Variations on a Theme Crits (TLDR version)
The following are crits for the other entries in this week's Concept challenge at http://artorder.blogspot.com/
(please note this is an attempt to provide constructive crits. Please don't take anything below as overly negative)
Nick Egberts: While I love the rendering style on the piece and the overall design of the armor, I think the three variants are a little too close to each other thematically. I actually have to take a fairly close look to pick out the differences between the lightest suit to the heaviest, And if I squint, the silhouettes and hightlights/ shadows look very similar for all three. On the good side, I see some gorgeous detail in the rendering of the leather and plates.
Claudio Pozas: The thing that immediately jums at me is that there are parts (the middle figure's chain shirt, The engraving on the right figure's plate) that are far more detailed than the rest of the piece. They also have that pasted-in texture look in parts, especially the chain shirt and the pattern on the breastplate. The simpler rendering of the cloth elements seems sparse in comparison. I'd have loves to see some decorative tooling on the leather elements and the plate shoulders at least.Oddly, the chain suit has the most "Eladrin" feel to my eye though.
RC Torres: I'm seeing a significantly higher amount of tlc given to the plate and gear bits than the cloth, which is making the cloth bits seem a bit neglected. I do like the basic design and silhouette of the left figure though. It has a nice administrator/ high beureaucrat feel to it. The center has something of a cultist/ clergy feel, but not as emphatic as the left does. The third figure has the beginnings of a high priest feel, but the shoulders are so large, they detract for me.
MuYoung Kim: I like that you went with variations by time period. The Leathers on the ancient figure have indications of some really nice detail if it were taken to a fully rendered piece. I like the powered armor design as well, though I have one quibble- The shape of the weapon is very interesting and it seems a shame to not have it rendered out as well.
Tiziano Baracchi: There is some wonderful rendering here, I just wish the underlying figure wasn't twisted in such an odd way.The leather/ cloth suit is selling the nature theme through the edge shapes nicely (though I'd love to see the tooling from the shoulder extended to the rest of the leather.) The half plate is an interesting arrangement, and I love the metal overlays on the kilt.The Full plate figure is well-rendered, though the plates themselves are plain. I do love the helm though, even though visibility would be awful from inside it, it has a lovely alien look to it.
Dana Henderson: Three rock-solid Japanese-influences suits. I especially like the center suit, with it's faceless demon look.
Jorge Lacera: Minor quibble- your figures aren't the same pose. That said, The armor designs are lovely, and I like that you spnt time on weapon design as well. (I adore the glowing purple sword.) I do notice that you are concentrating almost entirely on the thighs, torso and head in your rendering, and in the middle figure especially it leaves the areas you didn't concentrate on to be very sketchy by comparison.
Mike Faille: mm, linework. I used to be an Inker ages ago, so I like when someone bucks the trend and submits line. That said, your work looks very graphic and isn't taking advantage of the character good linework can bring to a piece. I like the designs, but would love to see you use color to help break up the forms into distinct elements, as the tone overlays really don't bring that much range.
Ruth Kim: I like these, especially the plate suit, though I think the pose isn't really serving the characterization well. I like that some thought went into the weapons as well as the armor as well. I think there's a certain sketchiness to your strokes that makes we think you might be working smaller than would be best for you (which I used to do as well. As a rule though with digital, if you have the time, bigger is usually better-let's you get as tight as you need to.)
Tim Terrengal: I'm seeing two things. First, the good- You are doung a good job with rendering individual textures for leather, metal and so on. But, and I'm afraid this is the bad, The three figures are reading very flat and in places pasted together. I'm seeing a lot of too-smooth edges that yell selection path, as well as lighting coming from very inconsistent directions.
Scott Flanders: You took the same approach I did- three classes. But, what I notice is that all three are wearing almost the axact same armor save for color, shield, and one having a helm on. As a color study this would be good, but it doesn't show any design variation.
