Galneda's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[General Abrams]

Very creative

While his claws definitely look very "Cyborg Big Cat", there's many conflicting structures about him. The first thing that stands out is that his head is almost comically tiny. Like, his full head could be shoved into his hollowed out leg or even bicep....I was about to say, judging by the size of his torso, his HEART could be the size of his own head, but the benefit of the doubt goes to his torso seems larger because of all the armor...still doesn't justify that neck-hole compared to the shoulders...

The bionic arm (and hand!) could justify why his arm length might be 4/5ths (!!!) of his standing height, but it also makes him look a little clumsy and top heavy...could those dinosaur legs really cope with that much MASS lugging around? Which, going back to conflicting structures, the legs and even tail look more dinosaur-like than cat like.

The bionic arms DO look wicked cool, but the attempts to imply armor everywhere else seem to fall short...especially when his itty bitty skull is heavily protected by a hat and unused goggles. We got Batman-like six-pack abs plates to IMPLY he's cut, hints of metal all over the place around the sides of the torso, OOH and heavy plates around the pecs...but neck is exposed and the crotch, well...it has a zipper. Good thing, in case he trusts his giant talons attached to arms the size of a Buick to reach in there and delicately unzip his pants so he can take a leak during a mission.

But his legs? Fuck that, he's got KNEE-PADS, that's all HE needs. The arm with the most flesh? They'll be fiiiine, wouldn't want him looking like Jax from Mortal Kombat. But what really throws me off, besides the size of the head, is that shoulder plate. Because there's no geometry implying thickness, or even really ARMOR-ability, the sense that it's a successful tool in protecting his small, small head is lost. Without any visible thickness or features that imply ballistic durability, it comes off looking like a thin plate of metal bent around his shoulder so he can do his best Dinosaur Cat: SWAT team of Halo Reach cosplay. It especially stands out to me because, literally, EVERYWHERE on his body, the armor conforms to his body's shape. The six-pack BOWFLEX ABS plates, the pecs, the bionic arm, even the shoulder pads...all conform...and then we have this giant metal taco mounted on his shoulder and all I can think about is him going "Hey, I already have a giant blind spot to my right because of this Armored Core cannon, why not put a blind spot on my left to keep it balanced?" It doesn't seem tactically sound and it conflicts with the general theme you've established everywhere else in my opinion. By all means, include a "Cloud Strife" like singular shoulder armor, if you wish, it could just use some aesthetic revision.

It's an interesting character, with really cool looking features, but he could use a lot of refining and balancing. Hope my ranty, tongue-in-cheek review was somewhat helpful to you as an artist :D

Undeadkitty13 responds:

i was going for a swat dino cat, i tried using references of swat and military police
his arms are long because he suppose to be able to run on all four
since he is a heavy unit he wears heavy armor and arsenals which kinda makes his head small and its was suppose to imply the he is a massive giant thought i might have made the a little too small

with the name his was inspired by the Abrams tank ( yes i know it look nothing like a tank) the abrams tank has equipment, using radar that allow the driver to to see almost 360. you can see it on some tanks
the pack on Abrams back it based on that equipment.

why he's wearing a cap with goggles , simply because i thought i looked nice

abrams uses his shoulder as a battering ram which is why the shield is there
and nothing is more terrifying seeing a giant alien bulldozing his way into your house
using the bathroom..... okay i didnt really think that through but im sure his race came up with something maybe making the hands both capable tearing a car apart and holding and egg without crushing it

seeing him in halo would make me vey happy :D

i do see the flaws you mention and ill work on them just wanted to explain why i did it that why
thanks :D

[Dual overkill]

Good Practice art, it's looking good!

But if you don't mind, I'm going to be a little critical to help you improve.

Consider the guy, "NOT-Marcus". Let's say that the direction facing out from the front of him is zero degrees. His hand supporting the rifle looks like it's accommodating a rifle at 45 degrees from him, and the rifle is pointing almost exactly 90 degrees. By having his fingers arranged in that way, it's implying depth to the guns dimensions that simply don't seem to be there.

I understand practicing in your weak-spots...it's why I draw legs, feet, and noses a lot. But people below me are just like "ehh, work on drawing humans" and not pointing out what looks "off" to them. Allow me to try and elaborate best I can.

"NOT-Marcus" has a bit of a baby-face going on. He looks young to begin with, but having that youthful appearance while having so much...MASS to his head, coupled with wearing a backwards baseball cap just makes him look like a giant pissed off baby with a couple of scratches on his face. The cleff in his chin sort of helps with implying age, but it's not enough...the skin in the wide, vacant spaces in between his eyes/mouth and ears are too smooth. Try adding even subtly defined cheekbones, wrinkles, texture, and even facial hair. Remember at all times when drawing a face, beneath it there's a skull. Someone with a face that big should have meaner looking eyes than just two horizontal lines and a circle within a circle. Proper use of shadowing could help with this too, but moreover study how eyes could look...research for your character and then make it your own based on what you SEE.

