ever had to break in his gear.

Hope this helps, I dig your design and think it's pretty solid. Just keep doing what you're doing.

I Might as well join in. I really like that youre doing this Hypto; its a bit like the critiqueing thread, except this one actually works.

art portal

I do not have a tablet, nor the money for one. I rely on my ol' laptop's trusty fingerpad. I am very familiar with PS, unfortunately I have GIMP. Gimp is similar but not the same. I cheesed out on the gradients I know. I hear it from everybody lol. I have many layers in this pic. But I did make a ton of rookie mistakes, which you pointed out and now I feel stupid lol. The background is not mirrored, I guess I did not vary the gears as much as I thought. Thank you for your crit you made a lot of good points.

It is sloppy. I wanted to get rid of the lines to make it more photo-realistic, clearly too lofty a goal for me. I settled for blackening out the background. Often times, very obvious solutions to nagging problems elude me for days at a time. In this case, I went a head and "finished it".

How about mine?

At 6/10/10 05:19 PM, Ocelotlikespie wrote: How about mine?

Mind giving my pic a little critique too?

Appreciate it. :)