ShangXian's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Everything, by Everyone]

Posso dire che è uno dei più bei tributi tanto a Tom quanto a buona parte delle serie che caratterizzano questo sito fantastico? Quando ho aperto il pacco questa mattina, per la mia medaglia quotidiana e per vedere i graduali cambiamenti che si aggiungono al gioco man mano che si va avanti, mi è venuto mentalmente da dire "awwwwwwwwwww"

Adoro la scelta di Tom nel suo profilo giovane e gioviale dei tempi scolastici poiché aggiunge giovialità e rinnovato spirito di speranza in questo periodo dell'anno. Anche se lo sfondo è semplice e dai toni scuri mi piace la scelta per via del bel contrasto sia cromatico che luminoso del globo di neve, esaltando la composizione.

piccolo fun fact: la prima descrizione certa dell'oggetto risale all'esposizione universale di Parigi del 1878, ma si ha notizia di sfere ancora più antiche, sin dagli inizi del XIX secolo.

Mi piace la combinazione di serie vecchie con serie più recenti che caratterizzano Newgrounds, ho amato in modo particolare il cameo di Club a Seal, gioco del 1997 se ricordo bene, accanto a Pico nato invece due anni dopo. Mi è piaciuta l'unione dei due come a simboleggiare il Newgrounds delle origini. Ma ho anche notato che i vari edifici del globo di neve simboleggiano le varie sezioni del sito. In effetti NG è come un mondo, un luogo dotato di edifici, infatti l'ho sempre visto in ottica urbana dove i singoli account sono come delle case o appartamenti dove uno entra vede il mondo fatto dal suo creatore e ne può apprezzare la bellezza.

Il sito nella sua totalità me lo immagino come una città alla Philadelphia, il che non è casuale la mia scelta della città visto lo stato americano da cui proviene il nostro caro Tom.

Trovo molto bella e toccante la scintilla sulla guancia di Tom, quasi come fosse una lacrima ma di gioia per il lungo cammino fatto e i grandi traguardi e successi raggiunti nonostante anche momenti più difficili (del resto la vita non è solo gioie). Bello anche lo shading sulle mani di Tom e l'uso dei chiaro scuri in un atmosfera che combina colori caldi a colori freddi. Mi piace molto anche come hai reso i capelli.

Ottimo lavoro, adoro quest'opera e il FP è più che meritato. Continua così!

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English translation for those who don't know Italian:

Can I say that this is one of the most beautiful tributes to both Tom and a good chunk of the series that characterize this fantastic site? When I opened the parcel for my daily medal and the gradual changes that are added to the game the more you advance through days, I mentally said "awwwwwwwwww".

I love the choice of Tom in his young and jovial profile from school because it adds joviality and a renewed spirit of hope in this time of year. Even if the background is simple and dark toned I like the choice because of the beautiful contrast both in color and light of the snow globe, because it highlights the overall composition.

fun fact: the first certain description of the object dates back to Exposition Universelle of 1889, but there are reports of even older spheres, dating back to the beginning of the 19th century.

I like the combination of old series with newer ones that characterize Newgrounds, and I especially loved the cameo of Club a Seal, a game from 1997 if I remember correctly, next to Pico born two years later. I liked the union of the two as if to symbolize the earliest days of Newgrounds. But I also noticed that the various buildings of the snow globe symbolize the various portals of the site. In fact NG is like a world, a place with buildings. I have always seen it in an urban environment where the individual accounts are like houses or flats where one enters sees the world made by its creator and can appreciate its beauty.

I imagine the site as a city like Philadelphia, which is not a coincidence that I chose it considering Tom's origins.

I find the spark on Tom's cheek very beautiful and touching, almost like a tear but a tear of joy for the long journey made through these years and the great goals and successes achieved despite even the most difficult moments (after all, life is not only joys). I like the shading on Tom's hands and the use of chiaroscuro in an atmosphere that combines warm and cold colors. I also really like how you made the hair.

Great job, I love this work and the FP is well-deserved. Keep it up!

MKMaffo responds:

Grazie del super commentone, mi ha fatto molto piacere leggerlo e sono rimasta sorpresa dal vedere un commento in italiano hahah rappresentanzaaaa
Grazie ancora! :abbraccio:

[Bound By Power]

You totally deserve that scout and the frontpage of your very first post, your art is truly beautiful and full of talent. I have deep respect for pixel artists since I find it more challenging than mere digital art. I only did two pixel art pieces and I can see how you have to calculate accurately every step especially for more geometric or symmetric stuff.

