SourCherryJack's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Yasuo, the True Musician]

This is a very well done portrait, good color choice, fun pose and good emotion all wrapped in a very nice style that suits it all very well. The simple background does a great job of contrasting with the blue of the scarf and metal as well as interracting and harmonizing with the tans and browns of the skin tones, hair, recorders and leathers. The subtle, but very well defined, highlights go a long way in pushing the form of the character as do the thin dark blue outlines. All around I'd say that this drawing as a whole has an excellent sense of form and weight to it, that being said the armor and the scarf are shaded in very similar ways, which makes them feel a bit like they are made of the same material. Maybe pushing the highlights and shadows on the metal a bit more will help with that, I'm hesitant to say do anything to the cloth because I really like the way it is realized as is.
One of the most noticeable issues with this is the way the colors occasionally dip outside of or don't fully cover the inside of the blue outlines which does a lot to undermine their purpose, it's tedious but sitting down and working it out may be worth it. Also on the scarf those two reddish-brown folds don't fit too well since that's the only place that color occurs in the drawing, ditching them all together would probably be the easiest way to go about it. Before I forget, those hands are very well done and great to look at. Back to it - the highlights on the cloth on the (our) left shoulder and on the right edge folds opposite of that are not very convincing. As a rule of thumb don't use white in a way like that to do highlights, mix it with yellow or whatever the light source's color (in this case the background color) is and mix it into what is being highlighted, it will make for a more unified sense of light and interesting color pallet. I really like the highlights on the left and right side of the head, they're great for the for, and have great colors in themselves.
You mentioned that you're interested in more effective methods of using color and my friend, that is a deep rabbit hole to go down, I took a color theory class last year and the first thing the professor said was "the more I learn about color the less I know about it" and I believe him on that. There are countless ways to use color and color combos to convey information and this drawing has a very straightforward use of color and for this style it is very well suited. Though a few key things to keep in mind for future use of colors beyond complementaries, tint, tone and shades is that yellow is your brightest and violet is your darkest. When used in small amounts I find using violet tints, tones and shades to be very effective in bringing out shadows while still creating interest and not just going the darker shade or adding black. I'll probably drop by your thread and give you more color advice as you continue to post since it really is hard to be brief about possible combinations and interactions. If there's anything in particular you need assistance with feel free to message me, I don't know everything but I am pretty good with colors, but as always the best way to learn is through continued experimentation, so keep at it and you'll be a-okay.

RadiBits responds:

You are fantastic! I really appreciate the feedback and I thank you for the time you spent on this, I know it must not be easy setting aside time to go through critique requests and be so detailed. I especially like your comment about using violet tints in shadows, I will definitely keep that in mind from now on. I read in a fantasy illustration book that using the complimentary color to the lighting is also good when it comes to shadows, but I think it will be fun to see what I get adding some violet as well.

(btw the reddish brown in the scarf aren't folds, they're actually tears in the scarf with the skin exposed underneath. Looking back, I don't think I pushed the values dark enough or made the ripping dramatic enough to make that apparent, so that's my bad.)

[FAT MAN - ART]

You should really mention that the original linework isn't yours; in a lot of cases it could mean the difference between having this deleted by a mod, or even potentially getting you unscouted if a mod decides its art theft or that you're intentionally implying this is all your work. The best thing you can do is link to the linework artist, provided you know who it is. Good job on the shading and colors though, even if there is quite a bit of artifacting upon some scrutiny, the shading on the man looks to be largely consistent and does a lot to bring him out. Still I have to acknowledge your lack of acknowledgement on the linework and rate accordingly, props to that guy though for a really neat design.

Wondermeow responds:

Hi Dude,

To be honest JackDcurleo, I totally forgot your post thanks for the reminder mate. Changes are above if it still troubles you or you felt I left something let me know

[Pleur Yoga]

It looks good p, but I feel it needs more ass, vag, under boob and a bigger Patreon logo.

[Switch]

This is a very cool drawing. The character has a ton of personality and has a very strong silhouette. The shapes in the background also look really great and do a lot to complement the character and the pose he is in. All of which makes it very hard to have to grade this so low.
Your drawing is horribly represented here, it's at an angle, the paper isn't flush against a backing, there's a bunch of the background showing, the lighting isn't great and most of all its not properly oriented. These are all very simple to fix by just spending a bit more time on the picture. Retake the the pictures and be sure to crop it all out so that it is just the drawing and nothing else. Presentation is extremely important in showcasing art and if it's bad the viewer's opinion of your work will automatically have a cloud over it.

PixelMink responds:

I totally agree with you, but it just really hard in the set up I'm in, but seriously thank for the feedback, I needed to hear that.

