Neat work, dude! Not much of an artist myself, but I suppose you don't have to be a 5-star chef to determine if a dish is good or not, right? Looks like you can get perspectives down. Is the road colored or that the blank canvas? Is there a way to work on blending edges a little with coal? I will say that the area where the snow and road meet looks a little rough. Maybe it's because the road is so perfectly straight. Anywho, nice one!
Reviews for "Road to Darkness"
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Thanks a lot, Joshua! I just noticed you released a new track some time ago too, I'll go check it out XD
That road is the blank canvas, good eye! And you're certainly right; the areas where the snow and the road meet are very rough indeed. I blame the crayon I had to use though! The material was extremely hard, and there was no way to make it stick without using a lot of force. Thus, I couldn't use any techniques besides full power or none at all :) I'm sure there are people that could, but I tried to use it as little as possible :3
There really is nothing that you can't do, is there, LSD? :D I love the concept and scenery design, as well as the shading on the mountains. The shape of the mountains is very interesting, and in a way surrealistic, and I like the texture created by the trees. It's a little simplistic and not as refined as it could've been, though. Some color might also make it more interesting, but in a way you also did a good job of capturing the simple, silent, and lifeless beauty of winter. Nice work! Overall, I'm very impressed, as this far exceeds my own visual artistic skills! XD
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Hahha, there are many things I can't do; I just tend not to reveal those, hehe :p
I personally like the concept too :) You know, I actually used different techniques to shade some of the mountains, than I did on others, mostly for practice XD And you're right in that the shapes of them are far from realistic :3
This artpiece should be more refined though, as you said. I didn't really have time to finish it completely, since the art class moved on to another project, and this was a difficult piece to refine anyway, at least for me! XD
I tend to be drawn to black and white every now and then, it seems! I'm happy that you overall liked the piece, and thanks for the ART review :'D
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!!!
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!!!
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!