Fro's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[A-Bot]

I actually quite like it.

~ Title ~

A-Bot, not too original is it? I know the picture is of A-Bot, but coming up with a more creative title could be nice. I really can't complain much as I can't really think of anything else to replace the generic title, but that being said, an artist who takes pride in their work should be taking pride in naming their artwork as well. Like I said though I won't get into this anymore because even I have been known to come up with some generic names. For example, Pyroscape.

~ Background ~

I love drawings of characters, but what I love more is when the character is placed in some sort of environment. Having A-Bot be a bit smaller could come in handy so you could have put him in the audio portal. What might have been cool would have been to make a city resemblance of the audio portal and place A-Bot in it. You could also take this even take this further by taking some popular audio submitters and making cartoon versions of them to put as his "gang" in the background behind him, backing him up.

~ Focus ~

Of course without any sort of background the main focus of this picture is A-Bot. The main focus of A-Bot to me though is the upper body. I feel that you did a superb job of the upper body! There is even some facial expression in this character, which is great as it's a robot and everything.

To me the lower body does have some proportion mistakes. On the left upper leg it's turned towards the front and the bottom is faced off to the left. Now for a human this would be a nasty impossible twist as it seems the pivot section of the hip would be dislocated and the knee it just twisted weird. It is a robot though so twists and turns can be alright since it has the ability to turn in ways that a person wouldn't be. I'm just not sure that's what you wanted.

~ Meaning ~

As the picture is itself there is little to no meaning behind it. There is this expression that comes from the facial structure though. He has this type of serious no-nonsense look, which really isn't the newgrounds type, but meh, he's a robot right? The comments that I made about the backgrounds might add some meaning to the submission.

~ Overall ~

It's a decent submission all around and pretty good if you were just trying to get back your rusty drawing skills.

The Good:

The color is good.
The upper body is great.
Good serious look.
Good line work.

Improvements:

Some proportion problems in the lower body.
A background and meaning would be great.
Add some originality to an already generic thing in some way.

Other:

Why not go ahead and do all of the Newgrounds Bots? I think you have the drawing potential to do them all and with some background work they could help you become scouted quite easily. :)

~ The Fro ~

Sheizenhammer responds:

^_______^
OK, now that i'm done fapping over the epicness of this review:

I honestly would never have thought of reviewing the title for a submission of any kind. It's an interesting idea to say the least...
... I can't for the life of me think of anything else to call it either though. I mean, what else is there to say? It's a hand-drawn copy of A-Bot; go figure.
That said, I get what you mean, and if I do make a more serious attempt at a whole picture it'll have something a bit more creative than that at least.

To that effect, there will definitely be a background in any future ones too. I was considering adding a background to this one, but considering it was more of a test I decided against it eventually (hell, this isn't even in the art portal; I marked it as a userpage sketch :P).

I know there were some proportion mistakes, and they pretty much all come from this:
I started by drawing the box for the screen. In my drawing, it's a square, whereas in the real A-Bot it's more of a rectangle. Things just plain didn't fit too well after that, and by the time I noticed I was too far into it to start again. That's the main reason for me leaving this one up and not re-uploading any fixes to it: It's to remind me what happens when you pay too much attention to the little details instead of the picture as a whole. Schoolboy error; won't be doing that again.

I am seriously considering doing the other NG bots, especially since Robot day is officially going ahead. All I really need is GIMP (which I've been meaning to get for ages now), since scaling the scan image down to fit in the portal limits involved the use of MSPaint's horrible .jpeg conversion... which is where most of the colour went this time (the original is at least twice as bright as this :/).

