Critical experiment (please read)
12 years ago
General
Hey everyone :)
I have a strange request today. As you may have noticed, I've been in a bit of art drought recently. And among other things, it made me question my art style and practices. However, I have a hard time objectively critiquing my own art. You guys see the end result as a whole while I can only see the end result as the sum of the steps. It's very frustrating sometimes.
Long story short, I need your help in pointing out the good and the bad in my art. So I'm going to try a little experiment here.
The rules are simple : I'd like you to comment this journal. In your comment, give me one reason you like what I draw, and one thing you think I could improve. Any comment that boils down to "you're amazing" or "you suck" will be disqualified. While I do enjoy those too (to varying degrees), try to stick to the rules for this journal ;)
Ready ? Go !
I have a strange request today. As you may have noticed, I've been in a bit of art drought recently. And among other things, it made me question my art style and practices. However, I have a hard time objectively critiquing my own art. You guys see the end result as a whole while I can only see the end result as the sum of the steps. It's very frustrating sometimes.
Long story short, I need your help in pointing out the good and the bad in my art. So I'm going to try a little experiment here.
The rules are simple : I'd like you to comment this journal. In your comment, give me one reason you like what I draw, and one thing you think I could improve. Any comment that boils down to "you're amazing" or "you suck" will be disqualified. While I do enjoy those too (to varying degrees), try to stick to the rules for this journal ;)
Ready ? Go !
FA+

As to what you can improve on, I would say more male on male scenes as your female scenes are beautiful.
Bad - it was a hard decision to say because i'm still a novice in the art realm. but maybe the shading for various scenarios, and maybe more on the backgrounds also.
i hope this helped,
It's actually rather hard to pinpoint exactly where to improve on. Overall your art is very well structured.
Lines are clean and anatomy for a lot of your characters seem to fit perfectly.
Backgrounds look great and your shading is nice too.
The bad.
Although your anatomy is good, I do notice some things
In nsfw pics I do notice that some anatomy is fixed so to show certain "parts" or "situations".
Sometimes it doesn't look quite right or the head doesn't turn in a certain way.
I also notice a few pictures with characters that have clothes on, don't have enough ripple effect.
Even standing, a man or woman having a shirt on would have a ripple or two, especially while moving or having moved around.
Another thing to work on would be habing two people in one picture.
I know how hard it is to put one person next to another and make them interact, but I think if you practice on that you'd be fine.
I think other than that I'd say just practice on something you'd enjoy drawing.
You know, take a little "me" time to doodle something fun for yourself instead of commissions or comics for awhile.
If you'd like for me to explain further about the good or bad, let me know. :3
Since I am not an artist, I don't feel very comfortable offering much criticism, but if anything, I would say you could improve on faces. A lot of the characters I have seen in your work generally have the same shaped face, regardless of species, sex, age, or whatever. It could just be your style, or from drawing a lot of ponies, but I guess that would be something I could mention ;o
On the negative side, some of your characters are almost toony, which isn't a negative per-say, more a personal choice. I'm also not a huge fan of some of your colouring. Again, a personal thing I tend to prefer the raw sketches over the finished coloured pieces.
However, I think you should also try to focus on the usual anatomy stuff, and perhaps work on perspective and foreshortening. ^^
All in all, just keep practicing and you'll improve with time, I think. It's what I've noticed with my art.
Well Mechanics wise, you draw nice proportions, and the anatomy seems fairly correct, your tails could do better, like many artists your tails to me, look to be "pin on" as opposed to an extension of the spine that emerges from the body at the base....
I like your coloration as well.. But my BIGGEST like is your subject matter, I am not sure that's what your looking for, you likely want to improve the mechanics, but Subject matter means a lot.
The fact you will draw MLP in sexual situations attracts me. The fact that you will draw 2 furry females naked, and bound from a tree limb, catches my attention.
however I would still say you are tame. You "tease" if you will... the market is flooded with these tame bondage pics, showing the bound person smiling and happy as they yiff...
To me your art begins to tell a story, and I like to see where that story goes.. (I like to write) and SOMETIMES It's a great fantasy to see the BAD guys WIN ;)
I hope this helped.
Good:
-Your backgrounds are minimalist, but effective. You've demonstratively improved this: comparing "Hunting trophies: finale" to "Biology studies" shows that the former has the level of detail to show the materials and building patterns involved, and the outside actually has detail, whereas the latter, while useful for its purpose, looks like badly-textured holodeck furniture, with the window out of focus. (This isn't intended to offend; considering the intent of each work, it would make sense to note the situation around the former, whereas in the latter... the shelving and vegetation matters less than, well, the focus of the piece. If this attempt at complimenting offends, I apologize in advance.)
Bad:
-Your shading is binary - your works seem to consistently have one bright light source and one ambient light level; that leaves things either lit or mildly shaded. It almost reminds me of chiaroscuro or tenebrism, but with the gamma set FAR too high. "Ever So Slow" starts to avert this, but there's still one point light source, and the ambient light is still there, if milder. I can understand if you're trying to ensure that people can see what's going on in the situation or emulating comic-book-style artwork, but it still seems too simplistic. Maybe have a pic with multiple light sources?
Hope this helps, but I suspect my opinion is a little bland - here, have some salt to put on it.
Second, the content. You notice when people like or dislike your art, and you don't thrash at people who dislike it. It goes without saying that you improved because you have the ability to listen. Take a random page from G17 chapter 1, and compare it with any page not from chapter one.
Third, the characters. They all are relatable, so any reader can feel what the character feels. There are no one-dimensional characters. Even Alyssa had depth, and she's only on three pages. If she had no depth, people wouldn't have asked why?
Fourth, your sense of judgement. This is hard to judge normally, but you made it easier. When you make something most would label as adult, it's never for the sake of adult content, and it's hard to find an artist on furaffinity who does nude art that isn't pornographic. You happen to be one of the artists that managed to do that. You realized that a person who is "just here for the food" is not worth satisfying, while simultaneously teaching people that nude does not equal porn.
I don't really have anything negative to add.