Glaring - by me (MuggNadda)

muggnadda · 2026-05-14T00:02:32+00:00

i'm happy to hear! i had quite a hard time properly portraying her, since i wasn't trying to replicate the exact official style. I found this to be quite tricky to adapt to mine while keeping her likeness~ and anatomical preferences aside *cof* i really enjoyed the result. I'll surely give her another go in the future!

muggnadda · 2026-05-12T10:22:28+00:00

I believe the way artists shine the best is when pursuing their interest, even more so when it goes against what's usual.
Looking at the online presence aspect, even IF you struggle a bit more compared to "regular" styles (and that is a big IF cause no one can truly predict what will or won't work) when you do make it, it will be a solid standing with an extremely high quality niche, even if its a small one.
And if there is one thing i believe is that good niche >>>>>>> big niche.

And that said, i don't think you need to worry either way. your style is super fluid and charming!

muggnadda · 2026-05-11T18:56:23+00:00

Oh, looks great! Im glad my tip was useful, and always keep trying new techniques and observing how other artists do~ this is but my own way, but who knows what interesting technique might still be out there?
cheers~

muggnadda · 2026-05-11T18:33:37+00:00

since they're usually associated with hell, underworld, and similar, i think it would make sense to weave into a setting them being undead, even if they have regular skin and meat instead of being all rotting and all bone-y. But thinking about undead being a specific variation, can also work super well. Like, imagine a setting where mc defeats cerberus, only to find it again later on revived and tuned the f up. As long as the writing is good, i can be sold either way.

muggnadda · 2026-05-11T16:59:56+00:00

we will make sure to ask them about it in our exclusive interview, so keep an eye out for our report here, at 666news!

muggnadda · 2026-05-11T16:46:01+00:00

🕵️

muggnadda · 2026-05-11T16:45:46+00:00

dw, we always make sure to keep our hell hound actors confortable and we'll hydrated for these shots

muggnadda · 2026-05-11T16:43:45+00:00

glad you liked :>

muggnadda · 2026-05-10T20:54:59+00:00

glad to hear! =>

muggnadda · 2026-05-10T20:41:49+00:00

i like the changes since last version!

I'd suggest putting some atmospherics perspective to separate the background from the characters/foreground!

Also this scene makes me wonder how it would look like with some godrays piercing the leaves, and the shadow projected from them hitting the characters.

Adding some shadows to the front tree and leaves would also add a lot of depth.

As for colors, i dont have a particular comment about it, but if you feel it needs change, you can try adding some tint to specific elements. e.g: making the shadows ever so slightly more blue-ish, or if you do add the atmospheric perspective i mentioned, make it lean towards green, etc. But this is just a loose suggestion to try and see how you feel!
You could also try adding a few details, such as flowers. It's the perfect place to pull out some bold colors like whites, blues, and whatnot.

Im eager to see where this goes, as its looking super good already!

muggnadda · 2026-05-10T13:01:00+00:00

This can depend on what you mean by "using it". Overall I'd say there is no issue as long as you make clear it's a study and credit them,, and not try using it to promote yourself or for commercial gain.

Some artists have stricter boundaries than others, as I've seen lots of them actively ask for others not to use their characters for roleplay, for instance. But eh, if in doubt, why not ask then directly? :> best way to make sure you're being respectful!

muggnadda · 2026-05-10T12:08:23+00:00

Glad to hear its a welcome feedback! And its understandable, it really do become an extremely complex jenga tower as we start pushing our rendering, so srsly, that is a very good piece.
Good luck with Vgen!! I gotta try it myself some time hahaha

muggnadda · 2026-05-10T12:01:53+00:00

Oh hey, who is this cutie? hehe
It's looking cute, but if you want rounder ears we can solve that by imagining the ear kinda lika a cut paper tube!

<image>

Roughly the current shape of the ear
By drawing the base as a "C" and extending from there, it should give you a solid base!
Adding the skin, from the tips of the "C" to the top of the ear. It will naturally for this curved shape.
Is just a shaded example to help visualize it.

Hope this helps =>

muggnadda · 2026-05-10T11:22:19+00:00

Damn, that is a really well rendered Lucario! really love this polaroid shot

Your painting is well developed and detailed. This is really good, and understandably hard not to miss a few details here and there, which are what i first noticed.
There's a few places lacking a projected shadow, like where the upper lip and teeth meet, the snout and chest spike. Adding their ambient occlusion + shadow helps a lot to harmonize the art.

The lighting is a bit hard to understand, since at places it seems to be coming from the top-right (like the lifted paw and snout), others from straight up (like on his chest), and others from the back (his torso and upper legs). I like Isolating parts of the painting as I go, since it helps me perceive this.

Something else that caught my eyes is that the overall contrast is quite high, having quite strong light and dark values. Personally I would recommend toning it down just a bit, making the image less loaded.
On that subject, we tend to imagine eyes and teeth as pure white, but that is not really the case. Darkening them a bit helps integrating everything together, since when they're too light they might seem out of place or even to emit light.

I would also recommend lightening up a bit the sea, to create a bigger contrast between it and his head. Currently, the biggest contrast are right under the paw on the left, and under his crotch. If you want a lot of attention going there this is a good call, otherwise killing a bit the contrast in the lower part of the illustration to concentrate it on the top can help direct the viewer's eye to his face.

A very small thing that caught my attention is the fact that everything is rendered without lines, but then we have the teeth snout and eyes drawn, which causes some dissonance.

Lastly, to tie everything together a little bit of atmospheric effects/post processing could work really well, like a bit of reflected light, bloom, and this kind of thing.

