ShangXian's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Great Homer Collab]

I already explained myself in my last Homer post why I loved this collab so much so I won't repeat myself but I take advantage to thank DioShiba for this fantastic experience that to me lasted four months, making this my longest collab I ever participated. I also want to thank Taytonium for making all of this possible with his daily Homer drawings that inspired DioShiba to continue his legacy.

You two made a unique experience where creativity, inspiration, talent and different skill levels could meet and fuse together. I love seeing everyone's contribution to this collab, I can genuinely feel Homer's essence in each drawing, an explosion of yellowness and fantasy!

I also love the animated Homer put at the left bottom corner of the collage, it's a nice touch that add further creativity and different media that already mixes different media (traditional and digital to be more precise). I would also like to mention how much I love the positioning of each Homer, it's funny and well-thought. For example I've noticed that my thick-billed raven Homer is on top of H.P. Simpson's head as if he perched on purpose on his head. And I remember that Halloween episode that quoted Poe's poem "The Raven" (Bart was the raven there), so I saw a nice, subtle reference to that, plus Poe and Lovecraft are masters of American horror literature.

I find fantastic how Poe’s work influenced Lovecraft in important ways, while at the same time Lovecraft’s fictional, critical, and poetic reception of Poe irrevocably changed how Poe’s work has been understood by subsequent generations of readers and interpreters. This essay talks about it even if you have to download through your school or library in order to fully download it: https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/edgar-allan-poe/article-abstract/18/2/248/200616/The-Lovecraftian-Poe-Essays-on-Influence-Reception?redirectedFrom=fulltext

I also loved how paired are my Homer on Tankmen' tank and the Homer with NG shirt, it almost looks specular. Another funny interaction I've seen in the composition PLJerry's Homer hiding from Bundelux's zombie Homer XD
Other Homers look at other Homers with curiosity and/or concern. Homers in superheroes costumes put together adds a nice semantic grouping to the composition (heroes with heroes). One of the funniest Homers is the one thanking for the Marge-loaf XD that made me laugh and I find it cute.

Despite one might think that the composition may look random, it's not because if one pays attention the focal point is slightly at lower position, more specifically Homer Liberty Statue from which rays of different Homers radiates and if you mentally break the composition with the Rules of Thirds you will notice how each square is unique in terms of themes, semantics and Homers. So I commend you for thinking about each Homer!

Again thank you for this collab which I consider my personal best experience in terms of collabs I made during 2024. To me it's the top number one collab of the year in terms of personal experience because I've found a very welcoming environment, talented people, works that inspired me (notable pigeon Homer made by TikkiToon) and I've enjoyed following the forum thread, it's one of the very few forum threads I actively followed (in terms of hitting that heart button I mean). I loved how the collab organizer was always ready to answer everyone's question and very patient with some users that didn't always follow the rules of the collab despite he showed them in a very clear manner.

Thank you to all people who participated to this collab and who made possible this event, the FP is totally deserved and I approve the feature for the Tuesday Takeover.

I hope in future to be able to participate to another collab, DioShiba, if I have time ofc, but in case I am free and you want to make another art collab or a collab that involves also art, I will gladly join. I won't forget this experience for sure, I wish you all a serene Christmas, and serene winter holiday if you don't celebrate it! Thank you, I love you all!

DioShiba responds:

One of the things that needed to be applied in order for it to work was having that knowledge of composition in the back of my mind so this would look visually appealing for the beholder.

The problem narrows down to the fact that, how do you be able to maintain that when a lot of the submissions that you're given from other people have been drawn in their style and how can you bring it all together to keep people's eyes moving around without getting terribly distracted? There's some solving that has to be done in order for it to work and that's where having that gained knowledge helped in being able to create the collab as it stands while having the rule of thirds in the back of my mind and that's where I played around with the scales and rotations of some of these submissions that I threw in between submissions like the King Gohomer Meme piece and the submission that has the big homer head close by all the 3D piece submissions.

