Research (Artist) and Artist Crit - Online Social Critique and Simon Fetscher

A university coursework piece by user Salmonmarine on Facepunch Forums, originally posted in this thread: link

Two users posted the following replies:

1. It looks like a generic worker, I'd say give more stuff to make it look more battle-oriented maybe, and definitely something that makes it unique
2. I'm gonna be honest, I don't think the design itself is that villanous. It's a cool design for sure, and well done as always, but hardly menacing or evil in any sense of the word.

Which I built upon in my brief critique:

The orange signifies worker, to me. Remember those common cultural icons we see wearing bright orange suits like that - construction workers and their hi-visibility orange jackets, the Rebel Alliance pilots from Star Wars. A uniform that unites them as part of a group. I don't think that particular colour when applied to that sort of clothing is something we associate with high-level leadership and villainy. 
Head looks quite villainous, with the 'dangerous' shape language (spikes often used to show that something is dangerous or evil, think Sauron, Darth Maul, the overall triangular shape of Darth Vader, satan's horns, etc) and those triangular, pointed eyes (visible in the second one across) but in the first and third images the sense of 'evil' is diminished somewhat where the actual face is concerned, because we don't see the sharp eye very clearly and, esp. in number 1, we can't really see any sharp spikes. No. 1 sort of looks more frog/gungan like from that angle.

An important note is the focus on a silhouette that reads well in the round - ensuring that from a variety of angles our design is displaying the desired character and message. BUT what if this character's body did show the villainy that it was supposed to - would it matter if the head didn't show much villainy in it's overall shape from the front-on view? We'd have the rest of the body to read and would also likely see the character from a variety of angles. Something to ponder.



Simon Fetscher

Personal site link

Born Sweden 1990
Art school - Folkuniversitetets Art College in Gothenburg
Illustration School at Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm

Clients have included

• Calmino group AB
• Mystikal Wear
• Dejossy
• Sun Rise

He posted an image on the Conceptart.org Facebook page. I did a brief critique. Unfortunately the aim of the design wasn't provided, so I had to do a more general critique.

My critique:

 Looking neat! The body and wings feel quite bug-like to me though, and I'd love to see this reflected better by the legs. I think it would suit it much better to have legs that make it appear as though it would almost hop like a flea into the air as it takes off. I'm also concerned about the lack of a dominant focal point. Personally, I'd make the cockpit at the front more visually dominant and recognisable, although if any of the far more experienced artists around here want to correct me please do!

His reply

Thanks for the crits  You definitely have a point, but for the cockpit I actually wanted a little less attention in the front, and let the rest of the ship be more interesting. I dont know if that was a good call, but I gave it a try haha. Always great to hear what others have to say! Thanks