{Artistic Failures of Elysia}

REMEMBER THAT TIME I SAID I’D DO THIS TOMORROW, AND THEN PROCEEDED TO NOT DO IT FOR TWO MONTHS

Good times…

I suck


Stuff: Colorless art… it’s complicated. You did awesomely. So many shades of grey. I have a hard time making art pop without 506 different colors, and you’ve done it with only two. Much talent. So wow.

Giratina looks badass. This Pokemon is very intricate, and difficult to draw: well done, seriously. My mind is blown at how three-dimensional you made this look, especially in its face. I also love the little color accents of red and blue – they add a subtle bit of richness and they deliver that message of “good vs. evil” as well.

The blending is superb; Giratina looks like he made of metal. And in contrast, you have done fine detailing in his opponent: such as her hair strands and the sheen emanating from her armor. I love how much attention you put into every part of this, even the sky has this galactic oblivion feel to it.

More Stuff: I have 2 critiques. The first is lighting. It is so so good, however, it’s a tiny bit off. I’m assuming your lightsource is the moon, located off-screen, but it’s kind of confusing to me where it is located. Giratina’s face says it’s upper-right, its body says the moon is towards me (the viewer), and its tendrils say it’s directly overhead. This is an enormous nitpick, though, because it really does look amazing regardless.

Second-thing – distance. Those floor tiles should be getting smaller as they head into the background, not bigger. They kind of distract me because of this. However, maybe you were going for some kind of warped reality feel, in which case, ignore this.

Stuff About Stuff: I’m really having a hard time coming up with things to say about this, so I’m not going to blabber on about nothing. This piece is really amazing, and I love it. There is an absurd amount of shading and detail, and a great story. You’ve got legit pen skills and an artistic eye. Please become a Curator..

This deserves Complex Rank and $25k. I score it a 65. Enjoy.

Sorry you had this long of a wait for such a poopy curation, I wanted to make sure you got your money before I died suddenly.

 

yes yes look who came crawling back

briefly went through a phase where I thought that drawing crowds and mirrors would be fun, and I wanted to test that with that whole "your art should be telling a story". This turned out to be a terrible idea. I also wanted to make terrible puns on reflections, get into sketching emotions, draw small people in enormous suits of armor because metaphors and stuff, and generally mess around with focus. Also turned out to be a terrible idea.

"Nemo, times are different now. You will have to fight. Take this."

Nemo held the sword in her hands gingerly, the weight of the cool metal even more than she'd expected. "This is to keep me safe?"

Retia shook her head. "No, little one. Your armor will protect you. It will reflect who you are. But a sword... a sword is a call to challenge. It cannot protect anyone. It can only bring death."

Nemo looked at her mother questioningly, but she received no more answers as Retia enveloped her daughter in her arms, crushing the sword against the girl's frail chest.


the blade of kings

Spoiler

attempted capture: honedge, [december theme: challenge*]

proof

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*it's not obvious. i realized that. that's what I get for trying to draw too high above my level abstract shit. I wanted to capture that feeling you get when you're exhausted and facing impossible odds, and yet you get up and keep fighting anyway.

 

Claimed \o/

@Elysia; Like I DMd you on Discord, rl stuff swamping me right now and I dont want to keep you waiting any longer, so Im releasing my claim ;-; Apologies.

 

Hoi! I like swords and ghosts, especially ghost swords! Claim!

 

Hi Elysia, sorry for the wait! I see it was posted in december. Yeah, things happen! Honedge has been upgraded to demanding after you posted so you will be still graded at the complex ranking! Lucky duck!

Where to begin? You honedge drawing is definitely daring, to say the least. You have a tight composition with a mighty human knight holding her ghost blade in the rain. It is a pretty cool concept, something I would probably see in a King Arthur movie, which is definitely fun and fantasy filled! Now, obviously, "fun" isn't the correct word to describe your work because the rain, the dull color scheme, and the general seriousness dampens any light and cheery mood.