Mark Molnar: The three look good. The set looks like a nice progression from a lighter configuration to a heavier set by adding matching pieces. While I usually like more viraety, there's a unity to the three designs that works here.
Heather Hudson: I really like the crumpled leaf design of the plates on your right figure. I'd love to see it in color, hiding in the foliage like camouflage. Also I like how the leather(padded?) on your middle figure looks good and beefy, like it can take a few hits, but still looks like leather.
J Lonnee: waist up on all three limits the amount of figure you have to work with. As it is all you're really giving us is a well rendered torso and head for each figure, and each is essentially identical from the neck down. While I love the tooling and color variations, they're of the same design and aren't conveying any real difference in character to me.
S.C Watson: What character class does Chippendale's hire exactly? although I really didn't see anything outstanding about the armor designs on the other two figures, you get points for humor on the third. I DID like the facial markings and axe design though.
Peter Mohrbacher: Great trio, well differentiated according to which bird they are associated with. Rock solid rendering as usual. My favorite of the entries.
Marco Caradonna: The basic designs are good and solid, but there's not a lot of tonal range which makes it hard to read.
Kristina Carroll: Love these. Would so love to see them painted. My second favorite designs in the group.
Michal Vondracek: Good solid designs. love the Nod to Dark Sun. Only thing I can really knock is the purple you filled the background with is a bit too saturated and is clashing a bit with your dwarves.
Edit: Mr Schindehette commented letting me know MuYoung Kim's piece was loading now, so I went back and added a comment for it.
(please note this is an attempt to provide constructive crits. Please don't take anything below as overly negative)
Nick Egberts: While I love the rendering style on the piece and the overall design of the armor, I think the three variants are a little too close to each other thematically. I actually have to take a fairly close look to pick out the differences between the lightest suit to the heaviest, And if I squint, the silhouettes and hightlights/ shadows look very similar for all three. On the good side, I see some gorgeous detail in the rendering of the leather and plates.
Claudio Pozas: The thing that immediately jums at me is that there are parts (the middle figure's chain shirt, The engraving on the right figure's plate) that are far more detailed than the rest of the piece. They also have that pasted-in texture look in parts, especially the chain shirt and the pattern on the breastplate. The simpler rendering of the cloth elements seems sparse in comparison. I'd have loves to see some decorative tooling on the leather elements and the plate shoulders at least.Oddly, the chain suit has the most "Eladrin" feel to my eye though.
RC Torres: I'm seeing a significantly higher amount of tlc given to the plate and gear bits than the cloth, which is making the cloth bits seem a bit neglected. I do like the basic design and silhouette of the left figure though. It has a nice administrator/ high beureaucrat feel to it. The center has something of a cultist/ clergy feel, but not as emphatic as the left does. The third figure has the beginnings of a high priest feel, but the shoulders are so large, they detract for me.
MuYoung Kim: I like that you went with variations by time period. The Leathers on the ancient figure have indications of some really nice detail if it were taken to a fully rendered piece. I like the powered armor design as well, though I have one quibble- The shape of the weapon is very interesting and it seems a shame to not have it rendered out as well.
Tiziano Baracchi: There is some wonderful rendering here, I just wish the underlying figure wasn't twisted in such an odd way.The leather/ cloth suit is selling the nature theme through the edge shapes nicely (though I'd love to see the tooling from the shoulder extended to the rest of the leather.) The half plate is an interesting arrangement, and I love the metal overlays on the kilt.The Full plate figure is well-rendered, though the plates themselves are plain. I do love the helm though, even though visibility would be awful from inside it, it has a lovely alien look to it.
Dana Henderson: Three rock-solid Japanese-influences suits. I especially like the center suit, with it's faceless demon look.
Jorge Lacera: Minor quibble- your figures aren't the same pose. That said, The armor designs are lovely, and I like that you spnt time on weapon design as well. (I adore the glowing purple sword.) I do notice that you are concentrating almost entirely on the thighs, torso and head in your rendering, and in the middle figure especially it leaves the areas you didn't concentrate on to be very sketchy by comparison.
