ShangXian's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[End of the Week]

Hi, I commented on your blog but I want to give a proper review for this fantastic artwork featuring one of my favourite NG characters and this first time I review something about Pico but this piece truly caught my attention to share my thoughts.

First off I want to congratulate for the frontpage, that's completely deserved, second I love how the entire composition turned out. I bet that everything worked nice since the sketch phase (I took a look at other works of yours and I can see talent and a solid artistic knowledge). I always love to mentally divide an artwork according to the Rule of Thirds to see the uniqueness of each component within the imaginary squares and I can see that each piece of the artwork functions properly in a unique way. Another thing I've noticed with the Rule of Thirds is the fact the artwork is divided into two triangle-like shapes if one follows the focal point slightly put at the upper right part of the canvas.

Triangle shapes give a nice effects on a visual level. Triangular arrangements are considered to be aesthetically pleasing, perhaps due to the natural asymmetry. But I also love how in this work the sense of structure and stability given by the upright triangle on the right (where Pico and friends are located) is broken by the sloped shape of said triangular structure of the focal point and characters arrangement. This balances very well with the presence of four characters. Odd numbers appear more interesting (due to asymmetry), but the combination of the poses, the lights on Cassandra's ring and Pico's gun, the position of focal point and colour choice make the idea of breaking this rule quite effective.

I've also noticed that the focal point that guides the viewer towards Pico and others doesn't move Cassandra to the background. Quite the opposite! She stands out like other characters. I love Cassandra's pose, it really rocks and I could stare her all day. Pico's gang is cool too, you managed to show their unique traits (the gun and hot-headed nature of Pico's character, Nene's love for knives and Darnell's obsession for everything related to fire). I like that colours, which are vivid and pleasant to look at, work for the most part of the chromatic aspect of the fanart, the lack of highlights and shades is well balanced by colours and the background (simple but effective at making the viewer focus on characters).

I like the tankman on Darnell's spray paint^^ Amazing piece with amazing characters that are best not to mess with. Keep it up, I love your art!

[Newgrounds Logo with my own spin on it!]

I love so much the simplicity of the overall geometric shapes and details of the tank. It fits very well NG logo and I find it visually appealing. You work inspired me to draw in future tanks from different countries and years in the style of Newgrounds tank logo.

Nice gallery too, keep it up!

[Homer Bush]

I really like how it turned out especially the style and simple colouring that make it enjoyable to watch, nice job.

At this point I wonder what he saw to hide behind the bush XD

[Newground drawing meme]

I love this template and I will use it in future since I am discovering so many cool NG characters I already love. Nice style, colouring and shading^^

Just a question though: what does YOUR NG character mean? Shall I draw one of my OCs as if they were a NG character?
Awesome template. I will definitely do and thanks for making it.

Picochu responds:

I'M SO GLAD TO HEAR! I can't wait to see who you make with it!! And yes, the Your NG character pretty much means your own OC! Whichever one you think fits the NG spirit ^^

[fella (old deviantart tribute)]

I think this is the best tribute to a zombie site like DA I ever saw and it hit me right in the feels since DA still has a special place in my heart because most of my online friends came from there and many artistic inspirations came from there.

I discovered DeviantArt in 2006 when browsing works for both inspiration and mere enjoyment of the art itself, I liked the colour scheme of the site and most of all its lovely mascot: Fella. One thing I missed a lot since I joined it (1st January 2014) was the possibility to react with emoticons under a deviation (the name given to works posted there) and it was nice to see for example how many sad, scared, happy, enraged faces a work could elicit in its audience. It was nice being able to give a constructive criticism to a work even though you had to be a Premium member (then it became Core membership) to give such feedback. Now it's removed. Another thing I liked and enjoyed when I was there was the ability to customize the site with animated gif to make it look more unique and funny.

A thing that stings me very hard is that in the past DA provided a space that felt easier to make connections with those within your niche, this is a thing that was still perceivable in 2014 even though it was a pale shadow compared to previous years. Now it feels like art spaces are more like fragmented art groups rather than communities.