And that's just the trick is that for some of the pieces I had to be VERY deliberate in where I placed them and that's where those two pieces, the Homer of Liberty, and even the aesthetic 80's sunset homer at the very top become key pieces for the composition to work.

If a piece didn't work in a specific placement, I would move it to a place where it would work better. Some times I'd even do a horizontal flip to the submission and it's to a point where I was able to keep the composition flowing without it breaking the experience. There was a point or two where that almost happened but it wasn't hard to go back in and fix it in Clip Studio Paint and move those pieces before I exported the image sequence to go into Krita.

Which is another thing I had to do in order to problem solve making sure that Chdonga's Homer could remain animated without having to reduce the size too much. In the end however I resized the canvas to about 75% of what the original size was but had I not done that I would have not been able to upload the final product to newgrounds at all. (I tried to do that and it didn't work, even as I left my computer on overnight. It's that big of a file.)

Hope that insight adds some context for the readers with your analysis ShangXian, it was awesome to have you be a part of the collab and hopefully once I'm ready to do another one in a year or so I would be happy to have the opportunity to work with you again!

[Wizard Fight]

Hello I was lurking in the Review Request Club and I found your work that caught my attention to write down what I think based on what you asked there. But let me first say what I liked and made me want to review this work. I like the colours very much, how bright they are and how catchy to the eyes they are, particularly in the fighting scene where the contrast of them make the visual appealing and this brings to the first thing I want to point out in terms of colours:

in the first three panels the colours of the background is too similar in hues to the purple magician and this makes him blend too much in the environment unlike the blue wizard that stands out nicely. But at the same time I like the sketchy look of the shading because it fits well the style you want to convey with these types of comics. I like it.

In terms of comics readability I didn't find difficult following the scene and pace of narration rhythm. I also find it creative with this use of round shapes instead of the classic rectangular or square shapes you typically find in comics. The font is nice and fits the style of comics overall.

Characters expressions are good enough to make the reader understand what's going on both in terms of scene and character's emotions. A thing I would like to point out though is the way you made the upset/annoyed purple wizard's face in the small panel at the left side of the second main panel (when he discovers the coffee grinds all over the kitchen). The basic emotion can be noticed but the lack of curved muscles around the mouth and eyes wide open makes the face look a bit stiff and I've noticed this in his surprised look when he is about to destroy himself. Maybe instead of putting his eyebrows high, a more irregular shape added to them would have increased the feeling of surprise/astonishment.

I show you how I rendered the face of the purple wizard using Krita:

https://imgbox.com/qAxjcXVW

The red arrows show the tension of muscles and where you have to focus emotion energy when drawing a cartoony's facial emotion. Ofc I am not an expert nor a professional in terms of art but I also think that this website may help you with this element:

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/cartoon-fundamentals-create-emotions-from-simple-changes-in-the-face--vector-16278

This helped me in the past with facial expressions. The blue wizard's expressions turned out good especially in the main fighting scene and in the last panel. You caught well his sense of astonishment and surprise.

When it comes to elements that appear a bit off in my opinion the pose and perspective of the purple wizard's arms during the fighting scene. He looks a bit stiff and gives an overall rigid appearance. This other resource from the same artist I linked above might help you: https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/cartoon-fundamentals-how-to-draw-a-cartoon-body--vector-18651

The blue wizard balances this though. He is drawn in a nice dynamic pose of someone who is about to get hit by the blast.

In terms of comedic value despite probably something I miss that didn't make me fully appreciate it, it made me genuinely chuckle in last part because the overall idea of an exaggerated reaction out of something this mild on the annoying element scale that resulted in something comical at the end is funny to me. Globally I enjoyed this comic, the overall dynamic poses of the wizards particularly in the last scenes, vivid colours and funny characters.

Keep it up and yes, visit Palestine (I've noticed it at the beginning of the comic).

UwUwizard responds:

Oh wow, thanks for such an in depth critical perspective! I really appreciate the detailed references and I've saved the articles to come back to when next blocking out comics. Definitely agree with you about stiff posing, that's something I really need to work on. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!

[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