Quarl's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Spice Must Flow]

I must not hype Dune. Hype is the mind-killer.
Hype is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my hype. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the hype has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

These actors are so adorable, I can't wait for the movie either. Love the color scheme, line quality, tone and contrast of the painting. Love the way those spice eyes pop from those earth tones. 10/10 :D

[Lady Nemesis]

This is a lovely illustration of Caitlyn Jenner.

[Regina Luminosa]

People don't like leaving critiques because it can feel disrespectful. I'm not one to comment on visual arts often anymore. Growing up I always hated critical feedback, I'd get so defensive. Maybe I'm worried that people might respond to criticism in the same way that I used to.

I wanted to create everything in a vacuum. My highschool drawing teacher would pull up a chair, start making amendments on student drawings, and when it was my turn to get sketched on I'd crumple up the paper and start over just for his reaction. As an adult, that story feels awkward to tell because I needed that kind of instruction and refused it like a petulant child. In college I learned to take crits. The entire process involved working on hundreds of drawings nonstop, putting them up on a wall for the entire class to see, then going through each and every individual piece of work and talking about what we liked or what we didn't. It was always a battle, we'd argue sometimes but I kind of miss that.

Maybe the reason I don't leave reviews on newgrounds visual arts is because many drawings here are perfect for what they are. So many artists on newgrounds have their own style and vibe. In university, drawing class was mandatory. We'd use charcoal, vine and compressed. The end goal was probably photo realism but only a few of us ever got that good. Here on newgrounds, the end goal is whatever the artist wants it to be. I don't want to ruin that journey with needless critical input. Usually, the only thing a newgrounds artist ever need to keep going is a little love.

So you're style here is far from photo realism. I couldn't begin to tell you what direction to take because it's already a huge improvement from the old drawing and anything I would have told you back then has already been done here. It really is a unique style and the execution blows me away. If I were to force myself into a crit, all I got to say is that you should draw more regardless of style to push your boundaries. Pick up a sketch pad and do still life drawings, landscapes, animals, figure drawings... everything. It's easy to put ourselves into comfort zones and only do certain types of drawings or avoid styles that make us upset with our limitations. Maybe the reason I stopped drawing is because I got tired of feeling uncomfortable.

Probably another reason I don't leave reviews on visual arts is because even when something floors me, I feel dumb just saying "this is good." I never liked being a fan girl. I'd rather leave that positive feedback for the kids that need more practice to motivate them into improving on their own. I think simply saying "good job" to someone is just as important as leaving a critique but I truthfully have trouble doing that. The young and amateur artists need positive reinforcement more than they need direction because critiques can weigh heavily on people. Artists improve on their own when poked or prodded. I guess that's what's happening with my subconscious logic?

I'm contradicting myself, certainly. While I think leaving positive reinforcement is more important than leaving critical reinforcement, I have trouble doing exactly that because of personal feelings. I'm being very honest with you because we got some history, so most of these ideas are simply feelings and poorly worded. Know that I stopped by this drawing earlier and didn't say anything because I didn't want to say simply "good job."

You did a good job.

[Snake movement test #2]

It was fun getting to watch Egoraptor's style evolve over the years. It's funny to see that his old spastic cartoons still have influence on young incoming animators <3

[The Sun and the Moon]

Awesome colors, amazing subject matter, professional execution. Looks like the line tool from mspaint, give us some details. I would love to know what went into this and how it was made. Newgrounds has a huge population of artists, we all strive to accomplish things and help one another. I have no idea who is judging pixelday submissions for the prizes but talking about your work adds a personal touch that may sway judges.

I know the audio portal has had issues in the past with stolen content. I used to mod audio here when I was in college. We'd interview new artists to try and determine if they knew anything about music production or not. It's how the website avoided copyright battles in the early days. Things are a bit different now but engaging in the community has always helped build report and push your work to the front of the line.

Again, I love this drawing. I only mention all the extra details because I'd love to see this get some more attention. Don't be afraid to gush about your illustrations! What programs did you use, what was the motivation, is there a larger story here? I can see symbolism on the moon, the lion and the lamb have mythological relationships, does that pillow have memory foam? Give me deets Schrek, I must know things D:

Schreckengast responds:

Hey thanks, I appreciate the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed my work. There is a process behind this work, and I'll explain it.

When I started really doing pixel art within the last year, I was using mspaint and maybe some Photoshop to help with mspaint's limitations, which was very tedious and difficult to get perfect lines and curves. Paint has this tool that you can curve with two clicks but you have to click it in the same direction you draw it and even then the lines are less than optimal. Eventually I learned through use of Adobe Illustrator that you can vectorize your drawings that you scan onto the computer, and then convert the vector to pixel, and best of all freely scale the pixelated vector to whatever size you want. This way, the image is exactly at the resolution I want it to be, and the shapes are optimal. I then export from Illustrator into Photoshop and proceed to color the image. I may use mspaint in tandem if I need the use of its curve tool for specific parts. For the longest time Photoshop's paint bucket tool wouldn't color sprites the way I wanted until I discovered that the anti-alias, contiguous, and sample all layers checkboxes existed and were useful. At this moment mspaint itself becomes fully obsolete except for niche moments.