The girl is just baffling to the situation in my opinion. I mean, the scenery behind them is nice and serene, but he has a gun and looks pissed off while she has...heh..."firearms" ...there's no visible enemies in the shot. Not even bodies of conquered foes, or any sign there's a conflict at all. So either these two are running into battle with a purpose, or HER arm spontaneously combusted, NOT-Marcus is running away from her afraid he'll get burned, but she's totally into it because she enjoys pain.

I mean...what's her story? I fail to see the tactical advantages of hoochie shorts, a thong pulled up high, and a white tank top for battle. Even NOT-Marcus seems more geared for a Slayer concert with his lucky John Deer hat than he is ready for combat...the only items that even remotely imply "war" to me based on their clothes are belts that only seem to hold a limited number of bullets like for a revolver in the wild west...and I don't see holsters on either of them. Hell, with her, ALL she has a thin little belt that either holds 3 .45 Long Colt bullets or 3 Triple-A batteries...and I don't see a dildo holster for her either, but I imagine she's gotta do SOMETHING for herself when NOT-Marcus is around...her arm appears to be an effective Icy-Hot for those long lonely nights.

Finally, it's their body language that's kinda awkward. Look at the bandages around NOT-Marcus's enthusiastic skull knee armor...now look at those same bandages that are supposed to be the leg in the background. Because they're similar in size and angle, it almost looks like he's a creature with one fat armored leg to hop around on instead of him running with one knee in front of the other...which, I might point out, is a really odd way to run when you have bulky armor around your legs...

She doesn't look like she's running as much as she's about to fall over, captivated by the camp fire in her palm. Her tattooed arm, if you look at the line that leads up to the shoulder, I don't think that should be a solid line...there should be a break, even a small one, right after the back of her armpit. Moreover, we got contradicting perspectives, looking down her torso for her breasts and looking directly beside her legs...if her waist and legs were at that angle, we'd get a different picture for her torso...but I'm all for getting the cleavage in the shot, so the legs may need to be revised to compliment that perspective.

Keep up the good work! Keep drawing! Voted 5.

Deathisawesome responds:

I have to start with saying that this is probably the most awesome comment ever! Thanks for taking the time man :D

True, I tried to get that right untill I finally just gave upp :/

Alright, I'll do a big sketch full of faces, with a skull under, no big babies here :P

As for that, it's more like they're a team, though it's hard to explain exactly how I thought. I might develop that for later art, but for now, she's something of a mage or wahtever while he is some sort of "guard".

LOL, well, I felt for drawing that way :P

Well, that is only one leg you see there, maybe I was to subtle when I drawed that though.

Good point, I'll try to have that in mind for my next pic :)

Big thanks, most helpfull review ever :D

[Geisha Express]

Very cool!

I love how you've balanced the color theme all throughout this...as a whole it's already wonderful, and then it draws you in to notice all of the neat little details.

The background crowd was handled very tastefully. My only problem with it being the Cowboy hat guy (top, center. Left to the scarf wearing body) is only partially inked. Sure there are lines that are excluded here and there among the crowd, and it does well to add definition without drawing too much focus...but what stands out for me is how the line from the bottom of his pant leg comes up to the knee and just abruptly stops.

Moreover the lanterns inside the motorcycle canopy seem to be RIGHT in front of the bikers face, and close enough to the Geisha woman that it would knock her in the back of the head should the bike start to move. While they look great there, from a design aspect, it seems to attribute to unintentional hilarity as opposed to a whimsical theme that's established quite literally everywhere else; the advertisement, the waitress with the couple in mid-ground...

Everything looks great. Once again, I love the color choices you've made.

And two more things; why is the rear tire suspension attached to the tail pipe? Also I don't see any shift pegs :P

Voted 5! Keep up the great work!

LordDF responds:

Awesome review man. You're totally right, there's a few issues with the bike.

As long as people enjoy the piece, I'm happy with it. Hope you can check out some of my new postings too! :)

[Sinner's Pain and Punishment]

Pretty captivating.

There's some pretty cool visuals meshed into this. I like the figure clawing at their own face, sharp teeth, with the tongue thing in the top right, and I also like mouth eyes in the bottom left.

But there's some pretty goofy/wacky looking faces or details that shift it away from being completely menacing. The oversized nose, middle bottom, for example looks moreso funny, especially with his fu man chu tentacle-stache. The very top-right, bug-eyed grin thing that's sort of a mix of Hellsing with Trollface is a little goofy lookin' too, but that might be because of the styles of teeth. You have a portrait of different maws all over the place here. Some human looking teeth among sharp, demonic teeth...but up in the top-right, at least, you have cartoon piano keys. See what I mean?

There's also many missed opportunities to make use of shadows to your advantage. Blur your eyes looking at this and focus on blackness. Some of the coolest features are engulfed or incorporate shadows...ESPECIALLY the bottom right half-face (really cool and atmospheric), the two in the top left, the scream face with a figure in it's mouth, and the one I pointed out was one of my favorites (face clawing). If you incorporated MORE shadows into this piece, it would have been more eye-grabbing, because the faces would pop out...even if it were as simple as a burn tool or just shading appropriately in between faces...it might be too light. That top right section could use just as much or more shadows as the bottom right section has. See what I mean?

