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...was that a hint? 
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Oh, I just think a character that cool deserves some stamp love. *whistles innocently*
Busting heads since 1938
Character references * My DeviantArt gallery * I am an altoholic
I just wanted to say Rosen Ice is getting good, oh, and your other pics look good too 
hope to see more ^.^
Thanks Gata .
I've been lax in updating my gallery, so I'll be putting up a few over the next couple of days.
This just in from Jamilyn over at DA. Somebody is about to get a face full of Rad/Rad .
This is an earlier piece Jamilyn did for me. The pencils really work with her color scheme.
(and for those who enjoy such things, this is my latest attempt to make the costume editor give me what I want with a little hand editing of the costume files )
Just in time for Spring, Images by Alex delivers Nike making 'Grass Angels' with her bio-energy powers . It happens sometimes on those drowsey May afternoons.
She is such a beautiful design and all the images have been great. I particularly like this one.
Ohhhh, that last one is so amazingly beautiful, I nearly cried when I saw it. Grass Angels, indeed...
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Been a while, but I've got a few new pieces comming in and under way .
Yeah. Like that.
I've noticed alot of people picking up commissions from PlayWorkArt...I dunno, I gotta say Morg that this latest piece kinda pales in comparison to other pieces in your collection. There are foreshortening issues with the left side of the body and the positioning of the shoulder pieces. The wings on Nike aren't aligned with the body's positioning either, and they're not "working". They seem to be just stuck on there. They should be opened up and catching air so she could stay aloft and steady her energy blast. Wings are difficult to draw that's for sure, but imo your character's design is a bit too cool to settle for relatively weak work.
Hey, Bayani . Your points are certainly valid and I encourage you to offer critique over on the DA page where the artist can see it, as I have seen them make some comments related to other comissions indicating they are trying to improve their craft. The piece has already seen one small change since first posted as an earlier version had some lighting issues that have since been corrected (the wings were too dark for a sunny sky background). There are a number of elements I thought were pretty strong for a comparitively new artist on the scene. The pose of the body is interesting and the coloring picking up the light from her powers is something I've always liked when I see it.
If PWA can pick up what your saying that would be great, because I like watching artists improve as much as I like a great piece . And wings ARE hard to 'bring to life' 
.
Always glad to see new pieces of one of my favorite characters here. I dig the PWA one, and ADORE the one by Alex. What a delightful idea, grass angels!
Busting heads since 1938
Character references * My DeviantArt gallery * I am an altoholic
Is there a back story for this?
all the art is awesome!
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I've noticed alot of people picking up commissions from PlayWorkArt...I dunno, I gotta say Morg that this latest piece kinda pales in comparison to other pieces in your collection. There are foreshortening issues with the left side of the body and the positioning of the shoulder pieces. The wings on Nike aren't aligned with the body's positioning either, and they're not "working". They seem to be just stuck on there. They should be opened up and catching air so she could stay aloft and steady her energy blast. Wings are difficult to draw that's for sure, but imo your character's design is a bit too cool to settle for relatively weak work.
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Your artistic critique is certainly valid, although it strikes me as kind of arbitrary to speak out about this one particular piece. However, I think you're off base describing this work as weak when the guy is practically giving it away. Seriously, what level of perfection do you expect for this price point?
You get what you pay for. A lot of people like this guy, John Becaro, etc. are trying to make some money at cut throat rates. If the overall quality drops, the consumer should be aware and take some responsibility for that outcome.
Blacklisted
"I'AM SATANS FAVORITE CHILD!!"
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I've noticed alot of people picking up commissions from PlayWorkArt...I dunno, I gotta say Morg that this latest piece kinda pales in comparison to other pieces in your collection. There are foreshortening issues with the left side of the body and the positioning of the shoulder pieces. The wings on Nike aren't aligned with the body's positioning either, and they're not "working". They seem to be just stuck on there. They should be opened up and catching air so she could stay aloft and steady her energy blast. Wings are difficult to draw that's for sure, but imo your character's design is a bit too cool to settle for relatively weak work.
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Your artistic critique is certainly valid, although it strikes me as kind of arbitrary to speak out about this one particulary piece. However, I think your off base describing this work as weak when the guy is practically giving it away. Seriously, what level of perfection do you expect for this price point?
You get what you pay for. A lot of people like this guy, John Becaro, etc. are trying to make some money at cut throat rates. If the overall quality drops, the consumer should be aware and take some responsibility for that outcome.
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An excellent point.
Whoops. Posted in my old thread by mistake.
Just ordered this before SDCC. As you can see, it came out well . More pictures as i start scanning and photographing this year's loot.
I take it this is the new thread...
That is FANTASTIC!
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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:
Regardless of what he's charging for the commissions, I think what Bayani is seeing here is the same thing I'm seeing. PWA has hit the uncanny valley of art quality. It's just good enough to seem very professional and high caliber work, but it's not good enough to hang with all the other content in that realm.
