Official Critiques wanted post.

Posted March 1st, 2011 by quakerninja

Do post shirts you want to have fixed.
Don't post shirts that took you no time or thought.

I can't help you if you have no understanding of what I am going to tell you.
Please have a basic understanding of the fundamentals and a willingness to accept criticism and the self motivation to take that information and improve yourself.

This is not a post to do your work for you and they are just opinions so please don't get butt hurt.
Also share and share alike please. No leaches. If you have something of value to add don't clam up we all have things we are really good at and things that we suck at.

Do describe what you are trying to get across and what you think the problem might be in your own words. I can't read your mind.
Don't just flood this place with crap and expect to get better. Your going to have to do all the hard parts on your own. All I can do is point out some technical mistakes and suggest improvements.

3578 Comments

vinbasshred said about 1 year ago

is there something wrong with this? I spent tons of time on it and thought this presentation was pretty cool:
Aljon said about 1 year ago

any advice to make this one better?
jamelbeckham said about 1 year ago

http://mintees.com/tees/352712-cold-chillin

This was an idea I had for a while, "cold chillin" was just an old term that I remembered from back in the day watching fresh prince of bel air and thought it would make a cool license plate. Any feedback would be great. Oh yea, "abstract knowledge" is a clothing line I wanted to work on. The "ak" in the corner is the logo. Like I said any feed back would be dope, thanks.
Infinite Black said about 1 year ago

Graunch said:

hi there! i recently became a member and uploaded my first design yesterday but got rejected, i think i meet all the criteria as far as I can tell and its my original artwork (i could provide my sketch for this if you want) need your help on this one? your suggestions or comments. thanks!

Hmmm...in my opinion, I like this as is. I would have been fine with it, but I'm not a moderator. The thing I would criticize is the woman's face, which is unfortunate because it is the focal point of it. It looks too floaty and has an odd perspective. I really like the background and the imagery though. I would call this one good and not mess with it too much more. Start a new piece and try to make it even better.

Best of luck. Keep working hard.
Infinite Black said about 1 year ago

vinbasshred said:is there something wrong with this? I spent tons of time on it and thought this presentation was pretty cool:

The technique here is undeniable. You know how to use colors and shading. You drew everything very well and it shows. The details are sharp. And yes, you presented it very well too. You can see the entire design, and the close ups allow you to see lots of fun detail, but it's not too distracting.

However, the composition could use help. The main figure is very small considering the total size of the design. There is way to much background and setting. It is also very flat with the perspective straight down the wall and then the table coming straight out. It's not done wrong, but it doesn't look good on the shirt. Try to do something more dynamic, maybe a completely different perspective like from the floor and have a foreshortened hand falling off the table toward the viewer. Just an example of something more dynamic and interesting.

I love this technique and I can't wait to see more from you. Keep it up.
deadoctopi said about 1 year ago

jamelbeckham said:http://mintees.com/tees/352712-cold-chillin

This was an idea I had for a while, "cold chillin" was just an old term that I remembered from back in the day watching fresh prince of bel air and thought it would make a cool license plate. Any feedback would be great. Oh yea, "abstract knowledge" is a clothing line I wanted to work on. The "ak" in the corner is the logo. Like I said any feed back would be dope, thanks.

Think about a few things, perhaps, before trying to rush into your "brand." Looks like you're leaning on photo-manips for that license plate design. Unless I'm mistaken and you digitally painted it in PS or some other program....

But take some honest looks at it, The text/logo, do they appear to "blend" well with the texture of the plate? No, they do not, you can probably agree that they're looking a little bit "added on top of a photo in MS paint" since they're very....sharp, jagged, bit-mappy looking.

Do you draw, by hand? Like pencil/paper and such? I'd suggest going that route and see if you can nail down a design that perhaps digitally, the only thing you need to add is color. Or if you prefer to manipulate photos and other images, and really make them your own thing, a) make sure you have liscense to do so with said photos and b) try to make it look like it's not things just pieced together.

Really really concentrate on getting a cohesive look to the work, before calling it "done." There's something to be had with digital collage, but it's got to look like it's done with purpose.