If you want dark...go for DARK, and see how subtle lighting can help things in the scary shadows pop out...if only just enough to be noticed. It would improve the intended atmosphere you were going for here tremendously.

Voted 5! :D

7darkriders responds:

thanks for the review and the overside nose is called "tengu" wh no ich is a mask that has myths or use for plays, some folk tales in japan says its a demon (akuma meaning demon or devil in japanese) i included this because its part of a demon and its from japan but hey its japans idea it may look funny as u think but i dont think ur wrong but its myths are interesting and i added the dragon whisker moustache similar to any karate films you watch like a master or expert karate's beard i want it too look ageing and wisdom like you know wat i mean. Sinners Pain and Punishment is a collection of mixture of dark and ghouls and things you see from hell i include worldwide wheather if it be english, italian, spanish, greek anything i find interesting as long as its myths are good to read.

and also for the top right one is a goblin or imp face you like to say but i know what u mean but the teeth you ask is wrong i got its teeth if you ever heard of "soul eater" its manga and anime very nice and i took the moon's grin as you can see his teeth has this piano fat teeth like and in my art demons are ment to smile in pleasure of pain and suffering and sinners are meant to suffer for the cost of thier sin.

i guess so and yeah i understand thanks for ur advice but im happy with my work but i guess i could tone up and tone down on some part

but thank you for the great review phobotech :)

[Magenta]

I dig!

It's like a cyberpunk kabuki mask, and that font beneath it looks badass! I especially dig the grooves that come down from the eyes to the corners of the mouth, but with those grooves continued above the eyes and connected at the forehead, it creates this shape right smack dab in the middle of the face. That shape somehow throws out the illusion to me that the face is actually much smaller.

Perhaps that detail has yet to grow on me, that's completely possible. If it were me, I would have lead those grooves to right next to the outsides of those white tabs at the top. That way it leads down to the eyes which lead down to the mouth instead of giving off that compacted shape in the middle of the face.

Once again, though, that's just me. I personally think this thing kicks a whole lot of ass! Great style :D

Cope2K responds:

Yeah thanks I might fix that I see what you mean about making it look smaller than it should. And that tagging isn't a font I actually did that myself, thanks for the comment. Glad ya dig!

[Fritz]

Very nice!

I like the trippy font. It's also a very human expression, but pretty slate on expressing his comedic personality.

The shading all around looks good, I like the gradient applied to the tasteful background. The sweatshirt is shaded to look realistic, and the shadows around his neck look right.

It only seems a little too dark near the top, and one detail I wanted to point out is it appears that the mustache seems to be on top or in front of the tip of his nose. Possibly it's an optical illusion, but it's merely what I perceive.

Still, all around this looks great! Has James Fritz seen this? I think he would be flattered :)

Good job! Voted 5

CaptainDale responds:

Thanks man, the expression is like that because James' stage presence is very self deprecating and a running joke on the radio show is that he never smiles.

I flubbed the nose in that respect, the part the mustache is touching isn't supposed to be the tip, but I guess that's what it looks like.

Well thanks again, and he has! He even made it his profile pic on facebook for a couple days. I didn't put my name anywhere on it but still, it was nice to see that.

[red baron]

Inspiring!

This is some really magnificent work- that guy really got his money's worth!

He stands out so effectively, and looks so totally BRUTAL it's hard not to just study it for minutes in awe at hardcore he looks. The shading and inkwork gives him weight, the red is powerful, and brown fits, and the sword reminds me of Heavy Metal (this is a good).

The scratches and imperfections in the armor are used sparingly, but just enough to imply density; I like to point that out because I have a bad habit of not knowing when to stop with "battle damage", and it was used well in this. The pose is menacingly cool! The name in the background also knits in an effective way to memorize the name, and it doesn't try to stand out all campy-like...I wouldn't be surprised at all to see this as a pro comic-book cover.

The brown papery texture REALLY works well with it all, too. As a learning artist, I'd love to just pick your brain about this- What was the hardest thing to do about this artwork? How exactly did you manage to pull off that texture in the background and over the cape, and what's YOUR personal favorite detail?

Great job! Fav'd and fived!

dommi-fresh responds:

wow quite a review let me start by saying thank you its a poetic and and well put review. i am glad you like it.
firstly the back ground is just actually white cartridge paper but because of the paint and the way i edit my pictures i scanned it... it turns out brown and wavy but it is intentional.
and as for my favourite detail... i am not sure i usually pick out the bits i hate. but i have to say i am pleased with the outcome of his hands.

[Engine]

I don't know why...

...but looking at this in full view just makes me smile. Maybe I have a chub for machinery, but...this is fantastic artwork. :D I love this! Fav'd and Fived!

AssKiller responds:

thanks a lot :) !