Haggard's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Clarice Burnstein Intro]

Things you should look into:

One of the shadows has to go. I'd say, the "first" shadow (the one, that is as big as the character). The other one, where we can see her a bit bigger in the background is ok. But two shadows is too much.

The character's name should not be hidden by the character. Especially, since the black shape at the bottom is in front of the characters legs, the name is in front of the black shape, but the letters are behind the characters legs? That doesn't work out.

The anatomy is a bit off. Her waist is too slim, especially since her hips seem to be quite big.

Things that I like:

The yellow/orange background looks good. It brings some colour into the image and the bright colours work really well here.

The bose Clarice strikes looks good to me. But I think the smoke should be coming from the other gun... but that's just a minor thing. The gun hin her left hand smoking is just as well.

The character itself looks interesting. Maybe a bit clichéd, but much more interesting than yet another "halo like" soldier, etc.

Overall, this piece needs more work, but you are on a good way.

{ Review Request Club }

KiwiSundae responds:

Thank you for your feedback. It's very much appreciated.

[Celx Requin's Anamnesis Cover]

It looks quite cool. At first I thought the image of the character was just mirrored, but then I noticed some minor details are different between the left and the right half.

Also, the background is very good. I like, how you notice more and more stuff the longer you look at it. Some of those lines seem to be pretty random at first, but then after a while you notice a pattern... and then, there's suddendly something you didn't even saw before. Very cool stuff.

{ Review Request Club }

Celx-Requin responds:

Thanks man!
- Celx

[Jillian on the Ocean]

A nice young lady sitting on a rock in the ocean. I wonder how she got there? The shoes she's wearing don't look like she could go rock climbing with them, heh.

Anyway, I like the clouds in the background. They look very realistic. Maybe it's because they are in fact real? It's hard to tell, and that's what I like. Nothing worse if you add a real picture to a drawing and then anybody can tell instantly that it is a real picture... anyway, the rest of the background is a bit lacking. I would like it better if we could see an island or maybe a beach in the background. This would also explain how the nice young lady could reach the rock with those shoes. ;)

{ Review Request Club }

DragonPunch responds:

Well, you do have a point...Perhaps some time in the future, I can work on another character in the same setting.

[Discipline vs. Passion]

Very nice stuff. I like drawings like this. One object is created through many different other objects. In this case, it's a body that is created through various different stuff.

Also, this picture has to be viewed in full size, so you can see all the tiny little details.

I can imagine that this picture needed a lot of work to be created and that's what I like about it.

However, I think with some colours the picture would be even better.

{ Review Request Club }

SoundChris responds:

Hey there,

thanks a lot for your kind review! You are right, this drawing took me quite a long time. If i had made is today i think maybe i would have used more colour but 10 years ago i have been afraid i could "kill" the whole thing by being to unskilled in using colours in the right way :D

Chris

[Crossing the Alps]

Some people already complained about the elephant just not "looking right" and I think I have to agree with them. His head looks very strange. A bit "too long" to be really realistic.

Anyway, what I really don't like about this picture is the blurry background. Sure, it is way more realistic this way. Now it seems that I am standing there, watching the people and animals move by. That's why I cannot focus the background, because I am focusing the foreground. But paintings give us the opportunity to create something that isn't bound to be "realistic". So, I would like it better if the background wasn't so blurry. Besides, in full resolution, the blur for the background doesn't "feel right" anyway.

Ok, that was a lot of criticism right at the beginning of my review. Now to the things I do like: I like the people in this picture. They are not standing still, but they are moving across the picture and you managed to capture this "movement" in it. It really seems as if they are just walking past me. Maybe I am one of them, moving along with them. Or maybe I'm just an innocent bystander and they ignore me.

I'm not too sure if I like the illumination of the picture. On the one hand, it prevents me from seeing the figures clearly, as they are mostly in the dark. On the other hand, the dim light creates a very good atmosphere. It's impossible to tell if the sun is about to rise or to set. Both leave room for some nice analysis, but if I type them out I run out of character space in this review ;). So I just finish it with saying: This is a very interesting picture!

{ Review Request Club }

samulis responds:

thanks for the input, Haggard. I was rather proud of myself for at least attempting to capture movement in an image.

Perhaps it's my poor eyesight, but I like distant blurry things. XD

Do note that the blur helps with any rogue pixels in the photo as the resolution is larger than the image, I believe.

