AuthorTopic: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.  (Read 19385 times)

Offline AlexHW

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Offline Zach

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #1 on: June 07, 2006, 07:57:03 pm
lowest right bicep needs to be raised higher
besides that this is super hot, and i kinda dig the desaturated kinda deal you did with it, but can you show us the version where you didn't do that too?  i think there's a lot of detail that is missed out because of the desaturated'ness
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Offline CrumbBread

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #2 on: June 07, 2006, 08:07:28 pm
I think I like desaturated better than I would a saturated version -- but in any event,

it does looks like you just drew a two-armed man and then stuck two more arms on him. It seems to me that a four-armed man would have a slightly different anatomy about the shoulders. Do you know what I mean? (ie, the extra two arms don't influence the other two arms at all (I can easily erase the extra arms in my mind and then he looks perfectly normal -- they're kind of like plastic wings).

No suggestions on making it better, of course. *shameful face*

Offline ndchristie

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #3 on: June 07, 2006, 08:26:14 pm
unsaturated is fine, but difficult to see = hurts the piece.  the low-contrast-in-values destroys the rendering quality of the piece which would be excellent if you just used visible ranges.  As it is, it looks washed out and cloudy.  If this is a style point, its a point thats seriously hurts this and all of your other works

other than that it looks good, some anatomy issues with the arms, but nothing i want to try to fix.  maybe helm or someone will be able to give proper suggestions, his higher right arm is the one im most concerned about
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Offline Helm

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #4 on: June 07, 2006, 08:30:59 pm
The pixel art is pretty strong, I could post anatomy nitpicks but I dunno if there's a point to that. Anyway, all arms too long, ab section abnormally squished, feeling reservations on the legs on the whole.

What I don't get is the theme... everybody draws what they find interesting, of course, but, just... muscle man with four arms, top two gesticulating senslessly (?). I get the feeling there's not much thought that went into the composition. Did this start element by element? Did you draw a muscle man with four arms, then let's say the background and finally a wolf, or did you start with a realized composition in mind? If the former, I guess that's ok, this is the sort of thing you get when you improv compositions, but if the latter, I really don't see what this is supposed to be doing, and I believe there's merit in discussing the composition.

This isn't the type of critique this place is here to provide, I know, but then again Alex, you're not the type of artist that needs pixel art critique much, so we might as well discuss construction and themes and all that?

Edit: a strong point I have to make about your art, Alex is that I feel you're enamoured by muscles and how they work, and that's fine. I have that too. I do tens of studies on an arm or something sometimes, but I think you should reign that in when you're doing composed artwork. I think you should perhaps put clothes on your people, hair, props and accessories that signify their personality and the symbolic quality of what you're doing. I really really dig muscle groups and how they work in unison, but I don't think I'd want my art to be defined by that interest. Just a thought.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2006, 08:34:00 pm by Helm »

Offline Filax_666

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #5 on: June 07, 2006, 08:36:41 pm


Since I'm not very good with english words, I shall let my editt speak for me. Mainly, I changed the colours and the arms (upper left arm (his right) looks too big, when compared to the others, but I didn't have the courage to change it...), along with some other tiny bits of the picture which bothered me. Adarias said what I would've said, regarding the colours.

[curious fact] Hey look, Helm posted at the same time I did... [/stupid fact]

Offline AlexHW

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #6 on: June 07, 2006, 08:46:09 pm
i kinda dig the desaturated kinda deal you did with it, but can you show us the version where you didn't do that too?
No such version exists. The desaturatedness was intended from the start and all the colors you see haven't been altered to compensate in any way except for the darkest shade of the wolf, before it was darker, which made it look odd, so towards the end it was lightened a bit.

it does looks like you just drew a two-armed man and then stuck two more arms on him. It seems to me that a four-armed man would have a slightly different anatomy about the shoulders. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I understand. I don't know the best way two extra arms would grow on a human, so I was creative and tried to suggest the shoulders to be behind the shoulders of the forwards arms.

What I don't get is the theme... everybody draws what they find interesting, of course, but, just... muscle man with four arms, top two gesticulating senslessly (?). I get the feeling there's not much thought that went into the composition. Did this start element by element? Did you draw a muscle man with four arms, then let's say the background and finally a wolf, or did you start with a realized composition in mind? If the former, I guess that's ok, this is the sort of thing you get when you improv compositions, but if the latter, I really don't see what this is supposed to be doing, and I believe there's merit in discussing the composition.

Edit: a strong point I have to make about your art, Alex is that I feel you're enamoured by muscles and how they work, and that's fine. I have that too. I do tens of studies on an arm or something sometimes, but I think you should reign that in when you're doing composed artwork. I think you should perhaps put clothes on your people, hair, props and accessories that signify their personality and the symbolic quality of what you're doing. I really really dig muscle groups and how they work in unison, but I don't think I'd want my art to be defined by that interest. Just a thought.
heh, yeah, the composition wasn't planned from the start, but I tried to position things nicely as I worked so things blended well. I started with the guy, then the wolf, then the background. Its something I should work on(planning the whole thing before starting), but sometimes I just want to pixel when I feel like pixeling and have no idea what to pixel, ya know?.. :\

As for the muscles, yeah your right.. I'm trying to get away from it.. I did add some cloth like the pants and waist thing, but yes, I should do more clothes.

I like the edit Filax. Lately I've just been interested in working with desaturated tones. I guess desaturatedness isn't so popular.

Offline Filax_666

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #7 on: June 07, 2006, 08:55:52 pm
I guess desaturatedness isn't so popular.

No, no, no...lack of saturationg is good, until the moment your eyes start hurting when you try to spot the details. But then, my screen sucks and I've been looking at it for a long time, som it might be just that.

And, Helm, I don't see any problem with the composition...I agree with the abnormality of the situation, but i seriously don't see why you should think worse of the piece because of that...

Offline Helm

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #8 on: June 07, 2006, 09:17:38 pm
Why? Alex is that good that the weight doesn't fall on rendering technique anymore, but on composition. And I find this composition odd.

I don't mind the desaturation, really. I just look at it at 3x zoom and I make everything out clearly enough.

Offline Alex

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Re: A four armed man crosses paths with a curious wolf.

Reply #9 on: June 07, 2006, 09:28:33 pm
Personally, i like alexs original piece up top. It gives a good foggy sense of style. Its a really classy piece.
alexander