[Cicinimo]

These were a series of illustrations I did for teamxbox (www.teamxbox.com). They wanted their senior staff members illustrated as if they were video game characters. Long project, but it was fun, and it gave me some quality exposure.

The designer at teamxbox took them and made wallpapers for the peeps there. Here's my personal favorite...
http://www.teamxbox.com/images/wallpapers/wallpapertxbgroup_1024.jpg

Feedback!


Cicinimo

[ April 11, 2002: Message edited by: Cicinimo ]

[Lukiaz]

Wow man, not surprised your posting top class work.
They are all really well done, theres slight posture and anatomical issues. eg on the first pic his left arm is too short.
But other than that they all rock!.

Your gonna be famous even before your a certified man!

[Akolyte]

Nice stuff. I see a bit of Mr. Zhu in your designs Cool chic.

[pixelsoldier]

Awesome stuff as always, but I'm kinda feeling like some aspects are a little TOO similar to Feng's stuff. Especially the girl.. those boots.. :/

[maceface]

hey great work man...my one crit is the arms look a little weird on all of them. other than that i like them very much

[gArGOyLe^]

HEY! I saw that on Teamxbox.com I sent some pictures too.. but I didnt color them so Shockwave said sorry

Great job mon!

[gArGOyLe^]

BTW .. the teamxbox.com gave me Feng Zhus site.. they told me that they want something very much like that.. so probably.. thats why these look like Fengs work

[Cicinimo]

You guys are exactly right. They infact went to Feng before they looked elsewhere (he was too expensive) and eventually got a hold of me. They actually would have liked for me to draw things even closer to his style, but I didn't want to, for obvious reasons. Of course, my coloring looks more like liquid stuff.

Cicinimo

[Liser Studios]

i already gave you some critiques about all this, so i'll just say it again, i like it a lot

what's the link to feng's site? i've been there before, but i forget?

[Cicinimo]

Thanks

Fengs place is http://www.artbyfeng.com

Weee...

Cicinimo

[Bump]

nice.

Legs too short, annoying.

[Cicinimo]

Haha, yeah, I've been told that. Do you think all three of them have too short of legs, or just the guy with the gottee?

Cicinimo

[S4Sb]

I have a bad feeling with this. I mean, it's obvious that you can draw, but that really looks too much like Feng's work. It looks like you stole his designs. I don'T care about the colouring, but the weapons, the boots, the pose, the small cylinders everywhere... too much

[Cicinimo]

Well I'd hate to give you a bad feeling. Pinup pose designs are pretty standard bro.


Cicinimo

[St. Seneca]

The bottom line is, did you draw those images with your own hands without tracing? Then it's your work and you did an excellent job. You stole nothing.

[gArGOyLe^]

yea.. thats awesome work..

oh yea.. Barts legs are slightly short.. but shockwave and his wife look awesome!

[VanhoozerArt]

Beautiful work.
You aren't ripping anyone off.

[Gygaxis]

Hey Cici, haven't seen your work in some time, you've improved so much. This images are all very impressive, I especially enjoy the color

[m_dv]

Hi,

The illustration looks quite nice, however to be honest the first thing the snap to my mind when I first saw them, was that it was Feng who had posted them, meaning my instincts referred to him instead to "you". My point is that, you want to be referred as you, a unique individual artist, not as �the guy that draws like Feng� no matter how likely to Fengs work they wanted it. I mean no offence; just try to be true to yourself. Also I'm sure you may be wondering why is everyone saying that it looks like Feng work, all I can comment in that is that if its been told the particular way by everyone, is because of a reason, and I think you know which. I don't want to critique your actions, or anything that may seem as if I was condemning it, all I can say what my first impression was...from that you can develop what the message is.

BTW, you posted here to get comments, and those are my true and honest comments, I apologize if you felt offended in any way, again...I mean no offence. Basically it will be worthless and not helping you if i just sat here and just write "WOW that looks great, nice job" even though they do look great, but compare the one sentence (careless comment) to my what I have said. I'm sure you will be able to notice the differents.