[Ink Dragon]

Wow, this one looks cool. I like how there are only two colours used: The white of the paper and the black ink of the pen (I guess the blue colour shades are a side effect of scanning. It doesn't look too bad either way ^^). This creates a very nice effect: The lines seem to move in front of my eyes, so it seems as if the dragon is moving as well. Very nice.

I also like the details here. The dragon looks very nice and I like the "adornments" around his head.

What I don't like too much is the border of the picture. It looks too kitchy in my eyes. Also, the one wing of the dragon appears in front of the border, which is a bit confusing. Is the border there to frame the picture or is the dragon sitting in front of the border? But then, it wouldn't be a border anymore...

{ Review Request Club }

EchoRun responds:

The slight colour in the background with one of the tweeks I made to it after I scanned it - the pure white of the paper was very stark and harsh with just black lines on it, so gave it a subtle effect to ease it.

The boarder and the dragon were done seperately, dragon first then combined on the computer. The dragon does overlap the boarder at points, mostly to add intrest and tie the two together, more of an artistic statement. I usualy prefer boarders that are not seperate fraims, if that makes any sense, as I don't like the notion of the rest of the art being contained and restrained by the boarder/fraime. If I do any more like this, the boarders will be different, probably different in each peice. :)

Thank you for the review.

[Vikings!]

Review Request Club

I like this picture, it caputers a moment of heat (literally) in a single image. I also like the "blurry effect" of the things that are outside of the main battle. First, it draws attention to the things that are not blurry and second, it creates a feeling of movement, as if I was running through the scenery (either as an attacker or as someone who got attacked) and my focus lies on the burning village. The rest is kind of suppress by my mind.

Anyway, I think the smoke needs some more work. Right now it just goes straight up into the night sky, but I think this would be very unlikely. There has to be some sort of wind blowing, moving the smoke either to the right or to the left. I also think, the smoke could be a bit thicker, darker. That way it would even strengthen the atmosphere of "battle" and "menace" it is creating right now.

{ Review Request Club }

samulis responds:

ya, the smoke effect wasn't really that good. I did darken it significantly from what is was, but I see that I probably should have probably even replaced the template effect with my own more detailed image for the particles... throw some sparks and flashes in there too. I'll work on some new smoke effects for my next big entry.

[Eyeball Tree Helix]

Cool

This picture looks really cool. The tree alone would be worthy for the art portal (I like how detailed the leaves are!), but the addition of the eyeball gives the image almost a surrealistic touch. I like how the roots are connected to the eyeball. Really looks like there is an ocular muscle connected to the eyeball.

The background could use some work, though. Maybe the tree would look better in a different environment. The grey background takes away too much from the main object, I think. I mean, Magritte's "The Son of Man" wouldn't look so great if the man was standing in front of a grayish background, right?

{ Review Request Club }

Galneda responds:

I agree the background and overall environment needs revision. Thanks for the review!

[Greek Heritage]

Good

This is a pretty good image, even though the characters are only barely visible. But this is what makes this image look so impressive.

The greek soldiers (could also be roman soldiers) standing in front of a light source. Somehow they look very dangerous even though nobody has drawn his weapon yet. But just the way they stand there, facing the viewer, the faces left in the dark... it has a threatening feeling to it.

Only thing that bothers me are the kind of blurry outlines of the characters. Feels a bit as if the viewer is in desperate need of some glasses.

samulis responds:

It's a stylistic choice of mine... a lot of people critique me for makig things more blurry than they should be... it's pretty much because it's how I see the world. I like to call it 'intense Anti-Aliasing', but the eye doctor likes to call it poor vision. :P

[Jeo flys]

Very nice

A quite dramatic picture. We can see some alien guy in what appears to be a space battle. At least he doesn't look very happy, so I guess he's angry at someone or something. Or maybe he just had a bad day, heh.

Anyway, the details in this picture are pretty good. The background looks amazing and I think you covered the "space feeling" here very well.

Only thing that bothers me is that the perspective inside the spaceship seems to be a bit off. Or maybe I just need to get my eyes examined, lol.

{ Review Request Club }

Rennis5 responds:

lol, yeah he is on his way to kick someones arse.
i think you are right about the perspective i noticed it escially on the dash with the instuments after you mentioned it.
i'm thinking redesigning the dash slightly by adding a few more things.
thank you for the 10 dude
:)