Technique:

Your work is certainly a digital drawing, which by any means can be tedious, but it is also clean and confident. I see due to the level of detail and polish as evidenced by the tiny details such as the rain bouncing off our protagonist's armor, reflected light in the eyes, and the hair. Very well done. However, I do believe the detailing in the shoulder armor was done a little too fast or sloppily as some of the darker gray lines curve inward too soon and the people reflected in its armor could be clarified or burred out a little more. Perhaps you could add a bit more scratches, dents, you know to add to mood of the work. I'd imagine this valiant knight has been through many battles and would love to see a record of it on her armor! It would be sooo sweet even if you put drips of rain running down her armor.

The rendering of the honedge is a bit odd. You've made it out to be a normal blade. I'm not sure if the cooper/gold rendering of the honedge matches the metallic gold too well. You have the color correct, but shading with metallic or shiny objects usually requires hard, geometric shapes that color the contours of the object, with a few areas that reflect pure, white light (or whatever color light is lighting the space). Sort of like this image I found online:



There are sections that reflect light completely next to areas that are almost black. The shading is done in discrete shapes, however. For now, you rendered your drawing in a rather awkward lighting condition: rain. Often with the rain it can lead to dramatic lighting effects, but as far as drawing goes, it scatters the light then it becomes difficult to find where there is any sort of strong value differences. However, even in this lighting condition, you still can find shadows, but it appeared that you had the most trouble figuring out where they were. If you submitted this when Honedge was demanding, I would especially rail on you, but for now what you have is good.

Your Human and Sword:

I think you generally handled the human form well in this piece. I think simplifying the space for his cloak was a little lazy, but it works for complex. I'm glad that the face of your protagonist looks believable and your arms are okay considering that she is wearing a large cloak and fat arm guards. They are a bit bulky. It wouldn't need so many segmented plates because the parts that need to move really are around the elbows and wrists, but yeah it is a cool fantasy piece. Her left hand is a bit awkwardly drawn. The fingers are fine, but let me show you an example:


View: http://imgur.com/a/ibIrZ


His fingers should wrap around the sword which means that the sword is on the level as the joint of wrist and arm while the fingers push forward out, closer to the viewer. The palm is the part of the hand that bridges the gap. It is basically a trapezoid with the long, straight side pointing out:


View: http://imgur.com/a/FCFFp


The principle problem I see is that you stretched out the top part of the thumb and extended it too far like a normal finger. I get the Honedge is supposed to be a thin blade, but the thumb ends, when curled around with the other fingers rarely goes past the first bone of the other fingers. Herthumb would be there, unless his thumb is somehow trapped behind the sword, but you would also see that. The way you drawn your gal would be that thumb is on the top and you clearly have not drawn a fifth finger. Hands are complicated, I get it, but it is one of those things that really bother people when something like that is off. Since you drawn the remainder of her face more realistically I was expecting her to have a thumb!

Your Honedge is drawn like a normal sword, there isn't much to go off of because it is a very simple pokemon in form. I see you elongated and thinned his hilt to fit both of your protagonist's hands, which is okay. I see you added in the detailing on the hilt to signifiy that it has something, probably fabric wrapped around honedge. I think you could go with a more gauze-y color, because I can't tell if you included that as gold styling or just forgot to change that. It is a minor thing but worth noting. The lapis lazuli eye could use some work. I'm glad you included the bit of white, reflected light, but otherwise, the light blue outline is a bit confusing.

Compostion and Background

This is a daring composition. You've cut both subjects out of the page for an intense and dramatic close-up! The Impressionists, especially Degas, broke ground in painting where they just straight up cut their subjects off like a photograph. For instance, in this fun painting:



the principal horse that leads you into the work has its head off the canvas! This allows the viewer to enter and leave a tight composition without it feeling too compressed.

If you need to do it, do! Especially if it works! You're running the risk of having too much be cut off, but I think you included enough of Honedge to have it count! Having your character off center also helps your work add to the drama. I saw your last Giratina drawing and your centered composition worked because it was mostly symmetrical. However, it would not have worked so well in this drawing.