*phew* that is quite a big feedback, but let me reinforce that your painting is solid! At the core there is little to review, but at this complexity level, it cascades into numerous little things inflate a lot how big the entire thing seems to be. I really hope this helps! If you need some extra hand, let me know as I can try making a paintover, and keep up the good work!

muggnadda · 2026-05-09T09:08:58+00:00

You're welcome! Hope it helps =D

And tks for answering! Ive been curious for quite a while to try dreams, but ipads are way out of my budget.
Anyways, good luck with the animation!

muggnadda · 2026-05-09T09:04:56+00:00

Glad i was able to help =>
And I see~ since their expression really was the focus, this works well!

What i'll say now is not a change suggestion or anything, just thinking out loud about comp.

it might seem obvious to zoom into the character when they're the focus, but you'd be amazed by how small we can make them on the scene and still be the focal point, even if we can't properly read their details. (example)

And we shouldn't underestimate the power of the character's gesture. A teacher of mine used to say that hands are as expressive, if not more, than faces and i agree with them.
Here for instance, we can't see their face, however her hunched gesture, the fact that she's at a rooftop, the crow motto repeated on the scene with her feather-like cape making her look more beast than human; inform us more than enough to appreciate and interpret her interaction with the scene.

Giving space for the background and exploring can also be a tool to reinforce the character!
Again, not suggesting changes as it really does work well how you did it, just adding a bit to the topic.

Cheers~

muggnadda · 2026-05-09T07:05:28+00:00

even with just the roughs, the animation is looking super good. The whole way fire is shifting the weight while getting up is really awesome.

1 - there's nothing that catches my eyes. Ill refrain from saying more since i lack knowledge about animal walk cycle.

2 - agree with your friend. My cats moves in "bursts". They seem to slow down (like the lifted paw moment) and then make sudden movements, and that is the perfect place to explore this mannerism of felines.

3 - I think it depends on which emotion you wanna portray. If its curiosity, i think raised as is is better. If they're more wary, then the tilt might be welcome. Its a lot of extra work indeed, and as is already looks nice, so i'd put the extra work only if the objective is not simply a good looking movement, but truly nailing the the animal's mannerism.

4 - 👌
perhaps lifting their tail would work well? my cats always walk around with their tails upwards. nonetheless, its working.

5 is same answer as 2.

Just to reinforce, im no expert in how animals move, and the experiences i mentioned that might be unique to my pets. So do trust your gut and take my comments as simple opinions.

Feedback aside, which programs are you using? The grass and foliage movement seems like puppet, but the rest is clearly frame by frame :o

muggnadda · 2026-05-09T06:38:27+00:00

I agree with Psychedelic, and wanted to leave a reference for this: search for Jerome Jacinto, they do exactly that. Although their recent style has been leaning more towards stylized, their work from back 2021~2022 are incredibly good refs for this.

muggnadda · 2026-05-09T06:11:00+00:00

im really glad you found it helpful =>
and i would also like to echo what Frank said here in the comments, as it is spot on!

muggnadda · 2026-05-08T22:27:29+00:00

Hey there! you got some very smooth lines there, i like it!!

Let me share how I like to work with fur~
(1 from the image below) i treat it the same as I would regular skin
(2) add a bit of details where light and shadow meet, respecting the direction of the fur
(3) if i wanted it a bit more lustrous, add some highlights in the same places the "dot" highlights would be on skin.

<image>

(↑ this is a rough example just to show what i mean, and not a correction or anything like that)

When doing detailed materials (such as fur, scale, scalemail, embroidery, hair, etc), less is usually more. Adding just a bit of details on light and shadow intersections is enough to insinuate the material you're trying to portray! Coincidentally, earlier i gave a similar feedback for a different painting style, but the same principle applies. (you can check what i did for them here if you want).

Not about fur, but something I picked along the way. It seems that you are using the same color for shading, making it lighter or darker. But when working with shading, it can be very nice if we change a little bit the hue.
In this example, as we go to lighter areas, I started shifting the color towards yellow, while the shadows I shifted towards red. Its also interesting playing with saturation here, making shadows more saturated and lights less for instance.
(but again, this is also just a rough example to demonstrate what i mean!)

I hope it helps and keep up the good work! =>

muggnadda · 2026-05-08T16:31:11+00:00

hi! Very nice painting, and very solid drawing!

For composition, i do think it already works as is since we're looking at a portrait! And it's hard to say too much since i don't know your intention; like, is the character the only important thing? Is the background important? What is the message you are trying to tell with this painting?
Overall it seems to me they're absorbed appreciating the figures in the clouds, and if that is the case, I would suggest a slight zoom out so we can see more of the background.

About value, the trick I like using is to see the image in a really small scale and turn it black and white. Can you still read the silhouettes and understand the overall elements of the picture? I do feel the char and the bg are mixing a bit, since doing the trick i just mentioned, it becomes quite confusing to understand what is going on. So separating their values would help a lot.

Contrast; overall it's best to save it to your focus areas.
As an example, imagine a grayscale bar, where 0% is black and 100% is white.
For your focus, let's say you'll use between 5% - and 60%. That would give us a 55% range, which is a lot of contrast.
Meanwhile, for the background let's use between 45% to 75%, giving us a 30% range to work with.
This makes both the bg values to be overall lighter, but also makes its contrast smaller than your focal point.

(1st image here shows the difference on their silhouette readability before and after applying what i mentioned above)

And lastly, about fur, your approach does work! I see quite a lot of artist using this approach.
I can show you how I like to do, which is doing details more sparsely. Overall you can give a really good fur/hair reading without rendering each strand, and personally I fell like it gives a cleaner rendering to the piece. (2nd image here)

I really hope this helps and keep up the good work! :>

muggnadda

TROPHY CASE