I'd call those two designs good practice, for sure, and keep hammering at it, maybe bone up on a few design books at a local library, crack out the sketchbook, and just take some time to polish things up.

Oh, Madison WI eh? I was just in town for a friend's wedding. Hot as balls last weekend, eh? Great city though, really enjoy that place when I visit! Keep drawing, keep learning!
jamelbeckham said about 1 year ago

Thanks for the advice for real, and naw the license plate isn't a photo, I made it in ps, and I will definitely try to sketch ideas out more before I throw them into ps, or illustrator. Again I appreciate the feedback, thanks.
deadoctopi said about 1 year ago

jamelbeckham said:Thanks for the advice for real, and naw the license plate isn't a photo, I made it in ps, and I will definitely try to sketch ideas out more before I throw them into ps, or illustrator. Again I appreciate the feedback, thanks.

Yeah no problem. Just keep learning, and keep at it. Things will come together and mesh well in stride.
vinbasshred said about 1 year ago

Infinite Black said:
vinbasshred said:is there something wrong with this? I spent tons of time on it and thought this presentation was pretty cool:

The technique here is undeniable. You know how to use colors and shading. You drew everything very well and it shows. The details are sharp. And yes, you presented it very well too. You can see the entire design, and the close ups allow you to see lots of fun detail, but it's not too distracting.

However, the composition could use help. The main figure is very small considering the total size of the design. There is way to much background and setting. It is also very flat with the perspective straight down the wall and then the table coming straight out. It's not done wrong, but it doesn't look good on the shirt. Try to do something more dynamic, maybe a completely different perspective like from the floor and have a foreshortened hand falling off the table toward the viewer. Just an example of something more dynamic and interesting.

I love this technique and I can't wait to see more from you. Keep it up.

thanks, I appreciate your comments and taking the time to give a critique. I will definitely keep these points in mind and will be uploading more designs soon.
Graunch said about 1 year ago

Infinite Black said:
Graunch said:

hi there! i recently became a member and uploaded my first design yesterday but got rejected, i think i meet all the criteria as far as I can tell and its my original artwork (i could provide my sketch for this if you want) need your help on this one? your suggestions or comments. thanks!

Hmmm...in my opinion, I like this as is. I would have been fine with it, but I'm not a moderator. The thing I would criticize is the woman's face, which is unfortunate because it is the focal point of it. It looks too floaty and has an odd perspective. I really like the background and the imagery though. I would call this one good and not mess with it too much more. Start a new piece and try to make it even better.

Best of luck. Keep working hard.

thank you for the constructive feedback..i'll keep that in mind. i actually HAVE TO get that woman's face right, i feel that it lacks a bit of shadow on it which makes it look floaty. anyway first time to post our artwork here so please take this into consideration.

great advice though, thanks again man!
Dr_Worm said about 1 year ago

Im submitting this to their sticker contest.

Hows it look? any suggestions would be awesome
jonas art said about 1 year ago

jonas art said:

what do you think guys?i hope it gets approved :) *finger crossed*

i don't know this was accepted or not :(
DanielAndHisArt said about 1 year ago

jonas art said:
jonas art said:

what do you think guys?i hope it gets approved :) *finger crossed*

i don't know this was accepted or not :(

as of right now it is still in the "approve" section.
jonas art said about 1 year ago

DanielAndHisArt said:
jonas art said:
jonas art said:

what do you think guys?i hope it gets approved :) *finger crossed*

i don't know this was accepted or not :(

as of right now it is still in the "approve" section.

i'm glad to hear that,thank you so much :)
JEngerbret said about 1 year ago

Would love some input. Thanks!
ChrisNeal said about 1 year ago

JEngerbret said:Would love some input. Thanks!

I'm into this, but I'd clear up the grey areas on the outside of the lines, and broaden the wrist/arm a little.

Not sure how I'm feeling about this, any advise would be sweet.
xic said about 1 year ago

ChrisNeal said:
JEngerbret said:Would love some input. Thanks!

I'm into this, but I'd clear up the grey areas on the outside of the lines, and broaden the wrist/arm a little.