However, because you chose to do it a close up. you run the risk of needed to fill most of the picture plane with material. You filled roughly 3/4 of the picture with your subject with is very tight, almost too tight. The only bit of reprieve we get is the bit of blank sky decorated with some rose petals floating in the wind. (I think they would be shunted to the ground due to the rain, but it doesn't matter; it looks cool!) Without that empty space we really wouldn't be able to rest the eyes.

Conclusion:
Overall I think you have done a successful work! The hands looked like were the most difficult part of the painting and had you submitted this when after Honedge got upgraded to Demanding, I would clearly ask you change it. However, your work is very fun, dramatic, but it still has a lot of minor issues. However, this does satify the requirements for a complex drawing and I want you to come back to the art section with more work (give yourself a break and pat yourself on the back!) Honedge captured! 65/65!

As for the monthly theme, the required bits are:

• Ice-types
• Family/Sharing/Togetherness
• KwanHanuMas/Festivities/Holiday celebration
• Snow
• Memories
• Challenge

This certainly works for Memories and Challenge so I'll give you the 5k extra! (Unless it doesn't apply, correct @WinterVines?)

 

{stronger than you}

messing around with perspectives~~

Spoiler

proof:

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attempted capture: sandile (medium) + february theme bonus (red/pink)

this is more detail than anyone will ever want to know about my thought processes, but Stronger Than You (from Steven Universe) is a super catchy song that basically epitomizes the most triumphant and kickass form of love between two people, ever, period. It also has this cool shot:

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which is where I got the idea for this type of framing, but I'm edgy and like asymmetrical composition, and also haha Jasper is orange and so is talonflame. SO KINDA LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS TOO, but I'm not gonna fight for that because of how many steps it took to get there.

 

Claim! I think you're up next!

 

Ok! Sandile is a medium mon, so this should be fun. Sandile is definitely an interesting pokemon and let's see if you capture it!

Overalls/First Impression:

Reflections in the sunglasses coupled with interesting perspectives makes it certainly more interesting than your run-of-the-mill, subject-smack-dab-in-the-the-center composition. Definitely taking a nontraditional perspective always shakes up the scene. You definitely took a risk and it at least appears on the surface to be a risk worth taking! I like how the picture leads us to the reflection of Wingull in Krookodile's sunglasses. Normally Krookodile lives in the desert, but in this case, with the wingull and the sand below him reminds me that he is on a beach. Kind of makes me miss summer a little. How one arranges objects in a drawing tells can really help tell a story as well as being "edgy". I'm glad you're experimenting with rather advanced topics like how to arrange the subjects on the page. Keep at it!

Pokemon Likeness:

Now since you have chosen an angle that does look like a selfie and just happened to look good, there is an incredible amount of foreshortening--the idea that you have to exaggerate the proportions of your subject as it looks in the space and in the perspective you drew it in. You chose it to be top-down look which means you would accurately see his top of the head outline oh his fat belly and perhaps his tail. You were right in the sense that the exaggerated scale of the head because it is the closest thing to the viewer. Its shoulders are much thinner than his head, so that also works well with your drawing. Foreshortening at odd angles can be rather difficult. I do think you could have worked on his arm a little more, they're reading as a little flatter than, say, the rest of his body. His hands do pop out very nicely.

Technique:

Due to Sandile being at a lower rank the level of rendering, while yes is less than what we expect of a Honedge, but you have enough shading in it to give it life. It is a bit minimal and looks more rushed than anything. I think if would ever wanted to go back into this drawing you definitely work on the shading and bringing out his for a little more. I think your piece would definitely benefit from greater contrasts in light and dark values on Krookodile. Some areas in particular look a but rushed: his teeth, his arms, and his tail). Krook's head is very nicely detailed and it is clear that you worked from several sources to get it right. His teeth really are kinda uneven white triangles, and I think you could have worked on his arms a little more.