[June]

Really well done character design! The silhouette is very unique and does a great job identifying both gender and strength. Excellent style in the lines and shading as well, very bold and dramatic. But what I love most is the color choice on this - just phenomenal the way the greens of her top compliment the Reds of her body and the way the background, while simple, gives context for the direction of the shading and makes the character pop with the violet. Just overall beautiful and interesting use of color. A few people put the that the proportions are off, but they're straight up wrong, the proportions are what really sell the character for me, they're traditionally the masculine super hero type but very well modified to fit a female type which is always interesting to see. What is jarring to me however, is that throw the waist down the legs seem a little bit disjointed from the body, it's ver sungle but I think that's where the unease is coming from. While the rest of the body is ate a slight angle to our left the legs look to be stronger focused center and front facing. Slightly tweaking it and making the favoring of (our) right would probably fix this up. Again great work on this!

[Don't Starve Together - YouTuber Edition]

I think you're off to a good start on this. Many of the issues are common mistakes that will work themselves out as you draw more and more, so long as you push yourself.
The first thing that jumps out at me is the shading and color palette. Right now you have one major light source and one minor light source and you do shade largely within how those would send light out (with some issues with the light intensity of the areas hit versus those not), the problem lies in the actual colors you've chosen to represent the light casted. Right now everything is lit in a way that suggests a very clinical white light when in actuality the fire would cast much more intense orange-ish warm glow that would show much more, especially on that robot dude and the guy with the white and red shirt. Also the the darker areas on the characters and logs could be made much darker to push the contrast. This lighting would also apply to the grass, if you observe grass at night around a campfire it really doesn't look too green at all, it takes on oranges and browns much more prominently. As for the areas that the fire doesn't hit make those all cooler colors and darker, try using blues, greens and violets to push the contrast that the oranges from the fire would create (something that is already going on a bit here, just expand on it). Fixing up the lighting will help to sell the atmosphere of the drawing as well as push the contrast and intensity of the piece.
The poses of the characters are all a bit stiff, I think the best two are the girl and the dude in the middle but there is still room for improvement there. Look into the line of motion concept for poses in order to get more personality communicated in your poses also doing some studies of sitting figures will help in communicating the depth and volume of your characters sitting down. Drawing people sitting - especially on abnormal surfaces - is very tricky and I think you're off to a good start here.
Your linework is a bit wobbly, you can do a few things to fix that, the first and best (in my opinion) is to be more confident in your strokes, do them faster and use your shoulder as opposed to wrist or elbow to do the motion, this method is in general a good thing to get comfortable with if you aren't already since it will help you not only get better lines, but also keep you from getting carpal tunnel.
As for the composition, this is a bit vanilla, standard sort of shot that you see a lot, not that there is anything wrong with that, but if you want more drama in your pieces try playing with camera angles.It does create more obstacles to overcome in terms of foreshortening and depth of field, but the results are much more interesting to look at. Simple things like lowering the camera bit and tilting it up so we're looking up at these people even slightly can go a long way in making the whole scene much more dramatic and ominous.
Also as a side thing: from what I understand Don't Starve has an art style that utilizes very clear color palettes in each level or stage or whatever, I think if you were to emulate the game's color choices more closely, or try to use color in ways that it does, you'd have a much more successful piece of fan art and maybe step a bit outside your comfort zone, which is always good.
Anyway, you're on a good track taking on full scenes such as this, just keep pushing your art and you'll be A-Okay.

Syrupmasterz responds:

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a lengthy review, I've never received feedback this detailed before. :)

I agree 100% with the lighting advice you gave as I originally intended to have the lighting be more orange/fire like, but somewhere along the lines I forgot to take the time and add it. Campfires aren't light bulbs, they don't give off white light. :P

I'll pay more attention to the colour pallets I use as well, but I'm sure using orange lighting would have solved that problem. Composition and poses would have been better had I used some more reference images, most of this was done by memory/freeform.

The thing you mentioned that intrigued me the most is 'drawing with my shoulder'. I am finicky with line art and learning tricks that could lead to straighter lines are always welcomed. It makes sense though, the hand can only move so far before you have to adjust, so using the whole arm gives me more room to maneuver. I'll look into that technique.

Other than that, I should be able to iron out most of the kinks as I go along and improve. The common mistakes will be solved commonly.

Thanks again! :D

[Jordan Barlo]

There's not really a whole lot going on in this drawing, but right off the bat the three components don't mesh very well. You have a blocky dude with some basic shading and some cartoony proportions with light shading, in the back a svelte looking shadow creature and then a photograph for a background, there's no unity here and the work suffers for it.
As for the individual components, the dude in front's biggest issue for me is the inconsistent shading, you've put some shadows in, such as the ones from his hood and under his lips, but none under his nose, earlobes on his sweater or anywhere else. Also being slapped in the middle of the page like that and having his head continue up most of the page makes for a very symmetrical and boring composition.
Other than not fitting with the dude, your shadow guy is just sort of there, he's not interacting or even looking at the dude. With shadow people, especially skinny shadow people like that all sorts of opportunities pop up for interesting was to shape them and have them interact with normal people. Other than that there's not much to say about him since the head on, bust composition doesn't really allow for too much.
The background is a weird choice, making the sketch of the current drawing the background to the final can be an interesting concept but here it isn't really utilized at all. The problem here is that your dude and the shadow guy are almost completely blocking out whats behind them, so it doesn't make any sense, it just looks like they're standing in front of a mostly blank white photo.
I think if you want to stick with this sort of head on bust composition you really need to learn to render the characters better, and throw in a lot of details and shading to compensate for the lack of dynamic motion in the composition. Barring that what you should do is look into dynamic compositions in order to better create interest, things like the golden spiral, rule of thirds, diagonal line etc. Also look into body language and consider the personalities of these characters going in your drawings and try to make all that translate through the poses and interactions between the two. Hope this helps in some way.

