Sijun Forums :: View topic - critique, critique, CRITIQUE. *on knees* I REALLY want to

Cicinimo · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2001 8:01 pm

Theres a whole lot of effort in this site, and its really my first design project. I seriously need some feedback from the many respected artists here (no, thats not sucking up

).

My SITE

Heres a sample of some of my more recent work, all found on my site (plus much, much more). I'm searching for my style here, and again, the only way I can develope a likable style is through feedback.

Critiques on the art are good, but what I really need you to do is just go and check out the site. All you gotta do is give me the url for your site and I'll drop you a link (:.

KiNgStiNg · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2001 8:52 pm

omg you are 15 years old?
besides the point you are very talented but if you are 15 man I really bow down to you,
and about finding your own style are you blind? the style you have going down is very very nice....it will be on a perpetual road of becomming more unique and distinctive if you keep at it but damn
the style is there

roundeye · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2001 8:57 pm

youre 15??? DAMN! i dont feel like i can say anything. i cant even remember that far back. sweet work. im sorry i have no crits, but your stuff is sweet.

exo13 · member Member # Joined: 31 May 2001 Posts: 243

quote

Quote:

I'm searching for my style here, and again, the only way I can develop a likable style is through feedback.

No, the only way you can develop a likable style is by deciding if you like it and if you think that your talents were showcased at their best. They'll always be someone that your artwork won't be appealing to (not myself mind you).

This is awesome. Great attention to detail and they�re pretty ambitious for someone who doesn�t think that they have a likable style. Eventually, you may want to make the line art less opaque and define detail more through your colors and shadows rather than your foundation sketch. The preceding statement does not apply to that dragon of course, that just plain rocks.

GoldenBoy · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2001 9:09 pm

Sorry mate, can't help you much. You have to decide where you want to from here. You have good start. Do you want to go comics style or more painted style? You should think about forms, dimensions and lights. Look around feel around and then paint from your mind. The armored man concept piece is good but it looks like flat. Sword is too 2d and the back leg/arm is flattened. Choose next time better angle, and even you choose not to draw back arm/leg don't draw it flat, give it little depth with colors. What I've seen you have developed much and you're very good for 15 years old. Relax and don't burn yourself out, you'll get better whenever you think what you're drawing.

Cheers..

Shaded · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2001 9:09 pm

The dragon is outstanding! I wish you the best of luck for all your upcoming ventures

Viridae · member Member # Joined: 26 Aug 2000 Posts: 73

Incredible for your age, just incredible. You have alot going there, and that's to say the very least. I need someones shoulder to cry on now *cries*

jasonN · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2001 10:09 pm

Just keep doing what you're doing.... As long as you don't get your hand cut off or die, you're headed for big things

cybertoker2001 · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2001 11:49 pm

Ok, I like your stuff and for a 15 year old it's incredable, I'll bet it's natural right? Your talent? Most people this good at your age are.

(Myself included.**lightly blows on fingernails**)
Just kidding. I'm not that big of an ass!

If you're looking to go with a style, I like all your stuff except the last one. You shouldn't go with that style in my opinion, it's to flat and the hair looks metalic.

Keep up the good work brotha.

Take it easy,
CT2001

Vgta · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 5:48 am

Well shit, you've got a really awesome thing going on, and I think I get when you say that you are trying to find your style.
The first pic reminds me a little bit of Aeon Flux, the armored guy reminds me of something Feng would do (visit Fengs siteif you don't know whom I am talking about.
The others are more cartoony and have a nice loose quality to them, the dragon is exceptional and the last guy reminds me of what Bart Sears does.
Any ways, rambled there for a sec. We are all dictated by our own views and influenced by what we have seen, you obviously have an incredible amount of talent (heck I wish I had that much talent at 15yrs of age, or even now for that matter) my suggestion keep on drawing and see which style comes out the most, it will develop that way, don't force it. At the same time do not pidgeon hole yourself into one single style, diversity in style will more than likely help you out in the future.
Does that make sence?
Great work again and I hope we get to see more of it.

starfish · member Member # Joined: 07 Feb 2000 Posts: 126

Yo Cicinimo!

hehehe, you got lots of talent =D
use it wisely.

best wishes!

*scuttles off to find some yummy food*

Deceiving Angel · junior member Member # Joined: 18 Jul 2001 Posts: 9

yo i know ur friend from the ign boards (ign xbox to be exact) but really great artwork for ur age the only thing i dont like is ur faces there kinda all have big chins (well im sorda anal cuz u know just anime for me and crap) but start to learn anatomy off the top of ur head really helps, i suggest the anatomy books by burne hogarth (or sumthin)

Capt.FlushGarden · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 2:18 pm

I'd like to help you, but you're to young hahahahhahahaha....

dammit I couldn't draw nada when I was 15 =(

Justin Kramer · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 4:17 pm

Your drawing/coloring skills are great and are improving rapidly (love your caricatures), so no crits needed there. As for your site:

1) My first reaction was: *squint*. The text is too hard to read--change the color to something that contrasts against the background more (like white).