His tail for instance, could have appreciated a bit more work. Their contours look a bit rushed and come off a little flat. Drawing stripy things like his tail can get annoying because stripes follow the shape of the object and if you keep a stripy tail flat (no matter how well you render the shading) will always appear to be a little flat.

The bright pink sunglasses could also use a bit of tidying up. There are a few white spots and the frames are drawn much looser than the beautiful reflection of the wingull flying off in the distance. There you left your wingull painterly and brushy which is nice, but I think that neon bright blue could have been toned down slightly. Let me show you an example of some non-photoshopped reflections:



The image has the woman looking at a city. While this is a rather generic image, look at how the sunglasses reflect the light. The sky is visible and pretty much everything else is black mostly due to the color of the black surface of the glasses. In your drawing the sky is glowing around Wingull like he is a holy Wingull or something. It looks a little silly. I get that you're trying to show that the passing Wingull is probably going to be Krook's prey, but I do think you could have pulled off a better transition with just a little more work.

Despite my gripes I do believe that the neon pink is a nice detail. Normally I like to caution people from using bright neon colors because they ten to be an eye magnet and people don't want to stop looking at whatever isn't that bright neon color. However, I do see that you have used it intelligently to grab our attention to the sunglasses and his claws that are glowing in pink plasma/energy. You used it just enough to compliment your drawing, and kept it from being overbearingly dominant.

I do like that you included a cast shadow which is nice. You have a simple light source from above, which I'm guessing you be the sun. I'd definitely like to see more variety in the sand but otherwise it does sit the farthest away from us, which is the most important.

Conclusion:

Often with selfie-poses they can get a little claustrophobic... people like seeing some sort of sky. I definitely appreciate that you are experimenting in ways to arrange your subjects. I think Krookodile is drawn fairly accurately and to a reasonable degree of rendering. It comes off as a little rushed as there are lines that could use tidying up, like in his sunglasses and teeth, and parts of his body that can be further worked on, e.g. his tail, but otherwise this definitely works for a Sandile! 50/45 Sandile is caught!

EDIT: One of the requirements for the February monthly theme is red/pink so this qualifies. Have your extra cash!

 

so i decided to try my hand at fake watercolors.
it went about as well as to be expected
this is a pinky promise that I will have a non-closeup piece of artwork in the near future ._.

Spoiler

attempted capture: goldeen (simple)

 

my neighbor charjabus

Spoiler

inspired by some of the, uh, heartier conversations in chat today. totoro's level of do not want is my spirit animal right now

Spoiler

this was fun! I've been on a Miyazaki kick, and this was a really funny concept for me. Tried to go for a more minimalist type of color/shading than my typical overworked stuff, and tried to focus on how anime uses different sizes of lines for different things. This is a reference to My Neighbor Totoro, and I don't claim their character designs/poses at all pls

attempted capture: grubbin (simple) + march theme (giant green schoolbus)

 

Claimed!

 

Sorry for the wait!

Goldeen is a simple 'mon, so let's get straight into this capture!

First of all, I love the attempt at a new style. It's always nice to see people pushing their boundaries, and from looking at your previous works, I definitely see how this steps outside of your comfort zone! We have a very beautiful Goldeen, its body and rippling fins filling most of the frame.

Let's go over anatomy. You've taken a more veiled approach to its fins, which you've applied to all of them. This is fine, especially for the elegant, beautiful look that you're going for. You've given the Goldeen much wider eyes than it usually has, which adds an almost eerie, human look to it that I'm not sure you were aiming for. Eyes, especially in a close-up, are very expressive, so it's important to be careful on what you're expressing there. Proportionally, its horn is a bit fatter than it's supposed to be and it's missing lips. At first, I thought you'd added an extra fin, but I think the one on the far left is supposed to be the other side's fin, at a second glance? This is an issue with perspective--it should be much further back along its body since we're seeing the Goldeen from a profile view. Layering it behind the other semi-transparent fin would also help show that it's the one from the other side.

