When you have a lot of free time... *EDIT*

[Legato]

first off, i would like to thank you guys for doing this. C&C from great artists is more precious than $ imo, and you guys giving up your time to do it is amazing, im glad i saw the announcement, ill try helping out here too if i can... anyway, i have a load of stuff, and some of it is links to my deviantart.com account >Gallery< (http://www.legato895.deviantart.com/gallery) anyway, if you guys have your own devart accounts i would love to add you to my friends list, if not, you should get one, there free, and not as noobish as they seem. anyway, where was i? oh yes, if you have time to spare, i would be blessed by reviews. the harder the better. im tired of getting oohs and aahs, i want people saying what sucks and what i can do better... but like i said, these should be your last priority.

these are in no order, and unless noted, all conventional media. all colors are done using prisma markers. inks are done using microns, and pencils done 99% in .5mm mechanical pencil.

*Anubis*
the first of my "new age" drawings, meaning, the first thing that i have scanned, that i find presentable. its a year old, but im still really proud of it.
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Anubis.jpg

*Berserker*
newer, but done much faster. its a bit sloppy, and i was running out of steam toward the ground detailing, but i like the action i have conveyed.
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Berserker.jpg

*Dark kNight*
another favorite, done around the time of anubis (i was on a pencil spree) in retrospect, his left arm (our right) is way too small and looks pretty messed up around the elbow...
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Black-Knight.jpg

*Clash*
fairly new, the background was digitally whitened.
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Clash.jpg

*Cloud*
some fan art for a friend leaving to college. its around 3-4 months old
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Cloud%20Final...ER.jpg

*Bandit Sniper*
im not sure if what i was trying to get across was conveyed... many people on devart got confused... anyway... i kinda like it (in my own unbiased opinion :P)
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Bandit%20Sniper%20Mech%20R.jpg

*Graveyard Shift*
Alien fanart, not based on anything really... the original picture was upside down from the perspective of the alien... i really liked it, but nobody else did so i broke and conformed.
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Graveyard%20Shift%202.jpg

*Sacrifice*
the name is meant to bring out a story lost to many people (note the helmet). the armor isn't really based on anything (no ref) but there were ideas 'adapted'... basically from all gas-masked gun toting guys anywhere.
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Sacrifice.jpg

*Tree Woman*
a piece very unlike me... not sure what i like about it tho... my friends give me un-ending crap about it :D
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Tree%20Woman.jpg

*Steampunk Mech*
this is my thunderdome 7 submission. i am very proud of it. the contest required colors, and i really didn't have that much exp with markers until this. i also had to refine my inking style on this, something that has stuck with me. this going from pencil to ink to marker is something i am pretty proud of
Highres (http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Steampunk%20Mech%20Final%201.0.jpg)
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Steampunk%20Mech%20Final%20Reduced.jpg

and now for the links... sorry, i only have 10mb of free hosting :(
btw, some are in photobucket, but the quality sucks, so im also posting a link for the full res... sorry for how slow devart is :(

*Coup De Grace*
this is one i am particularly proud of... although its done in markers, the stars and blur are photoshop. im really sorry about the colors. i only had so many markers, so i had to go monochromatic. in doing so, i think the second mech is lost. thank God i took out the 3rd one and blacked over it!
Full Rez (http://www.deviantart.com/view/6936881/)
http://img70.photobucket.com/albums/v40/legato895/?action=view&current=Coup_de_Grace_FINAL.jpg

*Killing Fields*
i was on a roll with CDG, so i did a land based version of the mech. the i loved the greens on this one, and trial and errored many different new techniques. also, note sniper muzzle flash
Link (http://www.deviantart.com/view/7410112/)

*Spray and Pray*
another year old one... done around the same time as the bandit sniper... lots of dirty dirty markers :(
Link (http://www.deviantart.com/view/5449875/)

i got a wacom intuos 2 about a month ago, but have only had time to start messing around with it in the past 2 weeks. i don't have much presentable stuff yet, but i do have 3 DSGs under my belt. im keeping it B&W for now, just to make it easier. (also, the black ninja was for a devart contest so its colored)

http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/DSG/Blunt%20Trama.jpg
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/DSG/Behemoth.jpg
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/DSG/DSG%20742%20Super%20Soldier.jpg

http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/Art%20Scans/Ninja%20Color%20Final*%20copy.jpg

blast the hell out of me on my digital stuff, kuz its still glaringly new to me

anyway, thanks for your time... im not expecting much, as this will take some time... even if you just 'do' one, i would be ultra happy... anyway, keep doing your guy's thing!