2) Link colors also blend into the BG too much, especially when the mouse hovers over them. How about changing the color to something non-blue (light yellow?), to shake up the monochromatic look a bit?

3) The gallery pages look a tad crowded. How about removing the table border around the thumbnails/descriptions, and adding some vertical space between each pic/text?

Overall, the site looks decent and loads fairly quickly. I would recommend adding more contrast/color here and there. Also, more open space might help it, e.g. between the masthead/menu and the body text.

Freddio · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 7:22 pm

Wow cool stuff Cincinimo.. I like your style alot

cool characters and stuff

Also I saw on your site you had that picture of that russion...

thats because he is Russion heh

good luck..

ps have a look at my site also

Cicinimo · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 7:31 pm

Wow, great to get all this feedback. I guess the begging helped

.

First I should say what I mean by 'finding my style'. What I do now is basically a combination of the style elements from the work of a bunch of pro artists. I use different elements for different pics, and aside from my cartoony and attempted photorealism pics, I really don't have a trademark style for my other art. Like someone mentioned, I don't want to pigeonhole myself into doing everything the same. But what I do want is to develope a likable, and, as I failed to mention earlier, a DISTINCTIVE style that carries across medias(I'm trying to develope as a versatile artist, as I've worked and am studying acrylics, watercolor (favorite), oils, digital, etc, etc). Not to say that there's nothing to like about what I'm doing now, but by likable, I mean something thats going to really make head turns, and make people go "wow" (Good or bad, a big focus in my art is coming to something that other's will like).

Thanks for the comments and encouragement, it helps. And especially thanks for the critique. If you can't tell, I take critics VERY seriously. As soon as I'm home from the beach (where I'm at now) I'm gonna be making some big adjustments to the way my site looks (especially in colors).

And replies (:

Lukias: Aaaaaalways about the age. Oh, well, if it causes people to have a higher opinion of me...great. Geez, people seem to like that dragon; a fairly quick pencil sketch. Most of my stuff up there took longer. But hey...the faster the better in the industry, I suppose.

KiNgStiNg: But the thing is, the style I have now, while it has some common distinctiveness, is largely borrowed from other artists. I would guess that this is how we all start...but with time I hope to end up with a style I can purely call my own (and have others recognize it).

roundeye: Speaking of distinctive style... (I love your style). Heh...I can live with no crits from a few of yah...

exo13: When I talk about developing a likable style, I suppose this wasn't intended to be exclusive. By this I mean, its not that I'm completely displeased with what I do now, but I wish to make a style that will turn heads like...say...Isric's. (sorry I'm getting repetative here) And that bit about starting to loose those lines...Alot of that line-heavy color work was just trying to look comic-bookish. Check out some of my cg work on my website and I have some totally line-free realism pics. For example in thispainting, which was actually a coloring contest (not my character), I completely lost the lines. (btw, no need to crit the link I just sent you...twas done a while back)

GoldenBoy: I'd actually like to do well at both line-heavy comic work, AND lineless realistic art. But thats just ambitious me (;. And all the other things you mentioned,

Viridae: Aye...thank you. You can use this shoulder...

jasonN: Hey, I'm doing all I can to stay alive. Thanks for the encouragement; you're quite the blunt one, eh? "dont die"

ybertoker2001: Heh, I suppose I was born with some talent. That, and the fact that lately I've been drawing like a crazyman (and other than lately, I've always drawn) an done everything I can to improve.
I'd have to agree...the last one is the least favorite of the ones I posted here. I was trying to be ink-heavy in style.

Vgta: I donno some of those other guys, but for the sword guy, there was for sure some Feng influince in there. Alot of it... although you'll spot some other influinces in that pic too, I'd bet. By "dont force it", refering to my style, do you mean I shouldn't try and guide my style in the direction I find most appealing, as well has what others seem to think? Because thats what Ive been doing. :-/

starfish: Hahaha. "scuttles off to find some yummy food". *five minutes later* hahahahaha....

Deceiving Angel: Woahhhhh...you know motiak (screen name)? How did you make the connection that I know him, etc, etc?? And about the anatomy book...anatomy is one of my weak spots, and there's partly a reason for that beyond my control. But either way, I've found a remedy for that whole *problem*, so it makes no difference at this point.

Capt.FlushGarden: If you were horrible at 15...you made a whooooole lot of improvement in a really short time. Arent you like 22 or something?

Justin Kramer: Critiques appreciated, noted, and Like I said earlier...I'll be changing things (:. danke.

Hey, sorry for this annoyingly long reply. If you read it all...cheers.

*edit* heeey, freddio. Good eye, good eye. Guiness book of world records. But that dude isnt really russian in the book. I just thought he ended up looking russian because my colors were off on the skin tones. In the book, he's middle-eastern.