With the beginning of Eclipse everything really started going downhill but I resisted the temptation to go away because there was still a lively art community that, despite small, kept creating inspirational works. I remember I was one of those selected in testing Eclipse but I always switched to old DA when the option was still available. I didn't like it but I adapted nonetheless. The real final straw that made me decide to leave it was actually split in two events: 1) a person who destroyed more than 80 DA groups by hacking them and posting gore images and videos (admin where the fuck did you were when this shit happened? A group of young people had to make a group to counterattack this individual) 2) A.I. images.

In January of 2023, three artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt, claiming that these companies have infringed the rights of millions of artists by training AI tools on five billion images scraped from the web without the consent of the original artists. Sadly in July 2023, U.S. District Judge William Orrick inclined to dismiss most of the lawsuit filed by Andersen, McKernan, and Ortiz but allowed them to file a new complaint.

When I discovered they implemented AI training tool with the option originally opted-in by default without at least telling us they were going to use it I got pretty mad because I felt betrayed by a site that didn't listen to its audience. After many complains they decided to opt-out by default deviantions from being used by the AI tool but the damage has already been done. I wouldn't have complained if they told me they were going to use this technology, I would have even participated because I like to contribute to science and technology if I have opportunity but they screwed up everything.

So I left the site for alternatives, one being Furaffinity because of its policy against AI but after what happened last week I don't feel very safe in a site that even lacks the option to activate 2FA and I am tempted to leave it. The second alternative I've found after DA's AI disaster was NG, best choice ever. My only regret: not having joined Newgrounds years ago.

Overall I had a positive experience on DA when I was there minus a person who revealed to be a narcissist danger who liked to start flamewars everywhere against minors but not only minors (she is more than 40 years old) and never accepted constructive criticism. If I had to recommend the site now I would say: there are better options. In the past I would have recommended it especially for the feeling of being part of an art community. I still miss a lot the website after all these changes for the worst and despite this I hope it can improve and really listen to its people before it's too late (rn they resorted back to ads after many people left and deactivated their accounts). Despite what you did, DA, I still wish you the best...for your people.

Sorry for the long and boring comment but this work really made me want to share my little experience in a website that made history in art community with its flaws, good stuff and really nasty stuff. Back to your creation:

I LOVE IT! The blender 3D model is lovely, I like how shades work fine on the body when it rotates, the highlights give a nice realist effect of volume of the body itself. The composition may be simple (even though I think that making him rotate and adding all necessary effects wasn't that easy) BUT it caught perfectly the real essence of DeviantArt: grab your pen (or tablet, I still remember when traditional artists were worried about digital art and criticized it) and create. Just like the old Youtube (another website I discovered in 2006) whose motto was "Broadcast yourself", old DA was about being "deviant" with the meaning of "distinguish your self, be creative and unique!"

Again I commend you for the amazing job of the best tribute to a site that is an empty shell of its former glory if it keeps this path. Thank you!

[Thinking...]

You are thinking about doing a collab on NG

PLJerry responds:

Well, wrong answer, I'm still doing an animation project for a collab, but good point for trying to figure it out what I'm thinking.

[Bordy]

Wow. this dinosaur series is incredibly fantastic. What immediately stroke me is the overall composition and by composition I mean all pieces that have been made and combined together starting from the colours to shading. The shading is done incredibly well and harmoniously that each shadow stand out nicely. The bright colours combined with the accurate speculative anatomy of these alien dinosaurs create a nice cohesive structure and this makes the conciseness of the painting quite appealing.

I like how the arrangement of elements (notably the contrast between shadows and lights on the dinosaur body) places emphasis on the dinosaur while at the same time the background blends softly. Another thing that I like is the contrast of the shapes, I mean the sharp edges of the mountains contrast nicely the round shapes of the dinosaur and his/her brush strokes on the body (chest, tail and wing).

I can sense that the movements of the flights are gentle, slow and well-paced judging from the way brush strokes were made, even the bottom part of the background gives me this feeling if I focus on the clouds. Leading lines (implied lines here) guide the viewer towards the direction the dinosaur is going to (the right) and this is rendered by the slightly uplifted position of the chest and neck.

