Sabtastic's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[I hate clowns]

Frick, clowns are so goddamn creepy... haha

If I had to pick the most legitimately off-putting, uncomfortable, scary halloween submission, this would take the cake for sure. haha I'm having a hard time looking at them even though I'm trying to write this review. lol

One thing that really stands out as awesome is your consistent light source. You did a really good job capturing all those subtle highlights from the left-most clown being on fire. It doesn't seem to affect the background at all, but that's fine - the room could just be too big for the orange glow to reach it. All in all, I'd say this turned out pretty sweet!

Good job creating such a creepy piece, and happy belated halloween!
Keep up the awesome art too! c:

[Zombie Moon (COTM_ZOMBIE)]

Ooo, cool!

Very cute rendition of these two. You're very good at drawing long flowing hair. c:

If I may, I think this image might look a bit better if you moved the girls toward the center a bit more. Compositionally, I feel like they're a bit off-center because of Usagi's hair. Wouldn't hurt to nudge them up and to the left a little so that they're a stronger point of focus. It's not super necessary though. Still looks good!

Which brushes did you use to colour their clothing btw? I like the textured look it gives off.

Keep up the great work! Looking forward to seeing more of these, if you're still planning to do them!

KanbiArt responds:

Thank you very much for the nice feedback. :D

For the coloration of the clothes, I uses the simple watercolor brush from Manga Studio with a very sensitive setting and dotted the colors onto the drawing. So I didn't use anything special, just a weird drawing technique.

[Happy Halloween]

Lovely work on this piece, I can tell you put a lot into it. c:

The characters are all very carefully outlined and coloured -- in fact a lot of your work is super clean and refined. Looks good!

I like that your background doesn't take much attention away from the characters even though you've made it so detailed. With such saturated colours in the tree bark and leaves, it's good that the foreground is a lot more neutral. You also have a good grasp of depth when it comes to multiple character illustration, too. They don't appear to be on the same plane-- they're clearly three dimensional, which a lot of artists struggle with.

My one observation (if I absolutely had to find something to nit-pick) is the mom's hat blending in with the background a bit much. The rest of the characters stick out because they're drawn with brighter colours over-top of less intense backgrounds, but the hues in the mother's hat match the tree bark almost perfectly, so she blends in a bit much. I'm probably not saying what I mean well enough, but an easy fix would be to lighten up the tree-bark with less deep colours or more leaves so that the mother is more defined.

Haha sorry, I'm rambling.
All in all, this is a really nice piece and I hope my review was somewhat useful!

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

Poke-fan, reporting in!

Great job with this evolutionary trio. They turned out great.
I really love your ability to create intense auras and light sources. The eyes are all very piercing, too. In fact, all of your work has this very clean, appealing, almost 3D look to it. c:

All in all, the only thing I'm kind of iffy about is the very faint measurement/bleed lines underlain in the background and edges of the image. Did it have a purpose, or was it something left over from the sketch layer? Either way, it seems a bit irrelevant. but it's not really apparent unless you're really staring at it like I am. :P

Again, great work with this piece! Can't wait to see more Pokemon related stuff from you!

OmniVega responds:

It could be the texture overlay, there were some areas where I had to use a patch tool since they were distracting to the eye. Thanks for the comment ;)

[Witch Satsuki]

Nice work Boco!

You're improving so much it's insane! Your anatomy's lookin' good as well. c:
You've got such a neat, smooth airbrushed style. The line-work is very neat and consistent, too.

Overall, I think the only thing that bugs me a bit is the composition being a tad imbalanced. Seems like there's a lot of open/un-used space on the ride side that could be cropped and moved around a bit, but the image still looks good either way.

Keep it up, and happy belated halloween!

bocodamondo responds:

oh, thanks! it really means alot to me coming from you ^^
yeah you're right, the right really does feel quite empty. but i just couldn't figure out what to fill there ^^!

[Mother Catrina]

Always had a soft spot for the Day of the Dead / La Catrina!

You've handled the subject matter expertly here - she's so majestically eerie, yet cute.
The detail in this piece is very subtle as well - if you don't look closely you can miss a lot.

I'm definitely adding this one to my favourites. c:

Nice work, as usual!

[Using up our minutes]

I'm loving the message behind this piece. Reminds me of some junior high kids I used to teach.

Heh; jokes aside, this is a really great piece!

What kind of brushes did you use to get such a painterly, grainy effect? It's almost like salted watercolour--!

TurkeyOnAStick responds:

Thanks Sab!

For areas like the side of his head, I believe thats from a small speckled brush set to Multiply, just to touch up the image.

Otherwise for drawing the guy I was trying out a standard brush dualled with a speckled one. I wanted to try to have a pored texture but have a crisper controlled edge on the brush stroke.

[Haunted]

This is so cool!
Looks great on a T-shirt too!

I can't get over how well you rendered those glazed, haunting eyes. Dolls are such a naturally creepy subject to draw - perfect topic for Halloween. The horns are really nicely rendered as well!

My one gripe is the detail on her neck--but that's just my personal opinion. To me, the fact that the blood seems to be flowing up towards her head bugs me a bit. Stitches or cracks may have been a little more effective to differentiate the similar bloody smears/makeup you used near her eyes. Not necessary though.

You really have a knack for eerie/dark subjects...! It suits your style! From what I can see, you're a very versatile artist, too! All very quality stuff.

Keep up the lovely work. c:

[THE VISITOR'S REMAINS]

GORGEOUS...!

I'm curious to hear the explanation behind your choice of title here!

The intricacy and neatness of this piece really stands out to me. You've balanced the composition very nicely and I enjoy your subject matter because it's so beautifully macabre.

Great job - this would make an excellent print if you ever chose to sell it!

[Trick or Treat Mockup]

Awesome work here!
I love that you made a summon trophy of something Tom made up in grade 2. hahah

Overall, I can tell you put a lot of effort into this piece. It's so jam-packed with detail and there's a Newgrounds reference everywhere you could possibly look.

If I had to be absolutely nit-picky though, I think Tricky could be made to stand out from the background a bit more with an outline to match Tom's. Just my personal opinion, though.

All in all, I really appreciate all the references you chose to incorporate. The street-fighter/smash bros look of it all works really well with all the Newgrounds material you packed in. c:

Great job!

ScepterDPinoy responds:

Thanks. I agree with the part where Tricky needs to be in the foreground more where Tom Fulp is at.