Essentially it's not fair to judge him by that standard of quality, but his skill has propelled him into that category. He's not bad enough to write off the small mistakes that you catch un-experienced artists making, so he gets the full brunt of the audience's initial reaction.
I agree that for the price you pay, you're getting much more than you should. I just think that it's not going to do much to spare him from this type of reaction in the future.
http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Massacre_Melanie -the original Fire/Dark Corruptor -
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115217
The Guide to BURN
Those comments from a month ago stemmed from my view that on these forums and in dA, there's alot of overwhelming praise for artwork that has room for improvement, regardless of the collector's expectations. I'd rather see more people calling a duck a duck, so to speak, and that there should be a little more discussion about the technical details of the artwork and its composition.
I understand that my approach to collecting, where the soundness of the artist's technique and the overall quality of the piece is considered ahead of the fee, is not really commonly shared. Not to say that I pay more than what a piece is worth, but I won't necessarily commission an artist just because his/her fees are low. I do believe that collectors gain stronger artwork if they get more involved in the piece and are more aware of the details within its composition. Often times, the overall integrity of an artwork is compromised by very small mistakes which could've been corrected fairly easily. There are alot of good characters and concepts floating around this section of the forums and in my view, the characters deserve a little extra polish. Obviously the character means something to the collector, otherwise you wouldn't bother to commission art of him or her. I'm not saying you have to go all Jerry Jones on the artist and micromanage everything...but tweaks here and there should be reasonably accomodated, especially during the rough draft/thumbnails part of the process.
I like your new piece, by the way, Morganstern. The lighting is very interesting. One thing to note about the piece though is that the muscles in Nike's neck aren't aligned with her head turning.
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I understand that my approach to collecting, where the soundness of the artist's technique and the overall quality of the piece is considered ahead of the fee, is not really commonly shared.
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*Chuckle* No, 'money is no object' is not a common approach to collecting . Soundness of the artist's technique is something I gauge before tendering an offer. I have contact information for a slew of artists who will produce a fantastic piece... that I can't afford . Once the project is underway I usually go over a piece with an artist once or twice during the process and I usually look at sketches on and off for about a day before sending in my comments. The particular faults you've pointed out, while entirely valid, are generaly not of the sort that catch my attention, while there are other corrections I request that folks other than myself and the artist will never see . The amount of time I spend pouring over a piece to fine tune details before granting aproval IS somewhat proportionate to the amount I'm spending on the piece because there is a correlation between what I'm paying and the amount of their time I intend to take up with the project. I also try to be aware of what an artist's best work looks like and expect a finished piece in that range, even if it's not equivalent to the best work I own. If I'm paying 200 dollars, there will be email and versions exchanged until I am [u]perfectly[u] satisfied. If its a $25-40 piece, there are going to only be a couple of rounds of changes. I agree completely about not gushing over a piece that could be better -- based on other work the artist has done -- but most of my criticisms and sugestions for how an artist could improve their technique overall are reserved for private mail.
Well, I didn't quite say money is no object. You'd be surprised as to which pieces in my featured section cost me just as much as something folks have gotten from PWA. I'm not saying that folks should be scrutinize/agonize over every little line. Still, being able to look at a piece or a portfolio and pick up on some of the less obvious details is a somewhat practical skill to develop. I still think regardless of what how much the art costs or what level of skill the artist has, some "classroom/forum-room"discussion regarding criticisms and suggestions would benefit collectors, aspiring collectors, and artists.
I would like to see a crapton more critiquing going around on dA. And I am enraged to no end that on a an art site, you have to PAY to officially request a critique. Sometimes the ads almost drive me to buy a sub... but then my highly offended sense of justice stops me.
On THIS forum, I can understand the lack of it because its really a fan forum for a game.
Bayani, you should understand by now that this place is a happy land of wonderment and sunshine and gum drops. Nobody is allowed to be realistic or critique anyone, nobody is allowed to point out flaws in things that are glaringly obvious and nobody is allowed to say anything negative about any of the established 'regulars' here.
Nobody wants to admit it, but this board is extremely elitist in it's ongoings. If you want to actually speak your mind, I applaud you with heartfelt thanks, but you're going to catch major flak for it no matter what. It's why I don't really hang around much these days.
http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Massacre_Melanie -the original Fire/Dark Corruptor -
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115217
The Guide to BURN
4wgat did i miss?
Someone give me the short version, my head hurts...
http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Massacre_Melanie -the original Fire/Dark Corruptor -
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115217
The Guide to BURN
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. I'm running on an NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS.
Your screenshots are so nice looking! What video card do you use?
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Thanks
My latest trick that I'm finding -very- helpful for taking screenshots in the tailor screen is set up the pose and then press "save" before hiting the screen capture - that removes the rotating arrows at the bottom and all of the color dots or slider bars which normally obscure bits on the lefthand side. Getting rid of those arrows makes the bottom a lot cleaner - there were a lot of angles I wasn't using because the feet would get lost under them.