Kinsei's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cirrus]

Welcome Back

Starting this up on more of an upbeat, I enjoy the colors used. You did a decent job on color selection and movement.
The lights and shadows are pretty nice as well. I enjoy some of the sun play on some of the trees in the background.
So On those points, good job.

This has the feel of a speed paint, but you mention yourself that you spent 3 hours on the piece. I feel when laying in color rapidly like this, you should practice to cut down your creation time. This feels like one of the roughs before starting on a final piece. The work is so loose and wild that it just has that unpolished feel. I think that if you were to go back, and use this as a guideline for a more finished piece, you would have a pretty solid piece.
one of the reasons this feels so rushed and incomplete is the mix of line thicknesses, and then the blur tool. Like you laid down the initial color with a big brush and then went back for the details, but never quite finished the detail and got a little too loose with it.

You did a good job of only referencing that photo, but putting your own touches on your piece. So tighten it up a bit. I would like to see a second more defined piece.

Joshsouza responds:

Thanks for the advice Kinsei! I didn't actually use the blur tool once on this. But I think the problem with that is that I am so used to traditional acrylics and I though I could blend colors without having it blurry, I have another piece to upload right now too. So thanks!

[The World Card]

Alrighy Then....

Everything I said in the last review, plus this~
The addition of the vines is nice for the tarot collab.
Pretty smooth move with the overlay on the space parts but leaving the earth standing out. It draws the attention nicely.

:P
Ok double duty done....
What... I can be a lazy whore :3

MajesticBob responds:

The vines were all over the earth as well, Someone said the vines were distracting, Then Zane the super Genius suggest what I ended up doing, and it came out Wundebar!

[Earth]

A well earned 9...

At first I thought this was water color. Especially when I was looking at the earth. And I could see others making a similar perception. You have done some pretty nice work on the planet itself. I also like the space. you have a but of a hint of some blue and green floating through space, giving it a much more mystical feel than a solid black. Also the mixture reminds me much of the Hubble images that NASA releases from time to time.
I tend to get lost in the majesty of the beauty of space and spend hours looking at images and the stars themselves from my own porch. But even will all that time admiring those distant lights, I have never been able to reproduce their beauty on canvas, paper, rock or a monitor. And here, in this simple, abstract form you have produced, you have seemed to capture something that is still elusive to me.

Moving on from my more sensitive self (BACK IN TO YOUR CAGE DAMNIT!). I think you have done a pretty solid job here. One thing I really want to point out is that this seems to have a bit of a texture to it. Even the planets seem to be a little raised. off your canvas a little. And it even seems like you have a rough bumpy texture other places as well. Although that could be the glitter that I suspect you used.

Speaking of, what did you paint this on? Cardboard or wood? I'm thinking wood cause I think I see some of of the texture poking through.

One of the things I think that could be adjust with this is the actual lighting. It seems like you had a bright light on when you took the photo, and it is reflecting off the piece kind of badly. You should take a second shot and try and get a more even lighting over it to prevent such a harsh glare.

So sweet man, Keep it up.
You should upload the one you prepped with the tarot card backing and such so people can see it as well.

MajesticBob responds:

Yeah spray paint is highly reflective so after MANY shots I chose that one because the glare looked like light from the Sun adding to the realism. I think you meant to give me a 9 but gave me a 10. I'll take it! No take backs! Lol. I'm really touched by your review. Thank you. As for texture, this was done on a 1' x1'x piece of pine. I used Spray Paint and only spray paint, Not a drop of glitter. I used paint layering for the texture. It was painted with earth colors (hence space has that rainbow effect and yes it was intentional) put a coffee can down and sprayed black around it. the stars were white, silver, and gold using a "dusting" technique, that if you look at my guns you'll notice I do that a lot. The moon was spray paint into a roll of electrical tape using a "flooding" technique that gave the moon it's cratered look. I am supremely proud of this.

[The Simple]

Excellent

Wow, pretty solid. This should be a pretty nice contender for robot day.
I like the consistency of the color. You have kept up the sepia tone very nicely.
Your lighting is very good. Normally I would make mention for you to make much stronger and clearer highlights, but then that would have been inconsistent with the style if the piece. You have done well with giving metallic looks to certain areas, which is very nice on its own.

Over all I like this piece, and its mostly pretty well done, except for one part, and that is the duplicating of the robot. Sadly its kind of obvious that you have the same bot copied and pasted for quite a while. I don't blame you, it would have been a lot of work to paint a different robot each time. I would have been looking for a short cut as well. What you should have done, and can still do very quickly and easily (especially if this is done in layers) is use some gradient overlay to dull out some of the color of the robots in the back. You can also take a few minuets and try and add a couple of marks on different robots to try and separate them. I understand that they are fresh out of the factory, which I can see in the background, but you gotta separate them a little, or you will get this repetitive look that will stand out really bad.