Mike Faille: mm, linework. I used to be an Inker ages ago, so I like when someone bucks the trend and submits line. That said, your work looks very graphic and isn't taking advantage of the character good linework can bring to a piece. I like the designs, but would love to see you use color to help break up the forms into distinct elements, as the tone overlays really don't bring that much range.
Ruth Kim: I like these, especially the plate suit, though I think the pose isn't really serving the characterization well. I like that some thought went into the weapons as well as the armor as well. I think there's a certain sketchiness to your strokes that makes we think you might be working smaller than would be best for you (which I used to do as well. As a rule though with digital, if you have the time, bigger is usually better-let's you get as tight as you need to.)
Tim Terrengal: I'm seeing two things. First, the good- You are doung a good job with rendering individual textures for leather, metal and so on. But, and I'm afraid this is the bad, The three figures are reading very flat and in places pasted together. I'm seeing a lot of too-smooth edges that yell selection path, as well as lighting coming from very inconsistent directions.
Scott Flanders: You took the same approach I did- three classes. But, what I notice is that all three are wearing almost the axact same armor save for color, shield, and one having a helm on. As a color study this would be good, but it doesn't show any design variation.
Mark Molnar: The three look good. The set looks like a nice progression from a lighter configuration to a heavier set by adding matching pieces. While I usually like more viraety, there's a unity to the three designs that works here.
Heather Hudson: I really like the crumpled leaf design of the plates on your right figure. I'd love to see it in color, hiding in the foliage like camouflage. Also I like how the leather(padded?) on your middle figure looks good and beefy, like it can take a few hits, but still looks like leather.
J Lonnee: waist up on all three limits the amount of figure you have to work with. As it is all you're really giving us is a well rendered torso and head for each figure, and each is essentially identical from the neck down. While I love the tooling and color variations, they're of the same design and aren't conveying any real difference in character to me.
S.C Watson: What character class does Chippendale's hire exactly? although I really didn't see anything outstanding about the armor designs on the other two figures, you get points for humor on the third. I DID like the facial markings and axe design though.
Peter Mohrbacher: Great trio, well differentiated according to which bird they are associated with. Rock solid rendering as usual. My favorite of the entries.
Marco Caradonna: The basic designs are good and solid, but there's not a lot of tonal range which makes it hard to read.
Kristina Carroll: Love these. Would so love to see them painted. My second favorite designs in the group.
Michal Vondracek: Good solid designs. love the Nod to Dark Sun. Only thing I can really knock is the purple you filled the background with is a bit too saturated and is clashing a bit with your dwarves.
Edit: Mr Schindehette commented letting me know MuYoung Kim's piece was loading now, so I went back and added a comment for it.
posted by Fuu at 3:06 PM
4 Comments:
Mu Youngs link has been repaired.
Thnk you very much for taking the time to comment on my entry, and for the largely positive and very constructive comment (I'm Tiziano Baracchi).
I agree on the points you see as needing improvement, I realized half-way through that the pose didn't work but it was too late for me to be able to start again and still finish on time.
Also , as a total newbie to concept pieces,I was a bit uncertain about the right balance of detail vs suggested elements.
In any case it was a very interesting option to try something new, and I'll definitely keep your points in mind for my next concepts.
Thanks a lot for your time and constructive critique, i've read all your comments and it's clear that you've looked carefully at the whole entries, so a big compliment for this
Concerning my piece i have to agree with you,looking at it from the thumbnail it's quite hard to read the differences between armor types
I have to organize myself better to avoid finishing piece overstretched to deadline-.D
And, by the way, wellcome on Artorder!
M
Thom great post!!! After reading it I cringed, then a wry smile crawled across my face as I realized you were right! It's interesting to see individual critiques offered up like this, I think there needs to be more of this on blogs, it helps me more as an artist to hear a SINGLE sincere critique then it does to hear 100 compliments. So thank you and please keep em' coming!
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