I like very much the glowing effects on golden chains and I like how the worried yet determined look of your OC seems to balance the subtle dangerous atmosphere surrounding her. Nice outfit and colour combination, it makes everything so pleasant to look at. The presence of those chains gives me a nice dynamic effect of them moving around the character and I like how the background is: simple in order to let the viewer focus on the witch (judging by the tags in your work).

The title is interesting, "bound" by power. Power corrupts but absolute power absolutely corrupts said a politician some years ago and judging by both the title and the cryptic description of this character I assume (but that's just a speculation so I might be wrong since I don't know the character yet) a strong power has been unleashed and seems connected with the protagonist of this work. A tale of power and control, subjugation and freedom, who knows. As I said it's just a speculation of mine I like to make when I see a work that catches my interest.

Mysterious look! I love it. Keep it up!

venomdorian responds:

Oh dear. Thank you so much for the support!

Indeed pixel-art is quite a challenging medium. You sacrifice on a lot for the chance at gaining a lot of personality. Specially when you want to translate a frontal and simple view to a 3D space.

As for Lillie. Those chains are her powers. Restorative (healing) magic that she shapes into chains to "connect" with her targets. Or just restrain if need be. Her powers placed on her a responsability, be the strenght of the clan and ensure its future. I don't want to delve much deeper in a response but, her power left her with little to no choice.

Once again, thank you so much!

[Laika]

Beautiful piece with such lovely vibe around it. I love how the position of the dog, the flow of the fur on the body and the tent really guide the focal point to the dog in a harmonious way that makes everything feel so natural and relaxing to see despite the cold and dull colours of the winter landscape.

Right now there is fog where I live and seeing this piece fits perfectly the atmosphere, but this scene gives the warm vibe of having a loyal companion who accompanies you in tough times and supports you no matter what. I also love how majestic and royal the dog is. You captured very well her nature. Nice use of hues in the background, notably the sky and trees. The soft hues help to highlight the main protagonists of the scene.

I admit the part where you said " So I put her and I into a piece forever immortalizing her till my artwork some how gets lost in time" gave me two contrasting vibes:

1) a feeling of existential dread derived from the thought of how all the works (in this case artworks) we made will get lost in time, in a future time where even the language we are using now won't be understandable anymore. I image a distant future where even this civilization is in ruin and nothing is left but our works, the traces we left maybe for ourselves, maybe for others but still...they are traces.

2) inspiration to make a tribute artwork of a dear dog I lost when I was 10 (he was adopted by my neighbours but he basically chose me because we spent a lot of time together) in order to immortalize him. It took me over 20 years to finally move on the trauma his traumatic death caused me. It's not everyone's fault, not even the person who killed him because when he ran over Charlie (that was the dog's name), the dog jumped suddenly on the road. He used to visit me after his family moved to a different part of the small town I lived during my childhood.

And speaking of immortalizing friends who enriched our lives, your description reminded me of verses 12 to 14 of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18:

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The last verses talk about the power of literature to immortalize beings, this concept can be extended to all arts. This is the real, tangible magic we can experience in this world: the power of art of conquering death, playing with time and bending it to our will (think about those historic events or people we immortalize through our artistic works), creating different timelines, etc. With this artwork you applied one of the many magic powers of Art and enlightened this world with such magic.

Thank you and welcome to Newgrounds! I already love your Art! Keep it up and congrats for the Frontpage, totally well-deserved.

[Fancy Pants wallpaper.]

I copy paste what I wrote in your journal so it doesn't get lost among other journals:

I saw your wallpaper and despite it has simple shapes and composition compared to most of other entries, I personally liked the vibrant colours inside each geometric shape but if I may give you a bit of constructive criticism that I feel to point out is this: what makes the work a bit messy in terms of overall look is the composition. A well-composed work is clear, concise, and interesting. All the pieces will appear to work in perfect harmony. It will look like a cohesive painting, rather than an arrangement of parts like I've noticed in your work.

Composition theory can be distilled down to two basic questions:

1) What do you want to say?
2) How are you going to say it?

Start always with these two questions. What did you want to capture with your drawing? And how are you going to say it?

Remember the visual elements of an artwork are the building blocks of said artwork and they are: line, shape, colour, texture, depth, value and space. Because each chromatic part of the background give a messy-like vibe to the composition the viewer can't focus on the main subject of the wallpaper (Fancy Pants in this case, if I recall well his name, lol). The colours don't help the eye to focus on him.

A good solution for this might have been working on perspective and focal point. The lack of a focal point (maybe a primal focal point around where Fancy Pants is) makes your work not have any real direction or purpose. Where to put your focal point? Well, Rule of Thirds rules, sorry for the pun^^

What is Rule of Thirds?

