I have read some of the posts and pretty much just tried to stay out of any conflict and am doing so now...

As far as the vest, it's decent for a vest (not my jam ya know). I guess since I like tiki, if I liked vests it would work. I don't see a reason to rule it out as tiki, sure it's not an island thing, but for someone in cold climes... (I live in Rocky Mtns myself- so I'd be the guy on a tiki snowboard...). No reason people can't enjoy tiki influence in their real life style. Hawiian shirts in Minnesota in the winter, no thanks.

Anyway...

I am pretty much consumed by clay now and doing tiki stuff with clay is a dream come true. That has (clay, tiki or not) pretty much sucked me away from what I spent the last 10+ years doing. 3d digital art.
I still do a little here and there, and I was never that great but I understand it pretty well. (I almost had a job in a studio in France that I turned down due to family illness, a friend of mine took the job and they made game of the year this year)

So from that perspective I'll give some input...

It's great that you are trying to work with so many textures and different renders of textures/overlays and whatnot on each. I think what seems lacking to me the most is the composition.
Most are a face and texture, but none are (mind you I haven't looked at every page, right now I looked at this page) 'paintings'. Look at tiki sharks thread and you'll see what I mean. He'll have a tiki, waves, trees, crabs, whatever. He paints a picture that sucks you in.

Yours seems more like render tests, texture tests, but not complete works. So that will leave people wanting more.

Also (constructive criticism) each one does seem incomplete/rushed. If you really want to improve your 3d skills I will recommend polycount.com. It's mainly based on game design, but when it comes to leading edge 3d art, games are where it's at. cgart.com (I think) is another.. more art based than game)

Even just looking at others works on those sites will show you what needs improved.

IMO you probably need to put more into the base shapes. Then use sculpting to really dig in and define detail. learn how to use different map types (specular for shiny metal, bump maps for fine details, illumination for glow).
Then use that knowledge to create an entire scene.

I'd say the main reason you are getting 'this isn't tiki' comments is because tiki is a pretty well defined style. Fairly strictly based on Hawiian (and other polynesian cultures) works. It seems very simple (it is definitely primitive) but it really isn't.
It's very hard to lock yourself into such a strict style. It's very hard to follow the style and not go 'out of bounds' if you are feeling creative.

Every time I draw a tiki on a piece of wood I run out of room for the legs... I just seem to fail at the proportions.

The best example I can think of is Van Tiki's work. He does completely amazing mugs. His first ones seems to be very tiki, his latest ones are very creative and some people have said not tiki. (because he made a robot tiki mug, etc..). He definitely drifted into his own amazing style and nobody can say his mugs aren't the coolest mugs ever. But some HAVE said they aren't tiki. I accept them as tiki because I really can see the influence and I love his work.

So I can see where you are coming from. Your works are tiki influenced but you are trying to use your own voice. The point is if you call it tiki at the most tiki centralized forum on the planet there are those who will point that out. If you say/understand that they are just tiki influenced then the reaction would probably be different.

[ Edited by: Badd Tiki 2013-08-08 22:03 ]