Decky's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Laurel & Hardy]

A brilliant homage to the great duo.

I like the shear number of references that you have managed to get in such a small image. It reminds me that there is a lot of Laurel & Hardy that I'm yet to watch. I'd like to see this become like a kind of series of various portraits from shows with vest numbers of references. It's an idea.

I would say that in some areas it feels a little too dark, around the dog for example. Also I think that the flame on Laurel's finger could have been a bit more prominent but that might be a personal preference.

ApocalypseCartoons responds:

Thank you very much. I went on a binge and watched almost all of them, which resulted in me adding more and more to it. I have done some other fan drawings that include lots detailed of references. There was a Zappa one and some Doctor Who ones. Also a Marx Brothers one, but with only a handful of references. Can't remember if they're on Newgrounds, but they're on my website, at the bottom of the Illustrations page.

[Green monster]

A cool piece, I like the little details like the circular spots around the shoulders and I like the brush strokes at the bottom of the background too, especially the choice of colour, I think they could have looked better though if they were straighter under the left (viewers left) armpit and shoulder.

Another thing that I would have done is made the shadow on the monster a bit darker along with the space background. I think that this will give the piece a crisper look.

A nice illustration and not much that can be picked out for improvement.

kalabor106 responds:

The shoulders are a bit goofy. Was never good at drawing the shoulder well. Was thinking of adding a extra darker shadow but didn't. Was afraid of over doing it. Thanks for the review and the constructive criticism. I really do enjoy hearing what can help make my art better.

[Blowfishy]

A great graphic that I think would translate to make a really good tattoo or T-shirt design.

I really like your style of blending colours and use of light, though I'm normally impressed by digital paintings as it's something that doesn't feature massively in my portfolio. I'd like to see this made into a larger picture. Maybe with the fisherman on the bank.

Can't really say much more as I can't really find fault in it. Well done and keep it up.

eline413 responds:

Thanks, that means a lot to me. Your idea about the fisherman is actually a really good idea so I'll consider doing that in some of my spare time. It's actually a portfolio piece, so I wanted to make it better in some way anyway. Again, thank you very much :)

[The Pants Are Off!]

A fun little cartoon. I particularly like the way "NOT" comes out of the speech bubble, though I wonder if the exclamation mark should have had a white drop shadow too as it is also come out of the bubble.

Maybe a bit more detail on the shadows would have been nice. I get that it's in a simple cartoon style but I would have liked to have seen some more shape there.

I think the arms could have been higher on the body too. As they are the right arm (viewers right) appears to be coming from his back due to it being behind his underwear, making it seem almost like a tail. I would have but them inline with the center of the mouth, he's a monster, he can rock that look.

I am just pointing out the little things that I picked up on and some of it could be my opinion and how I would have done things. I do think this is a good piece.

jessejayjones responds:

Thank you Decky for the very thoughtful and helpful feedback! All great points to improve upon for when I get it printed on a shirt! :D
Edit: I've taken some of your feedback and implemented it-- Thank you so much for your helpful feedback! :)

[Fudgepops]

A nice piece. I like the painted style, the blood on the wall and the view through the doorway are done particularly well with a good use and understanding of light.

Having said this I'm not too sure about the speech bubbles. In themselves the idea is okay but I noted that there is a slight transparency to them, I don't think that was the best way to reduce the sharp white of a standard speech bubble that would over power an image like this. I would have suggested using a light pastel grey background for the bubbles instead of a fade, this wouldn't be as garish as pure white but better then how it is.

I agree that the font used was a good choice, an obvious lend to the theme. I fear though that it is jumping out of the bubbles, the "MY" at the top for example is too close to the edge of the bubble and the "FUDGEPOPS." should be reduced in size also for this reason. I would also change the full stop for an exclamation mark. The middle bubble is typographically perfect though.

The final thing that I would point out is that the left boot (viewers left) looks a little off. The laces seem like they should be slightly more to the left as they go up the boot. It's just something that jumped out at me on an otherwise good figurative painting.

To summarise, it's a nice work but it's let down by little things that stand out. Mostly the speech bubbles. Well deserving of three stars though.

Rhunyc responds:

Aw man, thank you so much for the lengthy and constructive review, I'll definitely keep that in mind for the next one I do (if I do). I guess that's what I get for trying to wrap it up so late, haha.

Thanks again though, I appreciate it!

[Shield (Green)]

A quite nice, simple design. I'd rather like a painted shield of a similar design mounted on a wall in my house but maybe that's just my sense of style and it's probably the cartoonish use of line and curves.

There are a few little things that stand out to me as needing some improvement for example I'm not too sure about the lines coming off of the snake, is it on fire? Is it hairy? I'm not sure what you were aiming for with that one. If it's meant to be on fire I would always stay away from showing something on fire in all black. It just doesn't give that sense of light that is really needed even in a cartoon. Either flames in silhouette or the object not both, this may just be me.

Another thing is the yellow of the flowers don't stand out very well again the green of the shield. Maybe a different colour scheme would have been better (I'm aware that there is an orange version that you have also uploaded). In that area the vines that the flowers are on also look a little thick.

And Finally the boat on the right. I really think that it isn't needed at all in the piece and it really is taking things just that bit too far into the minimalistic, cartoon design side of things. It looks like the boat on the picture in The Simpsons. I get the impression that you put it there so that it was clear that the waves are indeed waves, this would be clear without the boat.

All in all it's not a bad piece I just feel that the little details were either under thought or were added when they simple weren't needed.

- Review Request Club -

Cyberdevil responds:

That would be pretty cool! :D

Hmm yeah, not sure what I thought about when drawing the lines... probably for effect, but there might've been some underlying meaning with that too, like my hair does grow quickly... It's not flames though, that's for certain.

As for the boat, all these details signify some aspect of my personality, there's really nothing superfluous in it, waves and boat stand for separate notions, but I agree it looks a bit simple compared to the rest. Thanks for the feedback!

[Hell and Landlord]

A really amazing piece, The way that it is drawn put me in mind of illustrations in an old fairy tale book. As I wrote that I read the description and see that was the inspiration. It's simple, haunting and makes the viewer use their imagination to guess what is going on in the piece.

Not much to improve on, I'm just not the biggest fan of how the girl is drawn, the proportions seem a little off as she appears to be very broad.

ewtrtw responds:

Thank you for your comment and opinion! It's really important for me)

[The Maneatlaneese]

I really like this piece, it instantly struck me as something that would make a cool Christmas card or entry into the calender collab that was in the art forum over the past couple of months. You should have got involved.

The only thing that I personally would have improved on if this was my piece would have been a small bird or something perched in the antlers, just a little detail that I think is lacking, it just needed something else in there somewhere.

Brilliant piece though.

EATIncorporated responds:

Thank you! I actually did come across the calendar collab, I believe, but I'm trying to get a bit better at meeting deadlines first before I jump into collabs. I know that one late piece can snowball into a Christmas fiasco, so right now i'm just observing the pros and honing my skills. I actually didn't even know about the Maneatlaneese until recently! So that factors in as well.

The bird idea is nice! Like a red bird, a cardinal or some such creature. Not only would that be a cool detail, but it would give some realism to the piece, to show that the forest isn't sitting in dead space. Cool idea!