Thanks for the great review! If and when I do the rest, I'll be sure to include them in the Art portal and see what happens. :)

[Cleen the Clown]

~ Review Request Club ~

~ Title ~

Hmm, Cleen the Clown? It's a very odd name. Is this a word that you had made up, a word that is more native to your country and/or language, or just a word that you spelled wrong and meant to put Clean? I don't think Clean the clown would be a good name, but Cleen... hmmm, very interesting indeed. It just helps give that weird feeling that clowns tend to give to people, which I personally enjoy exploiting as much as possible when I discover someone is scared of clowns. Oh well, I've talked about the title of the piece for long enough, but I must say it was a very interesting name indeed.

~ Background ~

The background was very plain on first sight. It's kind of boring and doesn't really do much for the picture. At second sight though you can see this sort of illusion. The dark color on top and the lighter red throughout the rest of the background give it the imaginary line that makes it look like a box. This illusion can than start playing tricks on one eyes as they are trying to figure out whether the dark section of this is the top of the box and the point where the colors clash is the corner close by or if the dark color is the inside of the top and the clown is in this box. A good illusion indeed and it really goes along with the clown theme very well. :)

~ Focus ~

A perfect clown would be symmetrical in a way, but at the same time not symmetrical. I think that you have that part down quite well. What I didn't like about the clown himself was the shape of his head. Not only was it too odd (even too odd for the picture), but I don't think it really helped with the creepiness that the picture is suppose to give off. A slightly shorter head or at least a much rounder head would have been better in my opinion.

Hat: Now working from the top of the clown and down I would like to comment on a few things. The hat was just too perfect. I imagine a scary clowns hat to be ruffled up a bit, to be dirty, maybe have some stains on it, but not to be perfectly straight and in order. The red dots really add to the theme of red that you used in this work.

Head: The top left hand corner of his head looks very odd. It's sticking out a little and it seems that he has some sort of small tumor. His right eye is also very oddly shaped and should look more like the left eye. Other than that you've kind of got the facial expressions perfect. You worked the area between the eyes very well and the wrinkles around the other areas of his face really look good.

Body: I wish the picture was a bit bigger so you could see some more of the body, but I'll review what you have on the picture so far. The grey lines were too thick in my opinion and I feel they should be a little bit thinner. The black line on the left side that goes through his collar is the only one that you use in his collar. I feel that you should have never put in the one line or used the lines to cover all of his collar to look the same. Again, nice placement of the red dots here.

~ Meaning ~

A scary clown. I guess it's suppose to show how creepy a clown can really be. I see where you are going with this, but it really didn't get the job completely done in my opinion. If there was more going on and especially if it was sinister things than it may have done it for me.

~ Overall ~

The color red was used very well and I enjoyed the white, grey, black, and blues that you used as well. The lines on his face were really good, but some of the lines in his hat and body were way too thick.

The background could be boring at first unless someone really checks out the illusion for what it is and allows it to play tricks on their eyes. I do wish that the picture would have been bigger and there would have been more going on though. That was the biggest downfall of the picture.

Good: Good face expressions and lines in the face. Nice background illusion and colors. Nice name for the clown.

Improve on: Some of the lines were too thick so make them thinner.
The head was very odd shaped. It needs to be more round. Make it bigger and add more content.

~ Review Request Club ~

MCarsten responds:

Hehe, hey really thanks by your review! Yes, Cleen the Clown is the name from him, he was a character from a story that me and a friend made and is correct the name "Cleen", that is the clown's name, yeah, and this was to sound odd, because this was to be a sinister or a scaring clown. Just a thing, if you thinked about this, I don't and I never had fear from clowns, this came as I sayed from a story that I created. The thing you described as a possible "tumor" on his head, was to be the clown's ear. Thanks for like the position from the red dots from his clothes. About the background, was to feel like a clown from the hell or something really sinister or to describe Cleen as a madman and I agree with you to say that the background is too poor, but in my opnion, was not to be all detailed. From the thick lines, I prefered like that, because was to put a difference from the clown's white head to his white clothes to don't mix anything. I'm so happy that you liked the expression from the clown, was really to show that he's a madman and a sinister clown. Other thing that will really explain to you why I didn't put scary details on his uniform, was because was from a story that me and a friend created based when I saw a guy that use child costume, because his from a TV show, and talking to my friend, we laughed a lot with this, and we started to creating something over this, and Cleen the Clown was the most brilliant from all our ideas. Thanks for the really nice review! Thank you so much!!