Your colors are lovely. The green, while different from a regular Goldeen eye color, is a nice, fresh touch. Your blues are lovely and definitely speak water. I really like the beautiful salmon colors that you've used for its markings--they contrast really nicely with the cool areas arond it, and I like the small bits of subtle pink shading on its undersides.

Technique-wise, I feel as if you've done really well for trying something new. The textures on the markings look really great for the medium you were trying to imitate. Your brush choices on the fins also work well. The choice of putting different gradations of that cerulean in the background was nice. It adds some interest to the swathe of blue while also letting us appreciate the texture that you're going for. I think the only thing stylistically that I would have suggested is applying this style somewhat to the body, too. If we look at images of watercolor fish, such as this one and this one, they usually do a very thin darker outline on the more solid-edged shape to both contrast it more from the background and to still match the style. When dealing with digital mediums working to imitate traditional ones, it's the little details that convince!

Overall, for trying out a new medium, I think this worked really well. In the future and when passing more difficult works, I'd pay a little more attention to anatomy and proportion, as well as defining a bit more of a light source. However, for a Simple, this is plenty. 35/35, Goldeen captured! ​

 

This is hella precious and hella hilarious. Claim.

 

Ghili is love, Ghibli is life.

I just want to compliment you on this concept. It is unique and really funny. It's difficult to curate this without chuckling half the time. Totoro's expression is priceless. Moving forward, going to keep in mind that this is another Simple work, so this will likely be another simple curation!

You've removed the iconic pair from their usual scene--you've taken them from the woods and into a hilly? or perhaps bushy area with a clear sky behind them. This works pretty well to the comical aspect of the scene, in my opinion. As someone who knows the reference, seeing them out of their environment holding umbrellas on a sunny day works great to add more comedy to the scene.

Your Pokemon (and other!) anatomies seem pretty spot on. Our furry friend is just the right amount of fluffy, and you've captured the figure of our less furry human friend pretty well, also. Though I know you used the scene as reference, you still referenced it well--their umbrellas curve nicely in space and feel very three-dimensional. I think one of my only critiques is on a bit of your perspective on the Charjabug. It feels almost like it's tilted toward us due to the large amount of its top we're able to see, as well as how high up its more distant front spike is above the other. This gives the impression that it's leaning toward us. You were going for bus-sized, so in reality, we shouldn't be able to see much of the top, and we should barely be able to see the other spike peeking out from behind the other.

You use very simple shading. I think the only instance of shading that I question is the underside of the red umbrella--you've made it lighter, which at first seemed like a shift in the lighting, but the underside of the blue umbrella is darker. You've also used broad shading beneath the Charjabus, but none beneath the other two figures. In higher works, I'd nitpick on more things--your lack of shading on its spikes being another one, but since this is also still a Simple, I won't go into too much depth, here.

The shading you did is sectional and consistent. The bush in the background has a subtle texture that helps make it seem like less of a green blob, though some more hints of form on that would be nice, as I couldn't tell if it was a hill or a bush at first. Your linework would also need improving in a higher capture. There are also spots where your color spills over, such as on the front spikes.

This definitely qualifies for the monthly theme of March, Green Pokemon, as Grubbin is indeed a very, very green Pokemon. Good job!

The creativity of your concept really helped you here--so far, I've seen some cute things, some lonely things, some sad things, and some mix of other stuff inbetween, but this is one of the few humor attempts in the art section that I've seen. A mix of your anatomical correctness, concept, and grasp on form make me happy to give you a 35/35, Grubbin captured! This also fulfills the March requirement of green Pokemon, so please feel free to claim an additional 2k. Happy Charjabussing!​

 

{it was at that moment that flygon realized...}

Spoiler

...he'd fucked up.

