Grzegorz Rutkowski

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This is a work from Grzegorz Rutkowski
You can find this beautiful work right here:
http://xxxmaniakxxx.cgsociety.org/gallery/865271/
This is what we think of this piece called: The Day We Left Earth
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I think it's quite an interesting piece. At first sight.It has some nice aspects as well I think. The girl has tears in her eyes, while holding what seems to be the last plant on earth in a glass jar, just like Wall-E did (or was that the first?) Anyway, the engines are already on and the rest of the crew is almost on board.

I think that the entire story would be much stronger, if she was just looking back for one more time before she got on the spaceship with her glass jar closely kept to her body, instead of holding it with one hand(!) and even worse, only by the lid. Like she couldn't care less...With all this wind and things flying through the air I would hold on to the bottle with a firm grip, and two arms.
Beside the fact that it seems unwise to hold it like that, I think a woman would hold it like a woman would. That is of course if you would let a woman hold such an important treasure..;)
-M-
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Kory Heinzen

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This is a work from Kory Heinzen
You can find this beautiful work right here: http://korysdiner.homestead.com/
This is what we think of this piece called: Visual Development illustrations for Madagascar.
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First of all: Cool image! It has a nice evening feel to it and there is definetly something going on between those two.
The reason why I chose this picture is because of the difficulty of creating a visual story when it's about a story everybody knows. Is this lion licking the zebra while he's dreaming because I see it or because I know it from the film?

-M-
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I agree, cool image, love the colors and the evening feel, clear story, a lion is licking a zebra, and that scares the bazjizza's out of the zebra. My thought was the lion is licking... , but can this be pushed maybe? the licking is a strong story ingredient, so it should be staged really clearly, I had to try it out, so...


Now I ask myself, what is the best position for the tongue if it's licking the zebra? Does the zebra turn into a popsicle now? Or is there no difference at all?
-D-
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Nice move with the teeth Dirk! I really think this adds some danger to the licking!
-M-
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Wanchana Intrasombat

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This is a work from Wanchana Intrasombat
You can find this beautiful work right here: http://www.victorior.blogspot.com/
This is what we think of this piece called: How to train your creature.
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silhouette
Silhouette can help to make your story read more clearer. A way to approach silhouette is: "If you can put something in silhouette, you should." I think in this piece choosing or designing a better silhouette, will make the story better. It can bring this piece more flight, more speed, more story. Here's an approach to check your silhouette, and make some easy changes from which you can return to your original drawing, and apply your silhouette findings.

before


after


-D-
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Sam Nielson

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This is a work from Sam Nielson, USA.
You can find his beautiful work right here: http://www.artsammich.blogspot.com/
This is what we think of this piece called: Martinez_Cover.
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story
The first thing that comes to my mind when I look at this piece is, What could be the title of the book on this bookcover? Could it be a cookbook for Monsters?
I'm curious to see what my fellow story group members think?

-D-

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*Little Mermaid 3- The revenge of her brother*
-M-
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*Who Stole my other Bat*
-D-
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*The Wizard of Orcs: the Rise of Undead Dorothy*
-R-
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*The Proud Wolf Artist and his Sculptured Monsters*
-J-
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I think that it is hard to say something smart about story when there is absolutely nothing to say about the story. Perhaps there is none. Again, in our opinion there is a story in everything and most importantly, it's the most important ingredient for making an image stronger.

That being said, I think that if you use 'realistic' lighting to add more space and depth, you could push it even further by using some simple rules of perspective, like surface and overlap. If I find time this weekend I'll make a quick sketch.
-M-
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Another thing I notice about this piece is that the monster character is staged in a way to suggest movement, waving his bat with metal points, roaring mouth,squeezing fists, but it is not spaced that way. It is very symmetrical and static. An approach to make your drawings more entertaining is adding angles, spacing and kinesthetics. Try avoiding a rigid straight line-up of the elements.


-D-
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Arthur Fong

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This is a work from Arthur Fong, USA.
You can find his beautiful work right here: http://artisticfong.blogspot.com/
This is what we think of this piece called: Sneakpeek.
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We found this is an excerpt from this picture:

-M-
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I think the story the artist wants to tell in this visual, is that the 2 characters are leaving their home to start a journey through a wonderful landscape (this is a clean and short explanation). I think the story in this visual can be made stronger by changing/adding a few things.