[nmcleod]

hey man, im not that good at giving crits, but i noticed something that could help you so i thought i would tell you. i think you need to define more of a strong light source in your drawings, and keep it in mind as you are rendering, this will give a lot more depth to your drawings. like the one with the moon, if you had put a lot of strong highlights on the side of the dude that is towards the moon, it would have looked much better. one thing you could try is getting an electric eraser, and continuing to render how you do and then take this out and lay down the highlights. i hope this helped a bit.

peace
-nate

[Legato]

hey man, im not that good at giving crits, but i noticed something that could help you so i thought i would tell you. i think you need to define more of a strong light source in your drawings, and keep it in mind as you are rendering, this will give a lot more depth to your drawings. like the one with the moon, if you had put a lot of strong highlights on the side of the dude that is towards the moon, it would have looked much better. one thing you could try is getting an electric eraser, and continuing to render how you do and then take this out and lay down the highlights. i hope this helped a bit.

peace
-natei see what your saying. on the moon one (sacrifice) it was hard highlighting, kuz the moon and light is behind the figure, so i would assume that in 'real life' he would be a much darker silhouette. as for highlighting, a kneaded eraser works great, especially on smudged stuff

[jetpack42]

i can tell you do alot of mechanical studies. the machines you come up with are great. You could use some more work on perspective. You've got great ideas about the forms and interlocking shapes but when you draw them they almost all look a little off in terms of 3 dimensionality. In the pencil drawings (of which I'm still a noob myself), esp the ones with more then one figure, you need to figure out a way to make the characters read better, and stand out. As a whole, I think your figures are too complex, not leaving the viewer any space to rest, or anything concrete to see the rest of the guys with. Its a visual strain to find out what is where, and whats going on. You need more contrast, but not in terms of the "darkest dark" or "lightest light". You have virtually no middletones. The shading appears odd because there is no middleground around the forums defining the shapes. Take it with a big grain of salt, I'm new too....

[toad]

hey man, the 2nd picd is all jumbled, you need to draw more attention to one spot (like the head) with bolder weight lines, lighter colors ext. it actualy took me a couple of seconds to find the head.

[Catryn008]

You draw with a confident hand and are excellent at the details. Every inch of the armor (plating, etc) has had some intimate attention given to it. It must take you quite a while to get through some of these. I think the detailing makes for a good stand alone character. (Meaning little to no background.)

I agree with the critique that your figures get lost in the background. I think the contrasting would definitely help. I can't tell you how many times I've drawn in a detail and go to the shading part only to find myself covering it up with shadows. (**sigh**)

The other thing that's throwing me and I"m not quite sure which way this is, but it appears that either the arms on your "humans" are waaay to long, or the head is just too small. As most of them, I can't see the legs to compare the length, it really looks like the arms are stretched out to me.

Now for things like the Steampunk Mech and the "god" illustrations, I can let the length of the arms go. (In fact I perfer the longer reach on the mechs, it looks strange with "normal" sized arms, in my opinion.)

Karen

[Legato]

thanks a lot so far! what you guys are saying is really helping!

[Signature]

Yeah somebody said something along the lines of
"you need some areas that grab the attention"
That is correct. The images are all very busy.

The outlines make the images look flat.
Because you have them to fall back on you don't show the forms with values well enough.
Draw the lines lighter, than do the shading, then draw in the stronger lines.
Make sure the image works after the 2nd stage already.

I think you should look into simplification. Only suggest details here and there.

I think you do think about the values for an object when you draw it.
But you need to keep the lighting of the whole image in mind when you do that.

Doing thumbnail sketches and value studies before you do the actual rendering might help. Simplify a lot in those.

[dCepT]

Signature has a point, here. Like the graffiti behind cloud steals a lot of attention.

Your detailwork and linequality is tha shizznit, though!
Keep rockin'!

d-C

[chozometroid]

Nice details in all these.

The gun in your "Sacrifice" image has a perspecive problem. Toward the hand, the tilt is basically 0 degrees, but by the time it reach the end of the barrel, it has shifted 20-30 degrees.