My farewell piece to GIMP, 'cause I, erm, obtained Sai and it's basically everything I could ask for and more. First attempt at dynamic posing and action shots and things like that! I've been sitting on this one for a while, but I've reached a bit of an impasse. Thanks so much for sticking with my learning curve lol.

attempted capture: makuhita (medium) using ice punch!

 

{ophelia}

so I missed the may theme by a tad bit; no mermaids for me :0
MESSING AROUND WITH SAI
SAI IS COOL
LAYERS ARE GREAT
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME
POKEMORPHS?!

Spoiler

attempted capture: staryu (hard) rip may theme oops

 

Claimed!

 

Love Hariyama. :heart_eyes: Good to see some art of it here on URPG!

So right off the bat, I wanted ocomment on the style. From the shading and the shadows, I notice that you've kind of stuck with this watercolor style you did in the Goldeen drawing. I love the quality it has. It feels perfect for an action scene, like things are blurring and shaking with movement and energy! I even see you've emulated brush strokes for the marks on the ground, which works really nicely with the style as well. I do wish that you'd applied this style more to the Flygon's shading, however--you did it nicely on the Hariyama, but I almost feel like the Flygon is a little lacking on it.

Hariyama, at first glance, seems like it'd be a pretty simple Pokemon to draw. I've tried to draw it before, so I know firsthand that that's actually not really the case. It's simple in the shapes that make it, but it's body proportions are so unnatural that it's actually a little difficult to balance them out right. I think you've done pretty well here with it, however. I think the only glaring things I see are the way its ear is tilted a little strangely, which could at least be chalked up to variation, and the shape of its head. The higher part of Hariyama's skull is actually in the back. Feet might be a little big but that's gettting a little on the nit-picky side!

Taking an even closer look, I think the only other weird spot is the arm that's raised up to the Flygon (Hariyama's right arm). While I understand why you shaded the arm the way you did, it interacts strangely with our perception of depth. The way that Flygon is cut off on the page just gives the impression that he's actually closer to us than Hariyama is. The shading makes the forearm look like it's even further back, it feels like the hand is further forward than the arm. This is because when we see things, bright colors tend to come forward--it's why we hear people use the phrase "pop" when they want something to really jump out at the viewer--while more muted colors sink back into the background. The Hariyama's forearm color is close to the background color, so it comes across as being at the same depth as the background (or close). In art, we call this particular concept aerial perspective, and I think if I'm not explaining things well, it'll make more sense once you look at the examples of it. Anyway, sorry, that might have been a bit of a tangent, but I wanted to make sure I explained what I meant!

I recognized the Flygon for what it was immediatedly. It definitely looked like what I best remembered a Flygon to! On this one, I see a couple of things that are a little off. Its crests/horns are usually closer, and much more long and narrow, though I can perhaps ration that they were twisted or bent apart during the battle. Its neck is a little thick but there's also the potential of it being compacted a little bit by Hariyama pushing it back. Its eyes are also very small in proportion to its head. If we look at its sprite and its splashes, it's actually got huge eyes that are as tall as its head! However, I do want to say that the way you shaded the eye really just gives it the look of his pupils as they're shrinking with fear, staring out at us a bit helplessly. Moving on, the only thing left that bugs me a bit is the arm. I definitely see that it's reaching out, but it still looks very flat and featureless. I think indicating the shape of its elbow joint would have helped with that. I'd also like to have seen the other arm behind it. You've nailed its colors, though, and the feel of it as a Pokemon.

Your background is the classic Pokemon arena, with the mark I mentioned before on the dirt. The subtle shading of the ground that you've got going one works really nicely to give it a little bit of texture while not detracting from our subjects. I think the thing that is distracting, though, is the wall. The (what I presume to be) cracks on its surface are extremely dark, which is really distracting. It took me a bit to realize that it wasn't some sort of dramatic action lightning. I love the thought behind the touch, however.