[ July 18, 2001: Message edited by: Cicinimo ]

Lunatique · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 7:58 pm

Other than the barcode numbers causing initial confusion, and the stupid banner on the top, I thought it was well designed and easy to navigate. That's about all you need. The rest is just your work speaking for itself.

Freddio · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 8:54 pm

cincimo..

bah heh

Mordecai · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 9:25 pm

15? ....certainly dont talk like any 15 year old ive known in my life....but awesome work non the less.... sweet stuff!!

JeffTheKing · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 9:44 pm

good stuff

[ July 18, 2001: Message edited by: JeffTheKing ]

JiMSouL · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 10:30 pm

Personally I wouldnt be worried about improving....at 15 to have that absolute volume of skill and diversity is simply incomprehensible...literally every time i think about how someone could advance to that level at that age i draw a blank. Its a cliche but keep up the good work =)

I have to blame you for me never being able to say "Damnit! i sketch like a 15 year old!" lol.....now im thinking..."Damnit! i sketch like a 6 year old!"

If you crack out some art from when you were 6 and its still so damned good im going to cry

galen · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 11:42 pm

why is your signature so radically different in every image? just curious....

Cicinimo · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 10:41 am

Lunatique: That add banner is something that can't be avoided :-/

Mordecai: Haha, and how are fifteen year olds supposed to talk?

JeffTheKing: Thanks!

JiMSouL: No, I'm totally worried about improving. I havn't gotten to this point without working like crazy to intentionally improve. It has been a conscious effort to improve over the last half year. Before that, I just drew because it was fun, and I was pretty good at it. Now I'm trying to get to the point where I can freelance while still in high school. When I was six, my art was above average, but pretty lousy. I've made my biggest improvements in the past year. I look at stuff before that and want to cry.

galen: Hm? My signature really isnt all that different. Smaller/larger/different angles, but not really different. If it is, I havn't a clue why.

Kallen · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 3:29 pm

Your work is very well done! You will have a promising carreer in Art. I think that you will find as time goes on that your style will be constantly changing in subtle ways and that is not a bad thing. Your work will stay recognizable I believe. My personal favorite is the Dragon. That is very well rendered but I prefer the realizm. You have great talent for that if your Dragon is any indication. Actually since publishers and such that will pay you for your work want to see that you are versitile. I would advice you to work in all genre and develope a style in each with a look that is your own.
I hope I am explaining that right...

On your personal site. It looks good but you need to change your font color to one that has more contrast. The most important thing to have in creating a website is to make it easily readible...fairly fast to load... and easy to get around in. Surfers don't wait long and if they find anything that takes work...they surf on. Make that Font brighter.

--------------------

Kay Allen - Artist of RealmsQuest

Probotech · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 4:01 pm

You're 15!?!?!?!?

Damn...then i might as well give this art thing up now...Im 17 and im not even half as good as you...(ok i know that's not how it works but still).

Priceless stuff you got!

edible snowman · member Member # Joined: 12 Sep 2000 Posts: 998

maybe something to try would be getting a new account and not tell people how old you are. you're really good, but then they would be less inclined to say "wow, you're 15?! i guess i have nothing to say then." just a thought.

Cicinimo · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 5:47 pm

Snowman, I think I'll try that. I wasn't even advertising my age, but since the first guy to respond brought it up...everyone wants to pick up and mention the fact. Not that I mind it, but it can grow irritating when I want some honest critique. I think I'll do that for my next post. Watch me get...two replies.

marc_taro · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 6:02 pm

Great work - everyone is pretty much right on - very good for your age.

I have some crits if you want them -

1 - Your inking is a bit hard edged, a bit heavy handed. Take a look as feathering your blacks, or using a lighter line - not everything needs the sharp edges.

2 - Now I'm going to get flamed for this, but I'd say stay away from the cartooning - it's too easy to get sucked into the stylization, and not develop real skills. Cartooning is easy, really great cartooning is hard and you need the real drawing skills first.

3- your figures dont suck, but you would profit from some more figure drawing. Take a drop in class if you have them in your area and do lots of figure drawing.

and hey - don't quit, I'm 33 and still looking for a style - it takes time.

marc_taro
AD/NWN/Bioware

jr · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 7:03 pm

um, i know a 15 year old that kicks alot of ass. here's her site,,, be prepared to be blown away.angel

Blitz · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 8:28 pm

15....*blinks*,,,,15!!!

Tell me you made that site 10 years ago and just updaited new pics to it.

MY GOD...15!

Man oh man...my confidents is running away as fast as a Small teen tward a Backstreet boy.
15...GEEZ...I could only dream of beeing that good at 15...and Im still dreaming at 21 right now. That dragon is AMAZING...puts to shame anything I do. GEEZ..

No no...Please..Critique some of my work for me. Tell me what you think...

Im looking and not realy finding anything to critique on. So when you got into highschool and took art class did they offer you the teaching position insted?

Im gana keep my eye out for you man. By the time your 21...Youll be better than anyone.

Keep it up, and keep drinking what ever it is your drinking...cuz its working.

Blitz