Not sure how I'm feeling about this, any advise would be sweet.

show more skull on the far left side, then again u might have to dissolve the ear and

as for the eye poppin out and the teeth ya should do a bit on anatomy

text could be bigger or maybe just draw up sum concaving text, copy on trace paper and apply to original drawing and scan the sucker in

the inner lining in that right ear is too small, it should be bold as the outline

just my 2 cents ( sketch it out to see if it makes sense)
WXGFX said about 1 year ago

There one was a man who did art,
who tried drawing with all of his heart.
He took a long time,
and then made a rhyme.
But Mintees admins still tore him apart.

Rejected, thoughts please :)
Craig Robson said about 1 year ago

WXGFX said:
There one was a man who did art,
who tried drawing with all of his heart.
He took a long time,
and then made a rhyme.
But Mintees admins still tore him apart.

Rejected, thoughts please :)

this looks super muddly and livetraced, the linework is pretty inconsistent too, it would be cool to see the sketch you did so we can see what the plan was.
WXGFX said about 1 year ago

Craig Robson said:
WXGFX said:
There one was a man who did art,
who tried drawing with all of his heart.
He took a long time,
and then made a rhyme.
But Mintees admins still tore him apart.

Rejected, thoughts please :)

this looks super muddly and livetraced, the linework is pretty inconsistent too, it would be cool to see the sketch you did so we can see what the plan was.

You'll have to excuse the the finished version and the sketch hold certain areas of complete change, (namely its head) it looked way too much like an eagle in the sketch.
I'll be honest (a noob) with you i havent had much run in with Illustator, what exactly is live trace?
Craig Robson said about 1 year ago

WXGFX said:
Craig Robson said:
WXGFX said:
There one was a man who did art,
who tried drawing with all of his heart.
He took a long time,
and then made a rhyme.
But Mintees admins still tore him apart.

Rejected, thoughts please :)

this looks super muddly and livetraced, the linework is pretty inconsistent too, it would be cool to see the sketch you did so we can see what the plan was.

You'll have to excuse the the finished version and the sketch hold certain areas of complete change, (namely its head) it looked way too much like an eagle in the sketch.
I'll be honest (a noob) with you i havent had much run in with Illustator, what exactly is live trace?

live trace is a process in illustrator where you can vectorise an image, its pretty inconsistent and leaves weird areas on artwork where its tried to make up the image.

are you using photshop? with a tablet?
WXGFX said about 1 year ago

live trace is a process in illustrator where you can vectorise an image, its pretty inconsistent and leaves weird areas on artwork where its tried to make up the image.

are you using photshop? with a tablet?

Photoshop CS5 with a Wacom Tablet, pretty much solely using the brush and easer tool..
Craig Robson said about 1 year ago

ok, as a bit of practice heres what you might want to try.

go back to your sketch and open a new layer for some linework, use a brush with a fixed size to outline all your bits on the drawing, use a medium line thickness. do the feathers in the wings, the head, the t-shirt thing its wearing, but dont put any detail into it, just map out the shapes as cleanly as you can.
jamelbeckham said about 1 year ago

http://mintees.com/tees/352962-paint-mpc

Any advice on the design would be great, I know it looks flat so some suggestions would be great to make it stand out more, thanks, I also wanted advice if I should put "sampling is an art" on the pads.
Craig Robson said about 1 year ago

to me it looks too much like if R2-D2 was a palette.

and it doesnt look creative enough, or descriptive enough to communicate the idea in a way that would make me want to wear it on me.
jamelbeckham said about 1 year ago

Craig Robson said:to me it looks too much like if R2-D2 was a palette.

and it doesnt look creative enough, or descriptive enough to communicate the idea in a way that would make me want to wear it on me.

Thanks for the advice, now that I look at it, it does seem like R2-D2, it was suppose to be an mpc. Any advice on how to make it come to life?
WXGFX said about 1 year ago

Craig Robson said:ok, as a bit of practice heres what you might want to try.

go back to your sketch and open a new layer for some linework, use a brush with a fixed size to outline all your bits on the drawing, use a medium line thickness. do the feathers in the wings, the head, the t-shirt thing its wearing, but dont put any detail into it, just map out the shapes as cleanly as you can.