Only my 0.2c

-Daniel

[email protected]

[ April 12, 2002: Message edited by: m_dv ]

[Beowulfthefallen]

He's already stated that it's not his regular style to draw like Feng does. He was doing it to comply with an employer. If someone paid you money to do something in that style, I'm sure you'd jump at the opportunity too. Cicinimo is talented in his own right, and he doesn't need to base his things off of Feng to be considered a good artist.

[m_dv]

Then I will supposed we can be as famous as da vinci was if we copied his work? Basically, that's what you imply in your comment Beowulfthefallen.

Besides, if they wanted their work to look as Fengs, they may as well use a copy machine to print it, ask Feng to draw it or ask someone to re-draw it. As I said before, I'm not condemning by any way any of the fine work done by the artist here.

Also, I do not agree with the fact that you mention talent, talent does not come withouth experience is my personal believe, is not a "gift" from god as many people believe. This may sound "revolutionary" in a way, but then again we are allow to speak as we wish.

-Daniel

[ April 12, 2002: Message edited by: m_dv ]

[gArGOyLe^]

Teamxbox told artists that they will accept work which is in the style of Fengs work or something close to that. I made something in my own style but they didnt accept it. Cici successfully make Feng style work and he got in.

I dont think Beowulfthefallen implied anything like that. but maybe I'm reading it differently .

Cici is very experienced for 16 years of age. Plus.. there are tons of talent discussions these days.. very interesting

quote:

---

Originally posted by m_dv:
Then I will supposed we can be as famous as da vinci was if we copied his work? Basically, that's what you imply in your comment Beowulfthefallen.

Besides, if they wanted their work to look as Fengs, they may as well use a copy machine to print it, ask Feng to draw it or ask someone to re-draw it. As I said before, I'm not condemning by any way any of the fine work done by the artist here.

Also, I do not agree with the fact that you mention talent, talent does not come withouth experience is my personal believe, is not a "gift" from god as many people believe. This may sound "revolutionary" in a way, but then again we are allow to speak as we wish.

-Daniel

[ April 12, 2002: Message edited by: m_dv ]

---

[Kaete]

They're very pretty, and look *almost* quite professional.

The reason I say "almost" is the anatomy. The anatomy of the men is so odd that it's almost disturbing.

I don't really know Feng Zhu, so perhaps that's some element of his style that you were emulating. But still, it's strange to see such careful work with that anatomy.

It's like building a million dollar house on top of three cinderblocks.

[Cicinimo]

VanhoozerArt: Thankyou

Gygaxis: Thanks alot!

m_dv: I don't post simply for praise. Its nice, but I'd prefer a helpful, thorough critique. I'm not quite sure why you're accusing me of aimlessly posting for back-pats. Believe it or not I make a conscious effort to improve my work; meaning I listen to the opinions of my others. Anyhow, thats really beside the point.
I'm not offended by your post, however I do disagree in some regards. Lets forget the fact that I *was* aiming for style similar to Feng's. Just for a second; say I was doing this as a personal project without being instructed to achieve a particular look. I don't know if you've seen my work before, but its *always* changing. I havn't forced any particular style on myself, and I continue to try new things. Oftentimes, that means studying and applying the techniques of others (although I did not use any work as a reference while I drew the characters, the resemblance came from previous study). Joe Mad started out an Arthur Adams clone. I'm entirely sure Feng has his own share of influences. I won't use my age as an excuse, but I will use my inexperience: you're expectations may be a bit high if you want me to jump into an entirely new, personal, and innovative style as a sophmore in high school.

Beowulfthefallen: Thanks bro, I appreciate it

GarGOyLe: Thanks. The truth is, I didnt submit anything except my website, and tell shockwave that I could aim for a feng-like style. He went through my gallary and picked the things he liked (which image showed the coloring style he prefered, which designs he thought were better suited, etc). I didnt start drawing anything for him until after he garaunteed I was in.

