Juno Says: Hi, Shosetsu. :D Before I begin this critique, I would like to clarify some things... for one thing, you're the lucky person who gets to be my first shot at being a REFF (heaven forbid O_O) and because of this lack of experience, I sincerely hope that my suggestions and advice will help you in the future in becoming..hmm.. well adapted? to the many elements that make up art in the first place. :p I also apologize... to put it frankly, I suck at explaining, so I will commence this critique with visual aids for your benefit. Let us begin. ^^ Technically, the sizes of the face, neck, and body go well together. The top of the head, however, is a bit large. I have drawn for you a visual so you can see what I mean. (figure 1.) I'm not nitpicky about little misproportioned things... those are inevitable, it happens all the time no matter how good you are, so other than the head, things are fine. Just so you know what I'm talking about, though, I will point out several small misproportions (figure 2.) Don't worry about them, though. Like I said, it happens to everybody no matter what they do, you can't always draw a perfect picture.^^ Let's move on to coloring. ^^ You have used multiple shades per "area" to show depth and variety, which is very good. It looks like you did this piece on the computer, but maybe my eyes are just failing me O_O However, the coloring can be a bit cleaner. But don't worry about that, either, it comes with practice as well. Cloth. VERY hard subject. It takes years and years to master drawing cloth folds. The dress/robe your character has on has depth because of color, but it lacks the "look" of fabric because it is a solid piece. (See figure 3.) Adding creases and folds would make the body look more rounded and realistic, and also, it would look very impressive because everybody has trouble with cloth every now and then. ^^ Hair: well done. Many people forget that, in reality, hair does not fly all over the place single-strandedly. :D Hair is always in "clumps," no matter how finely you brush it. You did it well for the bangs, but the pony-tail looks like a solid mass, which kinda separates itself from the rest of the hair. This, however, isn't a big deal. ^^ As for the hair line, see figure 4. XD Facial Features: VERY well done. The eyes are lined up and all the features are proportionally aware to eachother. The mouth could move up a little bit, and either they left eye should be a bit bigger, or the right eye a bit smaller. ^^ Background: The figure in the background is very nice. :D I see that you've blurred it to make it look like it's in the back... that's good. ^^ The best of luck with your art explorations. :D Remember.. no matter what you do, you're always, ALWAYS improving. Every line you draw adds to your experience, and acts as a step in becoming a greater artist. It's been an honor for me to critique your piece. My sincerest thanks for your patience with poor, unexperienced me ;_;

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Deranged Laine Says: yay more power to real media !! *ties on bandana* lessee ere....you've got your proportions down pretty good :D manga style proportions vary a lot , im very into the more realistic style of proportions as featured by artists like Sadamoto and Kunihiko ; so , my comments are going to be based on that ^^; what you can do to improve it , is to add more curves to the body ; think of the body as 3d instead of 2d so that your pictures will look more " alive " instead of just being something stuck on the paper ^^this applies to the hair , eyes , face , body etc etc .for example , the hair in this particular has a pretty solid look to it...ye gonna need more definations of lines and depth ( like...shadows and highlights ) to make it look better :D for coloring , try adding more shadows like a slightly darker tone just beneath the head to form the shadow of the neck and shadows under the eyebrows , highlights on the cheekbons and such ^_^ manga style USUALLY tends to be more solid bordered coloring , like cel i guess( but not always ...er..dunno how to say O_o ) keep drawing and ...eat lots of cheese ! :D

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Arion Says: First off, in choosing Magus and Schala I would like to applaud your good taste -- especially Schala (insert loving starry eyed face). I really like the back of her hair and the blendings in it. You should try a similar picture using that same technique with the lighter shades up front and the darker shades in back. I like the contrast between the green in her eyes and the blue hair. Your shading is a little off but you show some real potential.Shading can be kind of hard especially because you have to imagine the light source instead of seeing it. That takes time. I really like the tones on her torso. It's cool how she can have the whole Royalty look without looking arrogant. She looks longing and possibly a little sad here? Is there a symbolism to having Magus in the background or just the emotion created between them? Very befitting in either case. My only real advice aside from the shading is to incorporate more folds in her hair and clothing. Don't worry, folds are quick to pick up. I still like the tones in the back of her hair. On my last note to sound less professional, Chrono Trigger fans rock. Schala is a babe and I want her! You have good taste and atmosphere. I commend you for it! ^_^

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Hanna Says: Nice job overall! I like the look of the picture with Red howling in the foreground and having the moon in the background. OoooOOo~! And the stars are spiffy! Especially how you blended them all the way across the picture, even over RedXIII. Your seem to have a good understanding of how to CG. First off it's ok if you only like using light colors to CG with ^_^ it's your style, and it adds a softer feeling to the picture. I see that because of your style, you compromised and made the background lighter, instead of it being black. Just understand that the way you use color/tones effects the appearance of the picture. In this picture, it seems like you were trying too hard to get a soft appearance. You did use light colors, but you also used large brushes. If you used smaller brushes, you can get more detail in the picture, and can still keep your style. The background you chose has A LOT of detail...I mean look at all those craters in the moon! If you made the picture of Red with more detail, then it would fit in the background better, as if it were one picture. With smaller brushes you can shade more areas in. Sometimes it is hard to CG a small picture, because you cannot fit in allot of detail. That's why you should make the picture VERY large...about 2000 pixels in width when you begin to work with it. I see that you used the blur tool around the edges so your picture would blend better with the background. Here's a tip: Before you CG, clean up your picture. Use the brightness/contrast setting (in Photoshop) to make the lines thinner/darker. This also rids the picture of smudges. To make the lines smooth, use the gaussian blur (in Photoshop again.) You have a lot of great ideas! Just work on making your pictures more detailed ^_^ Good Luck!