I like how softly blurred the background is, notably the moon on the left corner of the painting, it truly gives a dream-like vibe along with cold but soft violet/blueish hues. The middleground stands out nicely the space and helps to highlight the central subject. If I have to mentally divide the composition with a three-by-three grid over the subject I can see that each segment is unique, you can spot each key feature of this imaginary three-by-three grid.

The more loose brush strokes on the dinosaur's body give a nice glossy texture to the plumage and a fluffy look that makes me want to gently caress him/her. The overall chromatic undertone give a calming feeling to the person who looks at this beautiful painting and it's a known fact that blue has a calming effect on the mind of the viewers. In fact I feel quite relaxed looking at this work.

The negative space of the background gives a feel of vastness and openness, combined with soft strokes of the foreground give a suspended atmosphere to this delicate alien world. In another work of yours you said you would abandon this world to go there, well I would join you. This is the type of worlds I would love to visit^^

Thank you for making this beautiful gem for our souls and eyes. Keep the amazing job up!

[Miss Mora & Mao the butler]

First welcome to Art Portal, second I commend your technique and skills. I checked your Cara account and I've noticed another cool artwork that really caught my interest at checking and voting your work here on NG. I have to say the style is truly pleasant to look at, the light colours and shading are combined in a balanced way that give a videogame artbook vibe. I also noticed you used Krita, that's cool! I use it too and I love how many effect one can achieve, ofc your technique is superior to mine which I have still a lot to learn.

I like the character design of the two main subjects of the composition, it makes them easy to memorize and recognize. But what I love the most is the curious expression of the young girl looking at the lizard on the butler's knee, it's a nice balance between the curiosity typical of young people and inner calm of elderly people. The fact they have bags makes me think they are on an adventurous journey and I image this journey to be a fantasy one or at least the warm colours and lighting give me as feeling.

I really hope to see more Art from you because it's truly beautiful and pleasant to look at. Maybe we can explore the worlds these two are going to visit with your works^^
Keep it up!

CaioNOG responds:

Thank you for the kind words, is truly the best feedback on my art i ever read. I hope you like the next ones to come 🎨🖌️

[Fox N' Trolls]

It's a bit hard to me what I love the most about this gorgeous piece, let's start from colours:

-colour is the first thing that caught my interest and among colours I can divide what caught my interest into two sub-categories: 1) hues and 2) types of colours.
hues: I love how the main hue theme is in the warm colour category despite the use of different green shades that blend nicely the overall composition. It truly gives a forest vibe!
types of colours: I love the combination of olive green, avocado green, apple green of the leaves with copper brown, tan and godenbrown hues of the tress. It helps to create a natural environment that feels natural. The scarlet red of the fox's fur is truly enchanting and not only creates a great focal point to the main character by making him stand out but enriches the woods too. So everything is well balanced and each element highlights each other. The lack of shading and highlight is not a problem because the balance of the style, the aim of this work and use of colours work in a harmonious way and not all pieces must have shadings or highlights to be visually appealing if other elements are combined in a balanced way, plus a surreal work does not necessarily need shadings/highlights. It depends on the artist's main goal in his/her work.

The second element that struck me was the use of neat and visible linearts:

-linearts are so pleasant to look at that makes the work even more fantastic and I like how the use of prevalent curved lines gives a sense of safety or a neutral-natured environment. Both fox and trolls look pleased at each other, not bothered at all and overall friendly/curious. To sum up I just love how linearts play alone as motif and pattern in this surreal world that strongly reminds me a children book about Scandinavian creatures. I love how trolls are depicted here: curious, intelligent, not-threatening and in harmony with Nature.

The third element I loved so much is the style itself. The unity itself of the composition is superbly reached with combination of colours, linearts and style. The surreal and cartoonish-like style reminds me of those independent animations I sometimes stumble on internet. In a way it gives me Felix Colgrave's animated works.

The chromatic contrast may be sharp but work in its entirety is pure harmony!

p.s. welcome to NG and congratulation on Frontpage, totally deserved. I hope to see other amazing stuff from you, keep it up!

T-Pattz responds:

OMG, thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words. <3

[funney shirt #2348234]

Nice colour palette.

If I remember well the reference is from The IT Crowd.