As I mentioned in your style, I really enjoy the shading i this. I like how you've contoured the body of our main subject with shadows and highlights, and I like htat you've paid attention to the way the ice casts a glow. I really enjoy that blocked bright blue you've framed the fingers with--it gives a great feel of it icing over and emitting that awesome frosty glow (another place where the style you're going for really shone). I do wish you'd cast a little more of that blue onto the orange on its stomach. In other areas, I love how subtly and smoothly you've shaded while still maintaining your style. The dark auburn of the feet just look really great with the deep, burnt brown, and I can also see where you've shaded the blue darker beneath the flaps of the cloth. The way you highlighted the flapping cloths and twisted them in space added a lot of motion here. The shading of Flygon's wings also helped them curl and kept them from being too flat.

The light movement lines you added are subtle but really help break up the space on its legs and feet. It helps keep them from being an unbroken sweep of color, and is actually a nice touch and placement of them.

Your outlines on the Hariyama seem smooth. They waver or overlap in a place or two, like the top of it's head and a little bit at the front, but other than that they're pretty great. On the Flygon, though, they seem a little more rushed. Your colors break out of the lines on its belly and a little bit of red and dark green show through where the wing colors meet the body's. The claw outlines look a little ragged. I wish these had been a bit cleaner, but it definitely doesn't hurt you too much since it's not the thing you're trying to capture.

One personal suggestion (one that doesn't subtract from your score, really, but something I'd really like to see if you were to aim for higher marks with battle pieces like this) is you adding a bit more tension. I'd personally love to see the Hariyama literally gripping the Flygon in place, with large fingers curling between its horns and clenching at its face, or perhaps one of the Flygon's wing skewing as it struggles and tries to change course when it's too late. Maybe the Hariyama's right leg juts so hard into the dirt that it sends up the smallest of clouds when it stops the Flygon's assult--or if it's a toned concrete, perhaps it cracks the surface! The flapping cloth and backward-pushed leg helped the tension, but I think it'd be cool to pile it on in this super cool moment!

Overall, I really liked this. I think the two figures and the action was ambitious and well-executed, and you've put enough detail and shading into the Hariyama to warrant a 48/45, Makuhita captured! Can't wait to see (and curate!) more from you, as always! This went pretty in-depth, but I really respect you as an artist and I think you deserve the effort and the detail. Thanks so much for what you contribute to the section!​

 

Alright, alright, alright! Your first pic from SAI (from what you've said) plus my first real curation, let's go! Claiming!

 

I could make a lot of star or water puns here. Buuut I’ll resist the temptation; we’ll see how long it lasts.

Colors
This is probably the most important aspect of your piece, so I’m going to discuss it first. Your piece is mostly made up of very vibrant, saturated hues, and you’ve made these bold choices work well. The bright yellow of Ophelia’s hair pops out and draws the viewer in, but the red eyes hidden beneath it are even more captivating. Because yellow is a warm color, it grounds itself in the foreground more than the blue background, so the brightness of the background doesn’t detract from the hair, eyes, and medallion that serve as the focal point. I liked your choice of making Ophelia’s body mostly gray - it helps a lot with the hue balance, making it so that no one color particularly overrides the others. The pink and yellow patches on Ophelia’s body are a nice touch as well; having aspects of your hues spread throughout the piece is extremely helpful in terms of unity.

That said, your values could stand to be stronger as well. To show you what I mean, I’ve made a grayscale version of this image:

As you can see, most of your colors are somewhere in the midtone range. While having a broad spectrum of midtones is good, it’s important to spread strong highlights and strong shadows all through the piece. Without value contrast, even colors that are very different in hue and saturation will look similar. It’s most apparent in the right shoulder (our right). Combined with the soft feel of the piece, it can make the skin and the background hard to distinguish from each other. You’ve shown excellent contrast with the rose pendant, which has lots of strong shadows and strong highlights that create very vibrant details. Spreading some darker shadows and brighter highlights evenly throughout can make your piece pop even more than it already does.

