CumminHam's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Happy Valentines day]

May our thoughts and prayers be with those lost in the school shooting that day.
the fathers and mothers who lost the children.

ProjectNetoku responds:

I didn't really want that to correlate with this but my thoughts go out to them

[It's-a me, Mario!]

So Beautiful. <3

but where is our boy waluigi?
the living meme.

TristanTait responds:

Haha you know, I never even thought to do Waluigi. I might have to add him to the list :p

[Ice King]

yeah great stuff! ... sorry to hear about people stealing your work. no need to apologize for the watermark.

TristanTait responds:

Thanks! :D

[Dino-Mite]

Pretty fricken sweet.

Ztoons responds:

Haha thank you! :)

[Scary Terry]

Great work as always!

TristanTait responds:

Thanks! :D

[Alien]

there is a pretty odd discrepancy between your cartoon art and your Life studies. (btw you are doing life studies!! Holy cow you have no idea how stubborn people can be about that... you are already leaps and bounds ahead of most artists on here. keep at it!)

your life studies seem to capture "form" decently well..,. but your cartoon works completely lack it. i assume this might be because you are relatively new to art being as young as you are.

i would recommend doing some planar studies to help you understand the forms of the human body... after you have done a decent amount of them try to do one from your imagination....

past that doing some figure studies and gesture drawings to help your anatomy and posing will work wonders.
a good site for this is "line of action"
https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

keep up the good work!
i look forward to seeing how you improve.

VinulaDraws responds:

Thank you so much! Yeah, I'm kinda new to really dig into art. And I actually was going to study anatomy and gestures because I know my lack of understanding on how things come together. I also started a huge sketchbook where I only sketch bodys with a different random poses website lately.. And the idea to start doing planar studies is great, thank you! :)

~ Viola

[Wallaby Dungeon Pin-Up #2]

Generally speaking all the images in this set have the same problem.
you really need to work on your lighting. typically a 3 point set up consisting of a key light, fill light and back light with only your key light casting shadows is good... but above all find reference images of the lighting you want to achieve and try to replicate it.

there doesn't seem to be alot of contrast between the character and the environment. if thats what your going for then thats fine but i think you want the pin up subject to pop more then it does.

also some post processing wouldn't hurt. lens distortion, Depth of field maybe motion blur if its needed.

keep at it!

AcetheSuperVillain responds:

Well, all my 3D skills are a work in progress, and lighting and post processing are definitely not my cup of tea yet, BUT, I didn't use 3-point lighting because I want it to look like a dungeon, not a studio. I'm also trying to do a bit of story-telling with the lighting, the full pin-up set is 14 images, which I'll upload here after they are available on Patreon, the artistic choice will hopefully be more obvious as the scene progresses.

The scene is lit mainly by the torches, they are prop-lights and they have orange-tinted point lights. The dungeon cell has a blue-purple light to differentiate it from the outside. There's a spotlight that changes position from image to image, mostly using it to achieve a make-shift vignette effect, or direct focus or break up flat color areas. I did realize a little too late that the orange colored wallaby in an orange lit scenes is not the best idea. What I should have also done is added in that fur-edging effect that Kicky the Roo has. I actually removed it because this model is destined for use as pre-rendered game sprites for RPG Maker and the edge effect doesn't look good in sprite size. The theory is that I can achieve a model that looks good as both a small gameplay sprite, and as a larger model for status portraits and cutscene artwork and so on.

I don't really understand fake camera post processing techniques. I mean sure, if it's meant to match live action footage, that makes sense, but for pure CG scenes, if you have the ability to make something more clear and realistic than a camera, then go for it. But then, this isn't supposed to look realistic, it's supposed to look cartoony, so if I was going to post-process it, I would be looking into stuff like edge lining and paper textures or screentones. Depth of field might work, but I worry that a realistic looking effect like that combined with such a cartoony character and background would look odd.

[Extra Terrestrial Jungle]

all and all its really well made. its composition could be better... its serviceable as is however i feel it could benefit alot from having some contrast for a focal point.\
perhaps some sort of alien structure that would draw our eyes to it. or maybe even some large rocks or cliff sides.. some waterfalls or lakes... .or maybe something in the immediate foreground like some vines hanging to the side or maybe the back side of some creature to spark interest.... something to break up the tree lines....

it seems like you were intending for the two large trees to be a point of interest but they are too much like the surrounding scenery to really make this image pop.... i feel that if you were to put something of interest in the trees this could work.... perhaps some primitive nests perched up in the branches.

idk... as it stands now there isn't really any point of interest here for our eyes to rest.
dont get me wrong. its a great render.....

i feel its biggest issue lies in the fact that its just not that interesting to look at as is..... you say its an alien planet but nothing shown here is too terribly different from our own blue marble... by definition it isn't too alien to us. nothing from a composition stand point draws interest...

it is technically Good.... but it needs something else to make it Great... i hope that makes sense... i really hope im not coming off as the wrong way.

Carr77 responds:

No, you're not coming of wrong at all. Thank you for your comment! Yes, I agree, there would be fun with some sort of point of interest. It was made for a TV show, so I mainly followed the directors wishes and the script, but maybe I should build up on it and change it. Re-create a similar forest with something more interesting inside of it, as you say. We'll see :)

[Battlecast Illaoi]

Very nice!

ER-01 responds:

Thank you! <3

[Cuphead - Cala Maria]

you really need to break out of your comfort zone my friend.
all of your work has the same proportions, same pose, same anatomy.
you've found yourself a little groove to rest in... its one your fairly Ok at.
but, I dont think your going to get much better like that.
Try more poses then just the standard pin-up pose.
Try to be more specific with your anatomy.
and probably the biggest thing that would help you is to try and do realism.

but other then that its really a nice piece.
keep at it!

DreamEclipseWolf responds:

I drew this off of hype so kinda rushed yeah.

But at the same time, i can't drastically improve in one post, i will try new things like poses and stuff.
I have plenty in my sketchbook, but they are not in a state that i like.
but for my anatomy, well thats still a thing i can improve on. definitetly agree on that.

Thanks for these critics, shows that people really do want to see me go further.