SpyS.

[Mini Mischief]

Always with the dragons with you...

We need a new theme Echo! You're always doing nature and/or dragons. Let's see something different some time. :P This one.. hmm, while done very well and detailed it's almost.. boring? I don't know if that's the word I'm looking for, but it's not really one of my favorites from you. Perhaps I'm just holding you at higher standards now or something.

Like always your pictures are very detailed and they look great. There seems to be a different style from this picture and the rest of your pictures. I can't tell exactly what it is, but it seems the body/head of the dragon, the keys, and the metal key holder just don't fit with the background. Like they were made with different means or something. The wood almost looks realistic while the rest of the picture isn't so much.

Like I said before, this picture really doesn't have much going on. Perhaps adding more length and height to the picture so we can have more surroundings. For example, I imagine this in an old style kitchen for some reason and wouldn't mind seeing surroundings like pots or even a shadow of someone standing there making it seem that the dragon is sneaking behind his back.

Picture is great as it is in terms of quality, but I just wouldn't mind seeing more.

~ Review Request Club ~

EchoRun responds:

Funny thing is, old style kitchen was exactly what i had in mind when I was drawing this. I had thought about adding the sorts of details that you mentioned too, but the week time limit caught up with me, anything more would have either pushed me over the limit or would have lowered the quality of the rest of it below what I would have found acceptable to submit. Kinda annoying really.

I guess the reason the wood looks different is because I did use a different technique - hand draw some lines then smudge them into something resembling wood grain - repeat until it looks decent. The dragon and the rest of it is pure hand drawn.

Perhaps I will expand on this one in the future, maybe.

[P.S. You Rock My World]

This is a... girl?

I'm sorry for the men in this imaginary world if the girls look like little 10 year old boys. :P

First I just notice how small the body is and just how gross this person would look in real life, but meh, it seems to be a style that people enjoy and I can't really mark you down because I don't like a certain style.

The character design is actually very simple, but at the same time pretty detailed. It seems that you took your time with this and that's always a good thing when creating any piece of art. :)

I know it sounds like a broken record by now, but when you get a bunch of people saying the same thing over and over then I guess it's something they really want to see. I wouldn't mind seeing this character with a background of some sort. A desert would really fit with the good color scheme that you already have with your character. People just rather see a character in a setting then they would the character floating in the air.

~ Review Request Club ~

Aigis responds:

It's supposed to be around a 10 year old girl. I'd be worried about the men in this imaginary world if they're caring about the appearance of 10 year old girls.

And I wasn't allowed to draw a background.

[Dragon Eye]

Great..

I absolutely writing about 4 paragraphs of text in a review and then having the entire thing deleted because my piece of shit computer clicks of the screen for some reason, I push the backspace button, and it backs the page up. All my text is deleted and I'll apologize that you won't be getting the same well thought out review that you were going to get from me, but I just don't have the desire to write it all again...

So yeah... It's strange that you can make something so dangerous look so calm and peaceful at the same time. Just from the eye alone I can tell that this beast could tear you apart if it wanted, but it just wouldn't do it for the hell of it. You give it a very calm and human like presence.

I absolutely love the colors used here. The color of green and red really compliment each other well. Like always though I try to find at least one thing to critique and that would be how white the spec in the eye is. I feel that it would be a lot more transparent then it actually was. I don't know how you would do that when you were doing these things by hand, but it's something that I feel would have helped.

~ Review Request Club ~

EchoRun responds:

Ah, I hate losing a big wad of text like that, so frustrating. Did that with a page and a half document before - I am seldom tempted to to batter my computer but I came close then!

