Post #407546 by Tiki Trav on Fri, Sep 12, 2008 3:38 PM

After much thought, I would like to offer some criticism..

There is something bugging me about your work and I really had to think to figure out what it was (yes it hurt)...

There appears to be almost 2 styles in use which clash,

The female figures are reasonably finished/polished/semi-realistic and show a degree of experience, thought and a proficiency in the medium used, where the tikis and flowers etc have a naive and slap-happy appearance, almost like the girls were created in Photoshop and the rest in Microsoft Paint.

You can easily tell that a lot of time was taken on the figures to make the color transitions/blends smooth and appealing,
but on the other stuff you can see clear mouse strokes where you have selected a color and simply flicked lines of that color to create an image, no care taken to make realistic-like finishes. The design of most of your tikis could be mistaken for having been created on a flouro-jumbo-etch-a-sketch.

The argument could be made that the "simpler style" parts are done this way to enhance the foreground/predominant area of the composition however with the flowers on the hair and leis this would suggest an awkward confusing layering which I doubt is the case.

I encourage you to visually research the tiki and botany aspects further and sincerely look forward to watching your skills grow, I know you are familiar with Brad Parker's (tikishark) work and you can certainly learn from his consistency in spacial, tonal, and third dimensionality.

Let's see you step it up!
Regards
Tiki Trav