I like how dirty these look!

Dirty is how it's done.

Sources cited: http://www.rickberrystudio.com/

Very neat. :) Love the way you work.

I like 'em both! Great work.

I do like the left version. Good sense of motion too.

Wonderful job!

They're both really nice, but I'll always be a fan of the rough works. I think the motion really comes through out of the angled and stray lines.

Both have their merits, Sir... both have their own individual charm. Now you just need a third for that trifecta

Heel yeah ! That kick ass !

<3 <3

Kelly is one of my fav boy's names :>

also roos are rad, particularly this one, but also roos in general

Wow, I don't see many roos! Nice work!

Kinda like stills from an old blck and white movie!

this is rad <3

The issue of balancing rendered detail for depth and interest and realism with the raw dynamism of the sketch is toootally on my mind these days. The last thing I painted, every other brush stroke I had to be like "Stay loose. What does this stroke add? Is this stroke really necessary?" And despite that conscious effort, I still went about half as tight again as I wanted... So yeah, I feel your pain <3

It's all the more important in motion-intensive compositions like this one, too. I can totally understand the desire to post both, and I think they're both lovely, for what that's worth ^_^

Thank you for the personal and substantial response, Kamui! I'm glad you've found merit in both versions. :)

Definitely the sketch looks the fiercest, may be because of the actuall stroke intensity; which actually adds a lot of depth and movement, rather than the careful rendering to the left... His features look a lot more agressive because of this too.

Maybe a midpoint could work to convey both the energy and detail?

Hopefully with time I won't kill it. Thanks. :)

I really like the one on the left the most, that shoulder look wrong in the right hand one. Just the shadow shapes I imagine, and that one line of light that sort of cuts it off. You know what is awesome in this piece. The movement of it is unrivaled, it demonstrates so much flow and that rocks. I really enjoy how you did the face. Especially the left. Those sharp contours. Your background work is also fun and cheeky and very loose.

great momentum :'3 i kinda like the rougher right version ^_____^

I would fight him.

Very nice work. The piece on the left has excellent texture and detail. It looks very gritty, but at the same time very realistic. This seems to come from a solid understanding of anatomy and lighting, and an excellent coloring technique.

However, I agree; the rough sketch seems a bit more dynamic. In the rough sketch, the character seems to be flying through the air, really putting his weight behind the punch. The flow and lighting of the sketch seems to put emphasis on the forward arm, giving it more visual weight, and thus making it seem like a really powerful blow. However, when you added the details, a few things happened. First, the forward shoulder and pectoral became a bit darker; that is, more similar in value to the mid tone. As is the case in atmospheric perspective, this seems to rotate that muscle group farther back into the viewing plane, giving the arm less of a foundation for the punch. Similarly, the midsection of the torso was lightened a fair amount, which makes it not recede as much. This lessens the impression of the tucked posture, making it so that the character does not seem to be leaning as far out of the page. Finally, the speed blur you added defines the character as jumping almost straight up and down. While the direction of motion was possibly unclear in the sketch version, the punch is coming forward and out of the page, and he seems to be moving into the blow. With his trajectory set upwards in the finished version, the punch seems to be going more off to the side of his motion- he doesn't have as much momentum behind the blow.

I think that the finished version is an improvement on the original sketch, but it seems that by darkening the midsection, lightening the shoulder, and eliminating or changing the direction of the speed blur, you could bring a lot of the dynamism of the original sketch back into the finished piece.

All in all, gorgeous work. Sorry for the critique on an older piece. I hope that my feedback is still helpful. =)

No, absolutely! Thanks for taking the time to critique! That means an awful lot to me.

I need to look at it with fresh eyes: I hadn't considered him throwing a punch.

Oh, that's so funny! I totally get what's going on now. His arm is even bent at the elbow. I totally jumped to that conclusion. I think I was reading a punch from the sketch, where the elbow was very loosely defined, and so I ignored visual cues in the finished version telling me otherwise. The lighting and the blur make a lot more sense knowing that he's just jumping, rather than striking. Sorry about that! ^^;

oh god this is too cool a pose ;_;

I think a lot of the dynamic aspect of it is lost by giving more detail to the whole figure, and cleaning up the lines outlying it. Perhaps, only giving form and detail to a few key areas and keeping more of the motion-lines (for lack of a better word) would help.

As well, with the cropped composition of the figure it looks as if he's doing a pull up from something above him with his arm, I can only assume you meant for him to be jumping; perhaps giving us that extra information and uncropping would also aid in recognition of the pose.

you just blew my mind.....my brain is broken now 83

Oh man I can't decide! D:

Really like your character!