Step 1. They are leaving their house. I think this will be better to read, if you would flip the picture. Going back is going to the left (back to home) and going right (furter into the journey). Like reading a book.
START (left) & FINISH (right). Feels more natural.

Step 2: To increase the feeling that they have a big journey in front of them, it would be better to lead them into the world with that path they are walking on. Now it ends at the bottom on the right, because of al the lines (paths) there. So now they are walking by this wonderful landscape. It would be stronger if they would cross this landscape  into the mountains. So we're helping them to go into that direction

Step 3: I think we can create a better connection between the characters and the landscape. So that we can see/feel that they are going into that direction. First we let the old woman point into the fields. You need this because she is turning her back to it. You want to show that she is not turnig back to, but going away from. To make this even more clear and connect her to the fields, we bring the green hill (behind her) a little bit lower. So her silouette turns more visible into the yellow part and gets more attention.

-J-
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good thinking J! I totally agree!
-M-
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Frankell Baramdyka

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This is a work from Frankell Baramdyka, Chile.
You can find his beautiful work right here: http://frankell.blogspot.com/
This is what we think of this piece called: HouserofUsher.
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story
Is it supposed to be a haunted house on a hill? I guess so, it's got all the elements in it. Crooked trees, a spooky old house, jagged edges, and even hidden evil faces everywhere (clouds, trees). And what about the treehouse? "No Gurlz Allowd" I guess it is written this way to emphasize children made this. But do you really have to write something on the treehouse to make it clear it's a treehouse for boys. The choice of details around the treehouse could've also make it clear without adding literal text on it. Like boyish toys and such.
I just can't make out a clear story out of this picture. Rationally I can deduct that it must be about the contrast between a boymade wobbly treehouse again a spooky haunted house on a hill. But you don't get the feeling of a haunted house versus a children's treehouse. It has to be staged a lot clearer to get the point across.

color
As for color. Derived from the elements it must propose a spooky haunting scene. yet the colors I see are mostly if not all in the warm region of the color circle. It's a haunting mansion scene placed in joyfull summerlight. That doesn't make sense. Traditonally creepy scenes are emphasized by cooler colors to convey the feeling of being cold and alone in such a place. Maybe the artist of this piece wanted to try something different...
ps: The darkest parts are almost pitch black, I don't know, I a brightly lit scene like this there should at least be some color even in the dark parts. Or it could be a style thingy...



composition
The haunted house is situated at a higher level then than the treehouse to emphasize it dooming presence. To make it even more evil the could behind it actually reaches out to the treehouse with a menacing claw.
The intentions are good. But do you really have to make a cloud reach for the enemy to get your point across.
Also the treehouse and the haunted house are practically the same size. A little size difference could also make the scene more interesting. Like this:


The road could be a little more jagged to make it more interesting. The treehouse is put more in the foreground to lead your focus from the treehouse to the looming haunted house in the distance. This works more dynamic and adds depth to the piece.

-R-
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Easy yet effective:

-M-
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I would go for this instead of adding text:

-M-

ABELOroz

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This is a work from Abel Oroz, Spain.
You can find his beautiful work right here: http://abeloroz.blogspot.com/
This is what we think of this piece called: Gamepitch.
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story
I think the main issue with this image is the missing story. And a story can be as much as a sense of time or place or a captured moment in time of a little bug that crawls out of a tree to smell the morning dew or bringing a fresh spring leaf back home.

color
It has some nice color, but it doesn't support the story; It is saturated in places where my eyes don't find some sort of satisfaction or closure although they scream for attention. for example: My eyes are following the green grass to the right to find...nothing really.

composition
Framing is much easier if you know what you want the viewer to see or to look at.

My conclusion: adding a story definetely helps and let the environment (with its atmosphere) be a stage to the story.

This first image shows a black and white version of the original version to check value. A lot of people work from black and white and turn it to color later on. If you feel more comfortable starting your work in color, I think it is as practical to check your artwork for values along the way.

The second image is to show what I mean. The composition is now more staging the event or the story and not leading the eye all over the place (in the original you see very bright spots in places where my eye doesn't want to be and framing can also be done differently now). Now, the path leads the eye towards a small, detailed and high contrast story where my eye finds closure. Adding this story, however small, doesn't make it a totally different image, but a stronger one.
-M-

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