Very nice. Good luck on Robot Day!

xTY3x responds:

thank you for reviewing this work. about the copy and paste stuff... i knew from the beginning i would have done it. the one thing i tried to do was to copy a basic stage of the robot and then refining lighting and shading individually, to avoid that bad effect, but i suppose i didn't manage to reach my objective. anyway, thanks for taking your time, we'll see on robot day.

[Contingency Plan]

Pretty Sweet...

I saw this a few days ago and thought it was pretty sweet. I even brought it up to a couple of buddies. So lets face it, zombies rock. and I think you do the Zombie Genre some justice with this. I also like to skate, and wouldn't mind having this on my deck as I roll by either.

So on to it.

You have done a pretty sweet job at keeping the style consistent over the entire piece. And I like the rough grunge style, it mixes well with both Skateboarding and Zombies.

You have a nice over all composition. It works well. Even with the bending perspective on the upper buildings it still works by wrapping your eye around the piece and making you look at it all just a bit longer.

I think on the ejecting shell, you could have played with some metallic coloring on the rear end. But you didn't draw any brass on the shell. Sadly it's a missed opportunity. YOu could have brought some badass focal points to it as well.

Sadly the type is a little on the illegible side. This is mostly caused by some of the letters being so squeezed so tight that its a bit difficult to make out what they are. This is most prevalent on the "My." At first I thought it was a bunch of quotation marks or something. This is something you will want to adjust
I noticed that the stroke around your lettering is about an 80% gray though, I think it would have been much more solid as a 100% Black.

Still a pretty awesome piece. I think I will be dropping back by from time to time to drop some 5's on it.

Lintire responds:

Heya, Kinsei, thanks for the review! You hold the honour of giving me the first ever review on Newgrounds that's been genuinely helpful.

You're certainly right about the text! I have to get that altered and "fixed", asap. Might even upload an improved version of the text with the picture: if that's even allowed. I'll get to it. The gray was a terrible aspect to leave there and it needs to be repositioned anyway.

The metallic brass thing, on the other hand, didn't even occur to me. I'll have to look out for that in future pieces.

Anyway, comparing this to some reviews you've written a while ago, you've certainly gotten better at writing them. Thanks again, mate.

[Deepsea Fools]

Very Strong, Very Subtle

The obvious force behind this piece is the lighting. Over all you have done a pretty spectacular job with it. The only thing I would mention with it is that I wish you had added in a couple of super strong highlights to give some areas a glossy look. Places like the the eyes of both fish. The teeth of the larger fish as well as a couple of places on the larger fish's lips. And right at the tip of the smaller fish. With a couple of these strong highlights you would have gotten a much more strong contrast to the background.

The drawing itself is pretty solid as well. It goes along with the lighting.

It would have been nice if you could have gotten the background color to match the NG gray a little more for the illusion of this beast simply coming out of the site at the viewer. it would have been a pleasant hair raising surprise.
Perhaps you can do a similar one in the future.

I am seeing a solid progression in your skill, very nice keep it up. Your newer pieces prove that.

Luwano responds:

Thanks a lot. I had some advice (from ToaS and Ornery if I remember right) via stickam on how to do dynamic lighting. I didn't show them any WIPs just general advice, but I still think it helped a lot.

And you are of course completely right that it could use some stronger highlights. But I guess I was too careful with it again.

I also started with NG grey as darkest colour but it wasn't dark enough for me so I changed it. You can still make out the NG grey as a mid-tone on the abominal anglerfish.

Thanks for your review!

[CS6 Custom]

Is There More To This?

I had to google the Recon gun. I have been out of the loop of Nerf for a while so some of the models that have come out in the past 5 or 6 years are a little unknown to me. As a matter of fact the Maverick is the last one I bought, but I have no clue where it went over time. And talk about old it was one of the original blue ones... But enough about me. The reason I asked my initial question is because I googled the full gun and as I saw it has a whole array of attachments, and I was wondering if you were going to get to mod them as well.
Its a shame your friend wanted such a basic mod, this had some nice capabilities to add some nice accents to the paint job.
As for the piece. I think you may have wanted to grind off the nerf logo just a little more. It is still kind of visible. Also the paint job itself seems kind of rough. Since you said your friend was in a hurry to get it, I assume you were under a pretty strict deadline. That too bad because with a little more time, and a little more creative freedom, I think you could have done a much better job on this one.

So yeah try and get those logo's sanded a little more, and a bit smoother pain and you'll be fine.
keep it up and better luck next time.

MajesticBob responds:

Funny thing about the CS6 Those Logos are on for life. Power sanding BARELY pu t a dent in them. Yeah, there are more attachments. And yeah he just wanted ARs removed a basic paint over.

[Maverick Special]

Bang Bang!

These are definitely getting better my man.
Although I have got to mention that I'm not fond of the lack of multiple views. I know you have some in yout thread, but here would be nice as well. Especially since you don't have the harsh size restrictions that we have to deal with in the Forum.

