Shackles of Insanity

Good morning everyone and welcome to another edition of "The Horse and Pony Show" Critiques brought to you by ME! :devUkueleleMoon:! I travel all around the broad expanse of DeviantArt seeking out ways of promoting other artist's and their careers. I believe that together we are able to help each other by communicating our aspirations and dreams through our artwork and also through our writing. By giving out critiques, I am not only able to help artist's from different fandoms and genres diversify their portfolios, but also give them the exposure they so sorely deserve. Hey, it's hard to be an artist!

Let's give the credit where credit is do. All I have to say about both artists involved in this piece is, "Wow, Just... Wow!" The appropriately named "Shackles of Insanity" brought to you by Fluttershy750 and Discommunicator is truly a piece that leaves you almost afraid to go to sleep. Something like this transcends just the Pony fandom and slips into Creepypasta with a life of it's own.

I will say that even though I enjoy the free-hand vectors that this artist usually furnishes, I really can see the large amount of detail and struggle to bring a 2D sketch to life! It's certainly something I don't think I could do myself. Now I'm here mostly to critique the work of the vectored, not the original artist's sketch. Anatomy and control over placement are kind of hard to do when you are working from some one else's template.

What is controllable is the shading and the light source. I think a missed avenue of opportunity is creating depth and dimension to a character that seems larger-than-life. Sometimes these items need more of a shove then a gentle push in that direction. Here's how I would have accomplished that effect in this picture.

I would have chosen the light source to be off-centered and to the right because that's how the natural composition and existing structure of the subject are already. You're not out to fight or change the original artwork, just compliment it. The hoof coming at us would be the lightest part and the luminescence would gradually fade to the back ground.

I think another missed area of opportunity for this artist is adding backgrounds to their work. Maybe start by vectoring some existing ones just to get the overall feel of atmosphere and then branching out to do their own.

I think this is an incredibly detailed piece and a lot has been done to enhance the already maniacal lines and curves of this screwball.

As always, thank you, the viewers for reading this critique. If you have any comments or questions, please list them below.

- Moonkulele