Your artwork is pretty interesting. I personally love photo manips and vectors...
The first one: amazing use of the word kill in that image. It's really unexpected and it fits in perfectly. The sun is a good part of this, but the style of the drawing doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the image since the rays seem so perfect. perhaps if you made them a little jagged, it might look better. It's still sexy though.
The second one: I really don't know what to say. It looks really cool and all, even though it is a mirror with the bottom faded out <_<.. I really don't know what to say about it, I personally like it. Sorry for the lack of a quality critic on this one :x
The third one: I LOVE Photo manipulations. or at least this is what it seems to be. One main thing I have an issue with, is the contrast on the hands at the end of the fingers, it seems to be pretty high, as you can see the shaded transition is sudden compared to the rest of the hand. It makes the hands at the tips seem a bit too unrealistic and flat..
First, thanks for your opinions; I appreciate the fact that you took time to post your thoughts.
1) I kind of expected someone to mention the sun; amongst all the criticism that this image received, the most common one was that the sun didn't belong in the image, or at least that the sun's style was out of place. I'll admit that the sun was unplanned, and quite literally added at the last second simply to occupy the emptiness in the upper right hand corner.
Because of the fact that the sun was added last minute, it sounds superficial to justify it with deeper intentions, but I've found myself "explaining" it with somewhat legitimate reasons. Now I don't know how valid these reasons are, but some were:
-the circle shape with rays coming out of it are supposed to be structurally similar to the Statue of Liberty's crown
-the contrasting style is supposed to draw attention to it (possibly even making it the focus of the picture?)
-it adds to the message
Now again, I realize how superficial it sounds to justify a last minute slap-on with deep meanings, but I think some of the reasons are valid. What are your thoughts on this? (Don't take this as a defensive attitude towards criticism; I fully realize that an "artist" asking for critques and ends up defending himself is the most hypocritical and frustrating thing ever).
Instead, I just want to hear your thoughts on my "reasons". I'm open minded and not afraid to make changes to my art if I am truly convinced.
As for the suggestion of keeping the sun, but making it more realistic, I don't quite know if that would improve anything. A sun with a face with already cartoonish, so wouldn't it kill the point?
2) Don't worry too much about the "lack of quality" criticism; I already appreciate the fact that you provided some on other things. I have a question to anybody about this particular image. I just used a photo as a background basis, so I know what the content is. What I'm curious about is whether others can tell what is going on the picture.
3) I agree 100% about the contrast inconsistency. I've even mentioned it myself in the deviantart description: Allow me to just copy what I wrote:
"The original image was supposed to be photorealistic. It was rather boring, with a plain background and normal colored skin. The fact that I wasn't able to achieve perfect photorealisticness made me consider allowing an abstract look to an already abstract idea. Adding blue to the image had to be done to the flattened jpg. The fact that I saved this as a flatten image irks me at times, because I can't really change things anymore with good detail. For example, I think that when it comes to lighting, the only convincing fingers are the thumb, pinky, and ring finger. The pointer and middle finger seem inconsistent with the lighting."
The issue is, being a n00b at the time, I saved the image as its flattened version, forever discarding all the layers that made it up and therefore preventing me to fix things easily...
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Thanks for all your suggestions. More thoughts? (And is it okay for a single poster to have his "own topic" in this forum?)
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Never knew Smashboards had an art forum. Please rate my stuff, and provide critiques.