One thing I would like to see more of, especially on a custom like this, is more scraped metal. You can dry brush it in or you can take a little silver paint on a small piece of paper and act like you are sanding certain areas and edges. It will also give the gun a more worn feel. The reason I bring this up is because I can see where you have some major scratches carved in, and I think by adding the minor scratches will help you reinforce that look with out much effort.

Speaking of what are you using to add those battle scars? I'm just curious, but I assume a dremel tool.

One thing I need to point out, a flaw, is the seam of the gun. you can see the original yellow plastic starting to poke through. Similar problem are happening with the trigger and the screw holes. You may want to take the extra step to primer these a little more.

I am really although there is a few areas (the seam), I am really enjoting the paint job. The paint looks metallic which gives it a really cool Scifi-fantasy feel. Even Lulu mentioned that the feathers give it a Final Fantasy feel too.

Keep it up, I hope to see more customs from you, and not just guns either. I hope to see some more really cool stuff. I may even have to give it a shot myself soon.

MajesticBob responds:

Indeed a Dremel for the scars. The seam is because of the damn camera flash. In person you can not see it. But eh, I'll keep on trucking. Gas Masks to come soon.

[Do Androids Dream of Hot Girl?]

Nicely Done

Sorry it has taken me so long to get to this one, I really meant to get to it sooner, but you know how life gets in the way some times. So lets get started, shall we?

One of the best things of this is definitely the lighting. You have done a pretty spectacular job. Much like your halo piece, I have to admit that you do have a very solid grasp on lighting.
The Pose is nice. I think it works well for this piece. At first I thought it was a little bland, but I the realized that it was very fitting for the piece. And then mixing it with your strong lighting and good coloring made the pose and piece.
I would also like to mention the robotic arm. I think it was pretty well done. I think for the arm itself . I like the synthetic muscle and the structure. Very good job. But the hand, sadly the hand isn't as well done as the arm. I think you cold have gotten a little more intricate and detailed with the hand.
And this is the part where I have to point out a couple of things that aren't so good about the picture. I'll just try to be quick about it though.
One of the big offenses is the cut off of the legs. You have the characters abruptly end, and at the knees none the less. This makes it seem like the characters have no legs
The girl's arm that is extended is a little long. I know you know anatomy and proportions, so I can bet you know the arm is off. But I felt it should be mentioned anyway.
I noticed that the Android's thumb seems a little off. The shirt under it seems to be lacking shading.

Anyway. I think you have a very solid piece. I hope you do well for robot day.

xTY3x responds:

thank you for reviewing my piece. i cut the legs because i thought leaving them would have ruined the composition. i mean, the legs going down to the bottom would have unbalanced it. as for the robotic hand i tried to go for a terminator style, which as you know is pretty rough and the particular lighting wouldn't illuminate every part of it, just the top. i think her arm is ok: if you extend your arm along your side you see that your fingers reach the middle of your femor and if you rotate her arm i think you can see it's of the right lenght. if i thought it was wrong i wouldn't have uploaded it. also i think the thumb is ok, it's in the same position of the "human" one, so... and indeed the shirt is lacking shading because all the visible part is exposed to light. thank you for taking your time to give me your opinion, you're a good reviewer.

[Fish Tank]

Actually, I thought they were Frogs

No really, look at the one in the bottom left. They look like frogs.
Anyway. A piece like this has a couple elements above normal art pieces. This kind of makes them harder to critique. But that extra mileage helps more than hurts.

Over all this takes a very simplistic design appeal. Much of it is silhouette. I guess like a structured abstract of images. It reminds me much of the backgrounds created by Chuck Jones when he was working on Looney Toons. They had shapes and colors, but were simple and effective.

one of the things I want to point out, which surprises me since I'm the kind of guy who surfs google images for 16MP pictures, and that is the size. At maximum size, the grainyness of the picture gets in the way of the art, so the picture is too big.
*GASP* I actually said that?!?!
Well, yes its too big, but at the same time the sample size is much too small to get the full detail. So I had to manage with opening the full size in a new tab and then let Firefox handle the rest. This gave me about 55% size. And it worked out great. I got to see the picture, and the grain didn't get in the way.

The painting of the background and middle ground worked out very well. Spray paint can be a difficult too to use well, but you have managed, and I give you kudos for that.
Your forms are pretty nice and this seems pretty well though out and executed. Some of the transparency of your paint brush strokes and textureing with paper towels give some good depth as well.

Don't take this the wrong way my man, but I have noticed that you have done a much better job with your gun customizations as well as this here than you have done on the digital realm. Perhaps this is more of your nitch rather than Photoshop or flash. And to be honest there is nothing wrong with that. We don't get much hand crafted things around here so things like real paintings and rebuilds are nice.
We could use more of stuff like this. The only thing I want to suggest is to read the tips over documenting your work again, http://art101.newgrounds.com/news/post/314936 , and perhaps get a better camera so you can take much better photos of your work.

Congrats, keep this up and you just may have a scout in your future.

MajesticBob responds:

Thanks! No, offense taken. I agree with you. I'm just was more comfortable with a spray can than a mouse. Huh, go figure. And they are clearly Fish lol.