Technique
Okay, so, remember how I talked about the soft feel of the piece? I’m about to talk about it some more, because it’s quite interesting. I like the painterly feel you’ve achieved here; the brush strokes in the hair add lots of nice texture. The patchy brush you’ve used on the skin also achieves a very nice effect. As a general rule, human skin isn’t perfect or even, and the brushes you used for the skin make that abundantly clear and helped to further humanize your figure.

You’ve used a lot of blurs in this piece, which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, blending the hair that falls to the back helps the viewer to see the focal point in the foreground. The general softness also helps reinforce the idea of the viewer being underwater - I wouldn’t for a second assume that Ophelia is standing on the ground, even without knowing she’s a Staryu ‘morph. But the strands of hair that aren’t blurred stick out very strongly, but since nothing else in the piece is as sharply-defined, it makes it seem like these hair strands are meant to be the focal point. The strong colors in the eyes and pendant show that that’s not the case, but it can still be a bit confusing. I would advise you to be distinct with all of your foreground - making the medallion, figure, and bangs sharper (less blurry, not more pointy) would help them to stand out and reduce the competition created by the hair strands.

Form/Anatomy
This’ll be a pretty brief section! You’ve done a nice job with the anatomy, for the most part. I don’t see any major errors; Ophelia’s neck is a bit thick in comparison with her shoulders, and her cheeks are a bit broad. Other than that, though, you’re pretty well golden. Ophelia’s facial proportions are good; they’re very symmetrical and even, something that is really difficult with a front view, so good job there! I think you could stand to make a few extra tweaks, like making Ophelia’s collarbone and armpits stand out more with stronger shadows and highlights as discussed before, but you got the accuracy down well. Nicely done!

Composition
I don’t have much to say about the composition - it’s a simple one, but for a portrait, you don’t really need to go all-out. That said, for a portrait, you’ve done a good job - you’ve given Ophelia’s face room to breathe and her hair room to billow out on the sides, while clipping her shoulders without excluding anything important. By cropping her hair, you draw the viewer in more strongly to the face, which is nice. The hair isn’t what’s the most important here; the bright red eyes and shiny medallion are what you want the viewer to focus on. It’s a subtle choice, but it’s one you made, and I like it.

Story
Story? In my curations? It’s more likely than you think! By titling this piece Ophelia and drawing a human instead of drawing a straight-up ‘mon, you’ve invoked this section. I’m no Shakespeare buff, but I did a little bit of research on/skimmed an article about Ophelia. Putting her name on an aquatic Pokemorph is indeed fitting in my eyes, given that the character Ophelia died of drowning. I also appreciate the touch of fashioning her medallion after a flower, given Ophelia’s habit of handing out flowers to others. While the rue flower seems to be ‘her’ flower, I stand by your choice of using the rose instead. Doing so links this piece back to Staryu more strongly, as a rose’s shape lends itself better to the shape of a Staryu’s gem.

While this piece doesn’t depict a Staryu literally, I’d say you’ve done a good job of creating a Staryu ‘morph. The red eyes and gray skin speak to something not-quite human, and the medallion’s gold border and round, red, jewel-like center strongly invoke Staryu’s design. I personally would have liked to see a few more Staryu-type touches like brown skin tones or armor to reference its carapace, but you’ve added enough Staryu traits for this to connect properly.

Conclusion
Overall, this is a strong piece. I respect your creativity with Staryu's depiction, and I really enjoyed the standout colors you used. Furthermore, you had excellent human anatomy, which is awesome to see because humans are pretty much the hardest thing for most people to draw. However, this is also a fairly simple piece in terms of execution, and the blurry lines and low contrast show a lack of polish. It's a good start, but I can't quite award a Hard 'mon for this piece - 50/55, Staryu not yet captured.

I think that you can bring this piece up to snuff fairly easily. Keep your colors bright and bold, but spread more intense light and dark colors throughout your piece to bring your figure back to life. Doing so, and reducing the blur effect on the figure in the foreground, will really make this piece shine. You're almost there! If you wish to make these changes, ping me and I'll be happy to revisit it.