Kinsei's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[Idea the lima bean]

Ok...

Well. It's something.
One of the first things that pop out to me is the line work. It seems so unenrgetic. You need to work on the line weight and dynamic. It seems like you are using a technical pen. If you are, don't allow yourself to be limited by the tool you are using, make that tool bend to your will and desires.

As for the coloring, it seems you are trying to accomplish a lot. and I can see how that can be confusing in a world where we have all the colors we could ever want. Try limiting your pallet to 3 shades. Your base colors, your shadow colors and your highlights. Work with those and practice some color theory. You'll find yourself with a stronger understanding of how color works.

Work on your form a bit and try to get the feel of a 3D object down a little more. ON your sketch, don't be afraid to draw yourself some guidelines if needed. they can always be worked out for the final project.

As I said it is a start. Work on some sketching exercises and some normal art basics. Keep coming back to the art form and asking questions and I have no doubt you will see some good improvement.
Good luck

renaissancekid responds:

fixed everything mow! :3

[Believe]

Very Nice

OVer all there isn't much I can say for this.
It is really pretty good. The only things I do have to say are pretty small.

The first one is what is up with that black block?!
I mean at the top of the picture you have this block that seems to be 100% black and the rest is like a 90% black. At first I thought it was some sort of gradient, but nope, it just suddenly changes. It's kind of awkward.

I think you could have pushed out some more reflections and hard highlights on the visor and gun. It would have given them a much more shiny feel.
On the subject of strong highlights. In some areas you have the armor roughed up quite a bit. I think you should have added a couple spots in those areas where the paint would have chipped off and you would have the metal shining through. All just to add some more appeal and make the armor look more worn.

Still, very nice piece.

xTY3x responds:

i don't understand that black thing, i don't see it. maybe it's an error of the site, since sometimes images appear to be cut or scattered. anyway thanks for the review, i agree with all you said, but i did this in 2 hours restarting a piece i had already done, so i kinda rushed it.

[Custom Maverick]

Liking

I'm liking this Bob, and it's a great start.
The biggest problem with this, is the same reason it is hard to critique. That issue is all in the presentation and size of the photo.
You need to take High quality shots of the gun from multiple views, and shop them together. This way we get to see all your hard work in good detail instead of one view.

Moving on. I really think the color scheme is pretty nice. It has the start of a solid steam punk feel to it. I think you should take advantage of this and start adding one some "frills" to give it more appeal and to alter the design from the normal Nerf Maverick. I see you have started to do that, but why not continue down that path, right?
And since you are going to be altering the gun, I think you should improve on the design a little. Perhaps using some PVC piping, you could add an attachment to carry more ammo on the bottom of the barrel.

As I said, it's a excellent start and I would love to get some more views on it. So yeah give us a nice collage of photos so we can really see it.

MajesticBob responds:

I'll keep the multiple photo idea open. The ammo holder idea me and a friend have done before, problem is finding a decent bonding agent. But you gave some valid points. I'll keep that in mind. As I go along, my works are going to become "braver" as I start experimenting more.

[The Manikin]

Kind Of Weak...

Well, As a whole, this is not that great of a piece. The layout of the strip itself is borderline, the art isn't anything special and the line work has no real weight and is dull.
The strongest thing of the entire piece is the second closeup of the mannequin.

I've seen your profile, and it proves you can do better. I think you just wanted to get this posted asap, so you cut a few corners. Down side is that has backfired immensely.

BloodyAngel88 responds:

No no. No cutting corners here. It was just a quick idea I had, so I plotted it down and had some fun.

So yeah, if you think it's weak...then, whatever. It's all your own opinion.

[AWP Gol Magnum]

Soild Model, But With A Problem...

Since Mr. M1clark mentioned the background, I won't take off for that, but there is something else I wish to address.
In terms of model it looks good. It is a solid piece showing skill in both modeling as well some skill in the textures. SO I Have no beef with those.

My issue is in the render. pert of the render, the lighting, is fine, but the entire thing is fuzzy. It looks like you had a depth of field toggled on the camera, but had the settings off where it started to blur the piece. Since we are dealing with a stationary image here, with no background, the focus should be on the model. And having the fuzzyness takes away from being able to see the detail you have poured in.
So get that render fixed and you'll be good to go.

Dawn-Breaker responds:

Aahh thanks allot! well although I still have some troubles moddeling pieces that have roundings and openings (in this case the entire stock) I'm glad it does show off that I do improve.

As for the texturing. I had it worked out with arch and design texture preset with Mental Ray. a bump bitmap added in from an excisting texture I had and it was good to go on the metal parts :D

Now to the issue at matter.. I was aware of the odd and fuzzy feel of the render but I had no camera active in the file, just the Perspective view. rendered it with HDTV also the reason why the expanded view on the picture is so large.. I'll try and figure out what settings I'll need for a finer render result.

Thanks again for the great feedback!