Some time later and;

Like this?

I'll be totally honest with you Craig, i learnt a fair amount about the anatomy of a Ravens wings/tail feathers etc. from doing this but other than that im not totally sure why?....
Also im pretty certain Photobucket makes my images slightly fuzzy.
Somaon said about 1 year ago

let me know what you guys think. just really trying to improve.
Aljon said about 1 year ago

good day everyone.. can i ask ur opinions on how to make this look better? im thinking if maybe u guys could share some few ideas to help me.. critiques are pretty much appreciated.. thank you
jamelbeckham said about 1 year ago

http://mintees.com/tees/353066-teach-the-youth

The shirt is really simple but I hope people would get the message anyways. Some advice would be great thanks.
xic said about 1 year ago

jamelbeckham said:http://mintees.com/tees/353066-teach-the-youth

The shirt is really simple but I hope people would get the message anyways. Some advice would be great thanks.

copy paste ?

where's the creativity?
Stijn Van Belle said about 1 year ago

WXGFX said:
Craig Robson said:ok, as a bit of practice heres what you might want to try.

go back to your sketch and open a new layer for some linework, use a brush with a fixed size to outline all your bits on the drawing, use a medium line thickness. do the feathers in the wings, the head, the t-shirt thing its wearing, but dont put any detail into it, just map out the shapes as cleanly as you can.

Some time later and;

Like this?

I'll be totally honest with you Craig, i learnt a fair amount about the anatomy of a Ravens wings/tail feathers etc. from doing this but other than that im not totally sure why?....
Also im pretty certain Photobucket makes my images slightly fuzzy.

The anatomy looks off, it looks like it's wings are to small for the raven itself.

This is what I would do. And I'm still not sure why you have that half egg thing as his ass. It looks off and doesn't need to be there IMO.
WXGFX said about 1 year ago

The anatomy looks off, it looks like it's wings are to small for the raven itself.

This is what I would do. And I'm still not sure why you have that half egg thing as his ass. It looks off and doesn't need to be there IMO.

Thanks man, ill take a look at making the wings/feathers longer.
With reguards to his ass after looking at it a bit it transpires that Ravens have the weirdest double ass going;

but that was more for my own benefit as i suspect a lot of that area would be black anyway..
jamelbeckham said about 1 year ago

xic said:
jamelbeckham said:http://mintees.com/tees/353066-teach-the-youth

The shirt is really simple but I hope people would get the message anyways. Some advice would be great thanks.

copy paste ?

where's the creativity?

The message bro lol and its not just copy and paste I cut the image out lol. Its more about the meassage thats what I said.is it not colorful enough? Any advice would be cool
JEngerbret said about 1 year ago

I'd love some input on this. Thanks!
Craig Robson said about 1 year ago

Stijn Van Belle said:
WXGFX said:
Craig Robson said:ok, as a bit of practice heres what you might want to try.

go back to your sketch and open a new layer for some linework, use a brush with a fixed size to outline all your bits on the drawing, use a medium line thickness. do the feathers in the wings, the head, the t-shirt thing its wearing, but dont put any detail into it, just map out the shapes as cleanly as you can.

Some time later and;

Like this?

I'll be totally honest with you Craig, i learnt a fair amount about the anatomy of a Ravens wings/tail feathers etc. from doing this but other than that im not totally sure why?....

because it makes you think about what you are doing, it makes you notice where feathers begin and end, how the structure is put together and from there you can start to build up texture in the feathers. start with something clear and then muddy it up, dont just dive into a sketch with no clear plan of how to ink it out.

make your process stick to some rules and you will begin to develop a working plan of your illustrations, this is how you build a style up.
Somaon said about 1 year ago

here's something I worked on this weekend let me know what you guys think.

"Beautiful Mind"
nugget said about 1 year ago

any crits or input, ideas. Thanks in advance!
Love Sick said about 1 year ago

Logo design for a friend any crit is welcome

IDENTACLE said about 1 year ago

My Latest Design was rejected.. Any thoughts guys? don't be afraid to hit me hard

http://mintees.com/tees/353171-seven-left
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