ShangXian's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[[Comm] Man-Moose, Merker of Messiahs]

I am absolutely amazed by the high level of details and technique used here. The curved lines of neck, legs and tail make this creature appealing to observe and I love the fusion of demonic, western and oriental dragon elements. Those horns truly look like a crown of a dark prince and I find a nice touch that this creature has fingers of different number: four in the wings, five of the hands and three toes.

One thing that caught my interest was the perspective of the left wing. It's gorgeous because it conveys the raw power this creature has as if he were ready to grab you. The red sclera fits well his malefic intents and I love those jaws, so primal and fantastic.

Despite the lack of a background the angle at which the creature is positioned, colours and overall design are more than enough to fully appreciate this work. Amazing job, frontpage well deserved!

RavenCorona responds:

Wow, thank you so much!! I'm really happy to hear that! ^^

[Washing Taters]

There is something charming in each process that made possible the existence of this cool artwork!

Let's start from the sketch: I love how the rough linearts guide the viewer in the overall idea. Not all sketches are able to show immediately the core idea of an image since they are mainly used as a personal guide for the artist about how to direct future cleaned linearts, perspective and overall idea. I love it

Clean linearts: I love how clean, neat and pleasant to look at they are. The opossum eyes in the lineart are extremely cute and adorable. I also love how tiles of place where the opossum is sitting disappeared in the lineart compared to the sketch whereas they were added in the windowsill where the radio is. I like this sense of evolution of the composition and I admit the lineart would fit well in a short animation too. I am picturing the guy in the act of washing taters.

Flat colours: I love how they make the overall work look like an indie animation for an upcoming cartoon show I would gladly watch because of the wholesomeness this gives me. Flat colours helped to define even more the idea of the work by combining the sketch and lineart phases together.

Final product: I simply love the contrast that the final product (painting) gives compared to the flat colour phase. The flat colour phase gives me a feeling of movement (act of washing) while the painting gives me a childhood illustration book with its fixed shapes, volumes, shading and colours. I love the oil painting-like effect this gives me especially on the walls, the flooring and the door.

I simply adore the little details like the plants and grass growing from the floor, when I walk and see this I see life coming through hardships and I love it. This piece it's a nice and lovely slice of life from people who enjoy small things like washing taters or performing other daily activity. Fantastic job on everything!

Lundsfryd responds:

Thank you for your very nice review. I appreciate it.

[Thanator vs Panther]

This is simply stunning starting from the overall composition that gives a nice depth touch to the environment. The shades projected by plants, bushes and trees give a nice natural vibe as if you were really in that forest. I like how you can feel each texture of this forest, from the wood, to fungi, leaves, stones and grass; everything combines in a perfect dance of vivid colours and 3D-like volumes. Both panthers look fantastic, I can feel the raw power from Cameron's panther and the curiosity in the real life counterpart with that cute lifted paw.
I like how both seem curious at each other and seem to interact in a playful way (the lifted paws, the tilted head of Avatar's panther just to mention some).

I also enjoyed the animated gif that showed the entire making of the project. I find it inspirational for those who want to start practicing pixel art and I like when people decide to share how they make their stuff. Congratulations!

Everything feels so natural, I love it!

p.s. I am still trying to find the two leaves that made it in the final image even though it's not easy due to the high level of details, but I am having so much fun at trying to find them nonetheless because I love when people make their work interactive^^

Zanzlanz responds:

This is literally the most thoughtful review of any drawing I've made, thanks so much for this nice surprise today! :>

I'm really happy you felt things turned out natural. The curiosity of both creatures is definitely the driver here, which is probably an unusual portrayal of the Thanator in particular - but I love when there is some ambiguous tension in scenes like this.

I thought I knew where both of the leaves were, but I can only spot one of them right now haha! It's harder than I remembered!

Thank you again!!

[Swan Lake]

Wow, I am simply enchanted by the overall composition of this masterpiece. I love the glare the ballerina has, there is a mix of elegance, concentration and determination through her gentle eyes. I love strokes of the clothing, you can sense with your eyes the texture of the leotard and skirt. I can see the silk-like texture in those superb colour blends and shades especially in torso area. I love how the background strongly reminds me a galaxy or a starry sky instead of the interior of a theatre, because the combination of lights, dark areas and colour choice give me this feeling and I love it since it allows to make Princess Odette stand out superbly.

I suppose it's Princess Odette judging by the attire and wings not to mention the title of the work, but I could be wrong. Anyway I am impressed how this work speaks elegance from the character and excellent artistic skill from you. I like to think this is Act two, Scène. Moderato, where she meets for the first time Siegfried, in fact I can sense a bit of fear in her eyes, especially on the left eye and the slightly frowned left eyebrow but maybe it's just me.

I also like to image that the ballet dancer is a talented Russian dancer who trained herself extensively in one of the two main methods adopted in Russia the Vaganova method and the Legat Method. I love how this work is letting my mind to brainstorm.

Asides from the theme of the work, she also reminds me of an angelic figure, an entity of light descending on earth. I could admire this gem hours and hours, you did an astonishing work!

sekim0118 responds:

I'm glad you liked this piece!
This is the revised version of my old work(you can find it in my gallery if you want) and I thought it was a perfect choice to paint over since the former design lacked the vibes that Odette has, which I didn't like.
Your appreciation really inspires me. Thanks for the compliment :D

[Happy memories]

May I say that this artwork gave me a warm feeling of affection and love? I explain myself better. When I first saw the image I thought the creature was about to lure the poor child with a toy, but then I read the story and got compelled by its narrative and unexpected nature. I didn't image the creature was the father but I got happy knowing how the story evolved. I like how the initial narrative, combined with the visual effects (shades, hues, brush strokes, etc.) gives a gloomy vibe that evolves into something wholesome. I like how the father speaks through actions and actions speak louder than words many times. This piece reminds me of the trope of the Benevolent Monster and now I wonder the backstory of these two chracters.

I would like to see and explore better their stories. You did a really superb job both visually and on an narrative level.

Serafin-corpse responds:

Awwww, thank you very much for your comment and thank you for taking the time to read the story, I really appreciate it, when people comment nice things like this it really makes me want to continue making these types of drawings with back stories.💖