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Hey everyone!
This is my first submission to Caves of Narshe, it's a simple (maybe boring *lol*) portrait of Terra! I drew it 1 1/2 years ago and it was my first image I did in Photoshop. But no matter how old it is, it's still one of my fav's!

Image : Portrait of Terra

Thumbnail: (I don't know how to link from a thumbnail to an url here, so sorry ^^;;)


Your preferred name: blackfauve
Your email address: [email protected]
Your URL if you have a site: http://www.nathalietull.com
Media Used: Photoshop 5.5
File Size of the Large Image: 527x720 ; 87,5 KB

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ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

°o( one of these days )o°

Very nice stuff. Im honing my computer art skills to perfection as we speak--well, type. Very good job, though. I see nothing wrong with it.

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"The Hero I am not. I can do naught."

Respect Frog...

Hey, thats damn good. I like the eyes, they are quit realistic. Everything is very well done.

The only prob I see is that her neck looks too thick.

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-- You're Gonna Carry That Weight --

I REALLY liked this drawing. I liked it so much, it warrants a critque.

Okay, I'm going to do an actual critique, so here it goes.....


The first impression given to me by viewing it for the intial 30 seconds was that it is a very pleasant well structured drawing. It's straightforward: physically, the subject (Terra) is looking right at you, and the style of the drawing is that there are just a few distrations (we'll get to that later). Her expression is somewhat serene but slightly disturbed.

The drawing is very symmetrical and almost executed perfectly. As stated before, Terra is looking straight at the viewer, so it's naturally going to be symmetrical. There is a bit of dynamics to her hair, but not so much to detract from the symmetry of the overall figure bust of Terra. The earings work well, because it help re-enforce the symmetry to make it boldly stated. The necklace falls slightly lower by about a half an inch on her left shoulder (visually our right) but that is counter balanced by the more active hair tresses on the left. It's very sucessful in doing that to the point where even after looking at the picture for over a minute that I didn't notice it. My main gripe with the drawing is her hair ornament. It dracts from the overall symmetry. The bejeweled piece attracts undue attention from the shiny orbs inset. The jewels in it are asymmetrical in both size and position. That's not to say that you had to line up all the jewels in a row by size (ie smallest at the ends getting progressively larger towards the middle). This can also be achieved by making the smallest gem (the far right yellow one) more intense in colour and shinier. Conversely, make the large purple gem on the left less colour intense and dull it down. This way, you can still have an asymmterical piece 'look' symmetrical.

You rendered her form (face and bust) very well. I'd have to disagree with a previous comment about her neck being too thick. The impression of her neck being 'too thick' comes from the lack of definition to surface anatomy. This drawing is almost a minimalist contour drawing, only putting slight indications of where parts come together. If the drawing from the neck down had been highly defined, it wouldn't have fit with the face of Terra (which is minimally defined with line). Her proportions on her face are good, save her eyes. They're set apart a bit farther than one would expect (about 3/16 of an inch) but you may have just used that as a stylisitic aproach, rather than an artist's error. Her lips are small, but my impression of them is that they are pursed (giving her that rather reserved look). The eyes themselves are wonderful. They certainy aren't plagued by anime-itis (big eyes). Terra's eye I find draw you into her gaze.

The overall style of the drawing reminds of Art Noveau (style popularised in the late 19th century in Europe). Her hair is too over angular to be called natural, but it's quite naturalistic. The sweeping curves give her hair a rhythmic feeling gradually falling to softness at her shoulders. The way you colourised the hair (strands being different colours) again, goes back to the highly patternised feeling of Art Noveau as are the simplistic features of her face. You describe the drawing in a bright but soft light, almost to the point where there no shadow. I like how your put in only colours which have the complement accompanying it (red to green, purple to yellow). Granted, the green and red was a given .

As I stated, a very strong piece of art. I'd venture and guess that this particular piece took you about 6hrs altogether, if you did it totally in Photoshop. You pay attention to details, and it never gives the impression of a 'rough' drawing in any way. Verdict:

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kame, tortue, tortuga, schildkröte, tartaruga, turtle

"Arthur Dent?"
"Yes."
"Arthur Philip Dent?"
"Yes."
"You're a total knee biter."

Yowzers Uncle Kame! (or.. Aunt that is) Now that's a critique.

I too like the piece, but I thought I was going to like it even more until I enlarged it. I was thinking it was extra space between the eyes like Kame mentioned. Now that I think about it, I think I picture Terra as being skinny, so maybe I'm biased against a more moderate build on her... oh well, whatever, the end result is it's a damn cool portrait.

By the way,

Quote

the drawing reminds of Art Noveau

Alphonse Mucha rocks!

This post has been edited by Ejoty on 26th January 2004 03:34

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Get me off this Disciplinary Committee so I can play any FF except for FF8!!!

ZZzz....Zzzz....(Someone whacks Rujuken in the head with a fan)

Huh...wha???

Oh, Kame's done with her critique, ok.
Heh heh (innappropriate)

Man, Kame that's something else. I have no doubt you are an art student. And a fine one at that.

Seriously though I still think her neck is just a smig to thick. Obviously this is more of a realistic pic so the neck would be thicker than in a more anime-ish style. But typically Terra is portraid as a rather slender girl. I'm not saying blackfauve has to go with the mainstream but...well...whatever...what do I know, ne?

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-- You're Gonna Carry That Weight --

As it is sort of realistic, I think the neck is fine.


This is a truly beautiful peice of artwork, and I really hope to see more of your artwork, be it in Site Submissions or in Your Creations.

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..DDR..Maine..
..Hikaroo-chan no Deviantart..

<Tiddles> And I love how people suggest "Why not call it my great name?????" when their name is clearly the worst thing ever.
<Tiddles> "How about ; Mozilla Xplorer & Mozilla Xpress."
<Tiddles> How about you die in a fire?

Thanks so much everyone for your critics and comments, they were really helpful and I'm so glad you liked my pic!

@Kame: That was the best critic I ever received, really! When I ask people to comment my pictures I always receive answers like: "nice", "good job" etc... I appreciate those comments too, no doubt, but I rarely get any really *helpful* comments like yours I'm already looking forward to get a lot more critics from you when I'll submit my other pics

About the more realistic look: I don't really like the "big eyes small mouth" (although in this pic the mouth is small too *lol*) anime-cliché, I don't say that there are no really great works in this style, but in my eyes, I can express the feelings of a person better when I do them in a more "realistic" way!

And yes, I'm a big Fan of Mucha's work, I just love every single picture he did

PS: sorry for my bad english

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ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

°o( one of these days )o°

Quote (Rujuken @ 26th January 2004 01:07)

Man, Kame that's something else. I have no doubt you are an art student. And a fine one at that.

I WAS an art student. I'm a graduate with a degree in art.

Blackfauve: That was probably the biggest critique I've ever given online to a piece of art. I've given them plenty of times, and even written some that were longer, but that was either professionally or for student peer critiques. I've never been compelled to write a critique as I had with yours. It's just that writing a critique takes so long and I have to really analyze a picture. Asking me for a critique isn't something I take lightly.

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kame, tortue, tortuga, schildkröte, tartaruga, turtle

"Arthur Dent?"
"Yes."
"Arthur Philip Dent?"
"Yes."
"You're a total knee biter."

Blackfauve that is a really nice picture. The skin colors look so smooth, and the pendant is angled perfectly. It looks so cool. I think there should be a little more around the lips though. It looks too much like a copy & paste job. The hair is wild looking. I love it!

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

This is excellent. I love the hair's different shades of green and such. Awesomeness!

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Wow. 1,000 posts.

I miss you all now that I'm in boarding school! ;_;