What it entails is cutting your reference into thirds both ways using two horizontal lines across and two vertical lines down. You will end up with nine sections. Here a fine example of this rule:

https://drawpaintacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Renoir-Monet_painting.jpg

this is Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Monet painting in his garden at Argenteuil, 1873. There are two important ways you can use the rule of thirds to improve your artworks:

1) First, you are provided with four intersections where the lines meet. These are very important intersections as they are the generally preferred areas to place your focal point. This is because these areas are slightly off-center but also not on the edges of your painting. If you place your focal point in the center of your painting you run the risk of creating an unnatural composition. If you place your focal point on the edge of your painting, then you run the risk of directing the viewer out of your painting, rather than through it. Here the same painting with the intersection highlighted:

https://drawpaintacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Renoir-Monet_painting2.jpg

2) Second, you should try to ensure each section is unique to some extent. If you have two or more sections which appear very similar, then your composition may appear bland.

So if we want to apply this to your work we will have something similar to this:

https://imgbox.com/vZORI0de

I did a screenshot of your work from the collab and applied the Rule of Thirds. The blue intersections are the areas where you can put your focal point. In the Rule of Thirds all the sections are unique in some way. In your case the excessive use of bright colours and same basic geometric shape make the bg look a bit bland. So how to possibly fix this?

1) Framing (arranging shapes and other elements in a way that “frames” a particular area)
2) Leading lines (suggestive lines that direct attention around a painting)
3) Simplification (t involves taking all the “noise” and detail and simplifying it into something more coherent)

By simplifying the unimportant, you focus attention on the important. And I think in your case simplification is the way, how?

use a limited color palette (simplification of color)
compress the value range (simplification of value)
use larger brushes (simplification of tools)
use less refined strokes for unimportant areas (simplification of detail)

I think in your case a more limited colour palette and a right-positioned focal point towards Fancy Pants would have helped making the composition more balanced and dynamic.

Sorry for this long ass comment but I genuinely felt sorry seeing a young and enthusiastic person getting treated like that. I get that sometimes even a more blunt critique may help but people should understand that not everyone reacts the same if treated that way and I find the way he treated you discouraging.

Keep it up with practice and fun, one day you will be amazed by the progress you have made!

[Painting With Pixels no.1 - Corvus Corax]

I really love the choice of the subject, being an avid bird lover, especially of corvid family. I like the simplicity of the cityscape and the choice to put the focal point towards the right side of the painting.

The only things I feel to point out is the hue of the cityscape, the limited colour palette of the sky and clouds make it stand out not so effectively despite buildings are visible and distinguishable. The shades on the bottom part of the cloud follow too much the basic hue of the sky. Maybe working with complementary colours would add a bit of chromatic variety. Despite this I really like the lighter outline on the top of the cloud because it's receiving light from above. I also understand that you wanted to focus on the bird rather the bg, so it's a valid choice.

Another element I feel makes the composition fall flat in terms of colours is the lack of shading on the branch where the raven is perching. I see the different brown hues on it but I don't see for example the shade thrown by the bird. This would have added more realism to the composition. I like how the branch colour stands out the blue environment though.

Despite this nitpicking (hence my 4.5 vote), I really like the overall structure, each part is unique if the Rule of Thirds is used and the raven is beautiful. Nice details, shading and highlights. I like his/her pose too because it feels natural and that's how ravens would turn their head if they notice something that catches their interests. I know that pixel art can be challenging and painting with it can be even more challenging so I commend you for this variety of subject. Your gallery is really cool and I like your geometric style, so keep it up!

KrecekOnNG responds:

Wow. I hugely appreciate your response! I also have a reasoning for a few things you pointed out.

1. The BG was very rushed. I basically reused the idea of the sky BG from my pixel arts "Aloft" and "In Memoriam" (changing the green HSV value by 4). The cloud was a result of an internet tutorial; I basically took the hue of the BG, shifted it's brightness a couple of times, and then just messed around with 'em.

2. I forgot to put the shade below the raven. I did. I made the raven and the branch separately, and when I overlaid them, I forgot to add the shade that could've made the artwork seem more realistic.

Also, this isn't actually a painting. I just tried to think of a neat title to my upcoming series of pixel arts, and "Painting With Pixels" was my first idea. But yeah, it was pretty hard to make.

Thanks for such lengthy review! Corvids are among my favorite families of birds too! I hope that you will like my future installments too. Also sorry for not responding for a while, I've just been busy. Bye!

[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!