Psychopath responds:

Yes, I've actually heard of the golden spiral. I've been looking into methods of applying mathematics to art & have been blindly looking around for things like that & have stumbled onto a few things like De divina proportione but I haven't had the time to read up on it all. I'll add the other things you mentioned to my list.

Oh by the way, just a heads up on the review I left on your speed drawing video. You won't like it. I'm saying this because you seem chill & I was a dick.

[Warhammer]

Hey dude, I've been waiting for you to upload some new stuff so I could review that, but so far it hasn't happened so I figure screw it I'll just review this one since its got the most going on and a lot of what I say will be applicable to your other posted works. So right off the bat, and this has been mentioned multiple times, the contrast, you need to bump it up. Right now everything in this drawing is way too light, which is especially troublesome for any drawing that is mostly linework. You do have fairly well defined objects in spite of this, but some darker linework and shading would really bring out everything a bit more. Even just messing with the values and contrast in a basic photo editor does wonders to bring out the definition in your lines. That being said I think as you fade out the lack of definition actually benefits the drawing a lot and if the front wear more defined it could really serve to add to the sense of depth in the mountains.
Compositionally speaking you've got some good stuff going on. The background is very well blocked out on the page; in fact I'd like to see that pushed further without the robot dude in the middle of the frame. I think it'd make a good landscape shot with some more rendering in the mountains and maybe some ominous clouds in the sky. The Robot dude and the goblin guy for their part are well placed, though I think some more small details or even just greater use of shadow in the foreground could do a lot to help lead the eye to them. Also that flag right now sort of blends into the goblin's back so again sharpening things up would clear that up.
I'm sure you've improved since May and even at the time of drawing this I get the feeling that this wasn't your absolute best, possibly held back by only having one pencil or something) so this review may be worthless, but I figure you review enough art to the point where I should drop a review in on you as well.

PlagueDocterNick responds:

I've come a long way since any of these pictures were posted, in all areas. I haven't posted because I'm waiting till I feel it looks good enough to post, As of now, I'm just debating how to color some of the pictures I've drawn. My art still looks rather mediocre in my opinion, and I'm just waiting for the right moment you know? Regardless of all that, you've created a very in depth review, and I must thank you for that.

[Who needs a beatdown ?]

Great style, I've been meaning to drop a review on your work for a few days now. This one and Head or Tails are my favorites of yours so far, you've got a great and expressive style that captures a lot of personality in the body language as well as faces. I especially like that from what you've posted so far you take on some interesting and varied compositions and I look forward to future works from you.
On this one specifically I love the colors (blues and violets are my favorites) they interact in such a way that it brings a lot of drama to the character with the pure white halo bringing her out along with the glow of the siren against the darker background really bring her out and alive in the scene. I also love the subtle casting of red and blue on her body. What I find most impressive on the colors is the way the background is still quite saturated with color, many artists (myself included) would probably desaturate it more in order to push the character forward but you achieve that wonderfully without resorting to that so awesome job.
The character herself is very well done as well. I especially like the way the linework gets a little rough or edges get somewhat scratchy it all adds a level of grit that suits the texture of the background and feel very well.
The only thing I think can be improved upon is the background with regard to the buildings. I definitely like the two that are present, they block some space and help to move the focus on her, but I think that a few more smartly placed and sized buildings could serve to help put the focus on her more and break up the background some more. Maybe some interesting futuristic structures (if this is the future, the glove suggests it), its a taste thing on my part admittedly; the background is doing fine as is. Overall this is an excellent drawing you have and I look forward to seeing more.

[Und morgen? (And tomorrow?)]

Really good job on this one, your details in the clothes looks really nice and really brings out the folds in the man's clothing. You have a really solid display of dimension in the figure overall, I feel like there could be a bit more value range between his pants jacket and shoes, maybe have the scarf overall darker or the coat darker than the pants just to mix him up a bit, but in doing that you would run the risk of losing some of the focus so the lack of variation works well stylistically.
I especially love the background, the way it is simply a silhouette of a city rather than doing a more detailed drawing. It pushes the homeless man forward a lot and frames him well as well as adding an unfeeling, ominous tone to the scene that really gets the message across.
The face of the man is a little wonky in some ways, but again stylistically it works pretty well. The actual documentation of this image could've been a bit better, the edges show a bit of what's behind the paper, but overall its still a very strong drawing. Great work.

Nersul responds:

Wow, thanks for that feedback!
Im very glad you like it, especially the background, where I wanted to do exactly what you said "pushing the homeless man forward" and that you take the time to give such a detaild feedback.

Wuih!