Motivation wise, I enjoy animal subjects more than human, and while I'm not specifically sure why other than "they're cute," I think it in part has to do with how versatile they physically look in the final product compared to people, and how varied different animals look. Whenever I browse artists who mostly do animal art, especially anthro artists, I notice some have certain issues drawing human subjects. It's as if humans don't translate well because they just aren't as "cute" as animals or the artists draw animals so much they never practice with people. I myself have drawn people before, and will do so if I find a reason to, but animals are just more fun by default, even if they don't have a message.

As for this image, there isn't too much deep meaning to it, which helps it be understood to the casual viewer. Astrologically, the sun is commonly associated with the lion, who is king and at the center of attention. Sheep can either be a symbol of a lion's prey or a subject it is meant to protect, such as Jesus Christ being a lion in some depictions holding a sheep. The moon isn't specifically associated with any animal that I can think of, but its pure white surface helps relate it to the sheep. While wolves may be the closest animal to the moon, a sheep could also work since wolves are more known for preying upon sheep, and they call to the moon as if they "want" it. The lion sun is holding the planet Mercury, the symbol is Mercury's symbol (☿️). The closest planet to the sun, the lion holds it like a teddy bear, scalding the side facing it, and freezing the side that faces away; the cool and warm colors on the planet reflect this. The lion sleeping on a pillow makes the difference between the lion being sung to sleep by the lamb, or him sticking his "blep" tongue out mocking the sheep because he holds Mercury and the sheep doesn't. This is important for context, because the lion is meant to be asleep, isn't mocking anyone, and he loves his talented lamb dearly, whether genuinely, or because he has a covetous nature, having planets revolve around him, the universe inside him, and his bright colors, where the lamb is mute and alone. This image could imply an imbalanced relationship, the sheep just enjoys doing what he does, isn't spoiled like the lion, likes the feeling of being a good enough vocalist that he can soothe a monolith. Maybe the lion doesn't fully appreciate the sheep past how soothing he is to sleep to. As the sheep orbits around the lion, it's a wonder if the lion even knows that he is there, or is small compared to the lion.

Additional themes, the lion's tail is a comet, and his mane is the sun.

Because I value accuracy in my work, I use reference images. Without reference images, you usually get artists who have anatomical issues in their work, or just make stuff up that doesn't add up or is confusing to the viewer. The lion was inspired from an image I found online of a sleeping lion. I drew him by eye physically on paper to give him a unique style. The lamb was simpler, but still required references. The universe within the lion was made within Photoshop by juxtapositioning a few images of space onto the lion: a cluster of stars, a galaxy "nebula" near the knees, and a more general image of space involving galaxies from a greater distance. Still, I don't want to plagiarize, so I made sure to pixelate these images of space with Photoshop's levels feature, thumbed through the layer effects, and then edited the stars, galaxies, and nebulas with the pencil tool, subtracting rough parts and adding parts, so that they still looked like actual stars, but were not 1:1 with the source material.

And that's all I can think of. There of course was much more than I explained, but I would need a timelapse video (which I didn't make) to show it all. What I described is the gist of it.

[Bernie Pokemon Trainer]

You win the internet today.

Kadejo responds:

I wish jjajaja :C but thanks your comment really inspired me to keep making more pixel!

[Pixel Day 2021]

Love how alive this feels. That wind blowing the flag, grasses, happy flying sprites... animated gifs rock. Congrats with that frontpage banner maruki <3

maruki responds:

Thank you for your kind words!

[Mini Santa Sled Sprite]

Wish I could stick this in one of my songs but... you know. If it makes you feel any better, they worked out perfectly in this Bob Ross:

https://i.imgur.com/RpYhAzD.jpg

Cyberdevil responds:

Made my day Quarl! XD Thanks for that. Was half expecting you'd say you wish you could stick this on one of your cats...

[Saruman]

Dank revision of a classic scene. I pulled up original stills from the movie to get an idea for what you did here. You really went nuts on the red table top reflections. The beard pixels are well done too. you put a good spin on things here :)

LadyWitchfox responds:

Thank you. It is an older piece of mine. But still one I am rather proud of. Christopher Lee really was the perfect choice and I made this around the time he had passed away. I need to do more LOTR pixel art in the future. Again. Thank you for your kind words. :D

[Lady alchemist]

That full screen solo is nice. You really got the glow from those light sources all worked out. So I can sleep at night, did you use a gradient layer to mask those tones or is it all pixel by pixel? It's a really subtle but powerful effect. Gives off a nice atmosphere <3 <3

EdiUzuki responds:

Light layers for each light spot matching the hue,using gradient mixed with alpha ... the shadow comes naturaly from alpha when combining all light layers and increasing the contrast in the end ... plus a bunch of ajustments here and there ... ^ ^

... I think i said a bunch of nonsense stuff but, yeah! im not good on explain tecnical content, sry ! XP

Thanks for your apreciation !