I am in a phase of experimenting with colours atm - different combinations and effects, that sort of thing. A slow process, but interesting. Contrasts are fun but I am trying harder and harder to get them to work better. A good Contrast mix is surprisingly tricky.

I am glad you got different layers of expression in this - calm yet savage. I hate 'flat' characters. I want them to be interesting and varied, and if I can convey that, brilliant.

[Yang-Ying]

Hey, how is the business going?

This is kind of hard on the eyes. It almost makes me dizzy to look at it.

I actually don't have much to say abut this just because it's such a simple piece. You did a good job at coloring the black in, but there are still a few white spots showing here and there. I think the line work on top is a bit messy and could be worked on a bit. There are a lot of lines that are incompletely drawn for example.

Now that this is on the computer perhaps you could add some color to it. Sometimes black and white is fine, but I could see this having some cool neon like colors with a colored background as well. You could even add a shadow to it to make it look like it's standing up.

So yeah, maybe a version with color since it's already on the computer and a background of some sort would be nice.

~ Review Request Club ~

MonoFlauta responds:

"Now that this is on the computer perhaps you could add some color to it."

But i did it with my hands... i scanned it... and i prefered to keep it as it was :p

Well all is against the colour but i like it how it is :p

Thansk anyway for reviewing!

[Looking up at a Jungle Canopy]

I thought of Avatar...

And I never watched the movie. :P

One should view this at full size to get a really good appreciation to the amount of detail that went into it. IâEUTMll start with what appears closer to me then IâEUTMll work my way back to the top of the canopy.

I love the amount of detail that went into the vegetation here. This part of the picture would almost look real if it was mixed in with a real picture of a jungle. ThatâEUTMs great art there all around.

Moving back a little you see the animals and little particles floating around. There could be one argument about these two things, but itâEUTMs not much of one at all. They are just so uniformed the way they are spread out. I think itâEUTMs pretty important to have things in your picture placed randomly. Perhaps that means putting one closer to the other, or putting one half way out of frame or something. Like I said though, this isnâEUTMt a big deal at all, just something that IâEUTMve picked up from looking at art.

The furthest location of the picture is very detailed, but almost doesnâEUTMt fit with the rest of the picture. I donâEUTMt know how to explain what I mean, but itâEUTMs simply not as realistic as the parts that you had closer up.

The last complaint, again if you can call it that, would be the lack of in between things. This picture portrays that there are two levels; the front and the back. Perhaps there could have been more in between branches or things to really add to the picture.

All of these things being said really doesnâEUTMt stop me from giving you a 10. IâEUTMm the type of person that tries to find every fault that they can with a piece of art even when I donâEUTMt think it can get much better, because itâEUTMs those things that will help people out.

ItâEUTMs an amazing picture all around. IâEUTMm still a big fan. Keep up the amazing work. :) Also, you should think about taking up animation. You already have the art aspect down, you could create some nice award winning flashes or get a job doing professional animating.

~ Review Request Club ~

EchoRun responds:

Thank you!

You do have a point with the floaty bits being too uniform - I didn't pay it any attention 'till you pointed it out.

Thank you for the lovely review. ^^

[Inxdemia]

~ Review Request Club ~

As a future teacher I suggest that you only do this in class if it's an art class. Doing this in math class doesn't help you learn math. I hope you fail now. Muhahahahahah! It will be death from above!

It's really pretty good overall. There are a few faults, but it's nothing serious. For example some of the line work isn't too good or just kind of incomplete. On the lower left hand corner there is an area where the lines don't really connect too well.

Also, the areas that you colored in with pen has a lot of white spots. I think it could have been a bit better if you covered some of the white spots up and made those areas colored more completely.

Other than that this picture is really good. Good quality work and it's a really cool piece. I could even see this being used as some sort of tattoo or something. Maybe now that it's on the computer you can go in and add some color to it. That might be pretty cool.

