it looks like goro was in a real pissy mood that day

if this was in colour this would dwarf ANYTHING I've seen done by Aculeus except mebe his smoke drawing's. Again I luv the black and white. The proportions are fantastic. Personally I don't like drawing the shokan the core part of their bodies turn out to be a mess.

The anatomy's really tight. and I Luv the shading(where'd you pick that up?). Your mutilated version of the early Kung Lao, lack's character if you wanted the picture to roll with the story try providing some definition. He looks ripped but the muscles are a little cramped here and there. This is something I ALWAYS do myself if only we could take our own advice but im sure your capable of drawinf fabulous back grounds.

Again I'd love to see your work in color. Keep up the good wok.

To be honest I feel like I have to overcompensate on EVERYTHING for the fact that, I cant have light pencil lines crosshatched to express shading, if I want anything to show up by picture or scanner, I unfortunately have to ink it.
Also by the time i'm done finishing inking these pictures my hand is cramped and i just lack the drive to add a background lol, im definately not an inker, im a tracer.

As for early Kung Lao he originally was laying across the ground without any limbs in a big pool of blood. After showing a couple of people, they said the same thing, too gory, the gore takes away from the picture. So I revamped it to hint at gore, without showing it.

Goro's anatomy isn't easy to get down he is a walking wall of muscle, hence the shoulder blades and the diamond shape muscle piece in the center of his back which I would think would be the only way to split the 4 arms away from each other, On our own back it pretty much seperates evenly to two, I figured it was the closest I could get to seperating between two and two in the midpoint of his back. As for the muscles the larger and meaner the character, the more I pack it on and exaggerate, and sometimes does seem a bit cluttered.

oh man... oh... oh jesus christ.... THATS AWESOME!

you know how many pts. i gave you just by reading the first line... give you a hint, its more than five! hee hee

This is very nice. On so many levels. I like the dark shadows.

6/5.

Aw HELLZ YEAH!

Right on, I really appreciate it!

Thanks guys it makes the hand cramps from inking worth the pain!

How (and why) the hell did I get pulled into this negatively?

Anyway, this drawing IS quite nice. You did an especialy nice job with Goro's back muscles... they're hard to illustrate convincingly. Nice!

Personally I don't think you need to color this. I dig the simplicity of clean inked art. Unfortunately for me, I can no longer submit stuff like this unless I want 2/5 dp's and flack. Once you start coloring, that's it.

People have strict expectations, y'know? Keep up the good work!

I'm not looking for any negativity in anything, I only "compete" with people I wouldn't consider my friends, and as my way of thinking goes, everyone gets a shot with me till they lose my respect, so your already in that rung Aculeus.

Your art is exceptionally good, your digital coloring for one is generations past anything I'm capable of, theres pretty much a reason no one sees my stuff in color, I'm no inker, but I am DEFINITELY no colorist.

Expectations are hard to live up to especially after you deliver a monstrous piece, if you decide to change for style or edit it in anyway, you may get flack for it not being the way it "was". Personally I feel everyone has different strengths and abilities, obviously my art is aimed at what I want to do, comic book pencils. We all do evolve in our ability as well, change is good, look at every "well known" artist on these boards....most of our old crap can't hang with any of the new.

Aculeus' art and mine aren't quite on the same topic, our figures are completely different, where as I exaggerate hands and feet and muscles and facial shapes and expressions, Aculeus uses realism (Not an easy task). Ultimately we're two different artists with two different styles and that's ok, thats why people can pick up MULTIPLE books. What fun would life be if you always had to eat a hamburgers? (This excludes those of you who seriously do live off fast food hamburgers)

Aculeus deserves his credit and the last thing I'm looking for is some kind of rivalry with a fellow artist on a topic that is WAY too under illustrated.

It's cool man.

That "bar being raised" stuff is all in your mind. That's why I don't like when people compare themselves and others with their peers... all it really does is make the visual characteristics of a persons art seem like flaws when compared to someone's art that's deemed "better" by the majority.

It's just counter productive, that's all.

The only way I can drag myself up to new levels is by knocking myself down. Anyways were getting off point.

I still want to know where you learned how to shade like that born. Is there a book I can pick it up in? or do you have your own special eye for it?

Honestly I just always shaded like that, my light sources may not always be correct in fact, most of the time they aren't. I know how light sourcing works, and I know how to make it look realistic when it comes to lighting.

To me most of the time I like to break the rules to accentuate the parts you want to or give a feeling of distance even though there isn't a light bulb on their left or their right or right in front of their abs. Kinda the same rules Spider-Man artists have used with his body contortions...Is it possible for a human body to move that way? No...but it sure looks good!