Work Evaluation

The work of mine I chose to critique is titled “Magnus The Red”. It is a fan piece that I created from the description of a fictional character of a science fiction book that I like. The materials I used are pen and ink, then scanned and coloured with my Wacom bamboo drawing tablet.

Despite being fan art, I had a fair bit of breathing room in terms of artistic freedom because there’s no official image for this character; though there have been a few interpretations of his look.

I originally created this piece in response to a fan art competition I entered at Supanova 2010. I got a lot of quality feedback for this piece from the artists at Supanova and their view has changed the way I see it.

A common complaint I received was that the background looks too flat in relation to the figure. This is of course true, because I wanted it to look flat. I wanted it to look flat and unremarkable, so the figure would have more prominence. Evidently, I actually made it more noticeable, by being over-simplified.

A positive comment I got was the colouring was very good. Which is good to hear because the colour took ages; way longer than the line work. I tried really hard to get the armour to look like gold, so I used lots of highlights.

Though I am very proud of my work, I (like most artists) am very critical of my own work and if I look at it too long I completely pick it apart and fill my mind with regret and thoughts of what I should have done. A prime example is; since I’ve been writing this, I’ve become extremely bored with composition. The pose is flat and dull. I now would have liked to do something much more foreshortened and dynamic. Also, I now think he’s too dead centre of the page. I think the picture would benefit from a degree of A-symmetry.

In summary, I’m still quite proud of the piece. I like my line work and the fact that I added more detail than usual. I’m proud of my colouring, especially because when I made it I was treading on new ground. However, I firmly believe the background and composition sorely leave something to be desired.