Good job, don't do this in class though. :P

~ Review Request Club ~

MonoFlauta responds:

"As a future teacher I suggest that you only do this in class if it's an art class. Doing this in math class doesn't help you learn math. I hope you fail now. Muhahahahahah! It will be death from above!"

Hahah but it was good :P think maybe in a futere i become a great artist and i will can tell this story to my fans lol (not really i hate fans hahaha XD)

"For example some of the line work isn't too good or just kind of incomplete. On the lower left hand corner there is an area where the lines don't really connect too well."

Yes problems of drawing with a teacher in front and with a pen haha but yes they are problems :P

"Also, the areas that you colored in with pen has a lot of white spots. I think it could have been a bit better if you covered some of the white spots up and made those areas colored more completely."

Yes... you are right... anyway an art always can be better :P i think the problem of this one was that it was made with a pen... (oh it has some secrets in the drawings... i bet you cant find more than one lol)

"Other than that this picture is really good. Good quality work and it's a really cool piece. I could even see this being used as some sort of tattoo or something. Maybe now that it's on the computer you can go in and add some color to it. That might be pretty cool."

Haha thanks a lot and i will stop commenting here your review hahaha i will not read more than "Good job," ahahaha

Thanks a lot for reviewing ! :P

[Firing My Laza]

~ Review Request Club ~

I would like to go off of what Haggard said to below. I absolutely hate the Firing my laser theme and I think the whole thing is pretty stupid. You though made it interesting and fun to look at. It's not the generic black person look alike who's just shooting a plain laser. You've added some spice to it.

The laser looks really good and could be a piece of art on it's own. The particles around it really add a cool effect to it that I enjoyed very much. The use of blues and whites are great for showing energy like you did. The background looked pretty cool with the spiral or ripple type style that you used.

Perhaps the eyes of the face needs some details? It's just the white part of the eye and having the pupil in it could help out a bit. Same thing with other parts of the face as well. Such as how you don't have distinct lines for the teeth and what not. I know that the face isn't the main attraction, but it would be nice to have it detailed.

~ Review Request Club ~

Flash-Gamers responds:

"it's not the generic black person look alike." Yeah, I don't do black face pictures.

I'll keep that in mind "more details!"

Thanks for the review!

[Tri-Stream]

~ Review Request Club ~

I really liked this one. I thought it was by far the best one that you have. For the question that you have of why you don't know why your not scouted yet, I might be able to answer that. For the art portal they want things that you have hand created yourself or created yourself in a program. This looks like more preset effect works than anything else. I don't know though because I haven't done art like this before. I've known of people not being scouted or having their art removed from the portal simply because it was all effect and not their work. Instead it should be your work with a little bit of effect here and there to add to the picture, but not the main attraction. Again, like I said, I don't know if that's what you did though because I really don't know much about art programs.

On to why I like this now. It was almost like an explosion of fun. My eyes have so many things to look at that are so good. The things look like lasers coming out of some sort of explosion. The coolest things that you added would have to be the spark like effects and the laser that goes around the straight ones.

The uses of purple, black, and white probably have to be one of my favorite colors in pieces of art like this. The signature was pretty cool, but almost not fitting with the rest of the picture. The effect that you give the ETH3R is more of a splatter effect that makes me think of blood or something that is spilled when the rest of the picture is all about sparks, energy, and electricity.

The piece is really cool though and it looks great. Keep up the good work.

~ Review Request Club ~

Flash-Gamers responds:

I MAKE MY OWN ART FROM SCRATCH FOR THE RECORD.

Thanks for the review!

Yeah, I use photoshop to make all of my art, I just use different brushes and layers to give it the effect it has right now. Nothing more, and nothing less.

But you should really give phtoshop a go, if you haven't use it yet; it'll help you assume less often when you see my NEW ARTWORK. Since you'll know that anything can be made in phtoshop and look "semi-professional."

The sig though it's not really an effect, all it really is just plain old downloaded font! :D