Kaete: I agree. That missing element of proffessionalism, the gap in my grasp on anatomy, is an area I've been working hard at closing. I've spent half an hour looking at my own arms in the mirror. Hopefully some life drawing classes in a few years will help me out there. Thanks again!


Cicinimo

[FFNeX]

First of all it does look like Feng's work, but you know what? There's NOTHING wrong with that. He has his own style and wanted to emulate someone else's, we have ALL done that sometime, if anything it helps you get better.

Secondly, who says Feng hasn't created a style? Is everyone who paints surrealism copying Salvador Dali? I think not...

This guy has even been kind enough not to dispute that indeed this was based on Feng's style, seriously, some people here are way too obsessed with "original" artwork and this is without a doubt the most hostile forum I've been to...

Last, if you really know Feng's style (And I'm no expert but I love the guy's style) you can totally tell these pictures are not his, the faces are nothing like Feng's, specially the noses, Feng would never get the anatomy wrong and his poses are more interesting.

I think these 3 pieces are quite good nonetheless and all the mistakes have been pointed out so you know what to work on, anatomy (The arms specially) and the poses look kinda weird, even for standard pinup. You should keep doing your original stuff but there's nothing wrong with emulating other artists and learning from their style IMHO.

Finally I'd like to say that this is not a flame to those who have been criticizing his emulation of Feng's work, I'm not here to offend anyone, nor want to; and even though I do think this place is hostile as heck (Specially to newcomers) I love it to death and even though I'm nowhere near the level of the people that post here I have learned much from those who have been kind enough to help me and I have improved a whole lot from what I used to be. I cannot be grateful enough to those people.

I'd love to know what Feng would say about this

[Cicinimo]

St. Seneca: Thanks, I agree. Its very clear that my work is very different from Feng's. Regardless, this isn't my typical style, but rather the look txb was going for. There's no shame in picking up a few things from more experienced artists. If we want to talk about style influinces, the number of Mullins clones would be off the page.

Gargoyle: Hey, you know their names! Heheh, you must be a team xbox visitor. Thanks

[S4Sb]

quote:

---

Cicinimo:
If we want to talk about style influinces, the number of Mullins clones would be off the page.

---

It's one thing to copy one's technique. It's another thing to copy ones ideas.

I don't really see why you posted those pics here, if not for praise reasons? There's nothing that can be given critique here, except for the lack of anatomy knowledge, which you already knew about before you posted. It's Fengs ideas coloured by liquid!

But if this is where you want to go...

[borni]

plz give the guys some balls..

[m_dv]

By the way, funny enough...but I'm a highschool sophmore too, in New York that is! So basically, the "inexperience" as you said can be shared by both, therefore making our points more truth, more realistic then we had expected.

As I repeatly stated it before, I'm not here to condemn or judge anyone else by any means, and is sad that fact that posting a truth message will upset you, and the fact that a careless comment (for example: WOW nice job, keep the good work) will be enough for you. But as they say here in New York, "Whatever floats your boat".

Cheers,
-Daniel

[Cicinimo]

S4Sb: Huh? I think you're giving Feng a little too much credit if you're calling weird armor, huge backpacks, shoulderpads, big guns, and huge boobs "his ideas". His designs are just as cliche as the next guy's. Its his style that sets them apart in quality. I did use some elements from that style, hence we call these "style elements"...

I'm pretty sure most of the competent people at sijun agree with me on this: you're showing your ignorance and being a punk. "I don't really see why you posted those pics here, if not for praise reasons"?. At least this line made me smile. Why don't you go ahead and respond to every post in the finished work section with that one.

Borni: hahaha, true, true. The question is, how do I make a buldge without making it look obscene.

m_dv:

quote

Quote:

As I repeatly stated it before, I'm not here to condemn or judge anyone else by any means, and is sad that fact that posting a truth message will upset you, and the fact that a careless comment (for example: WOW nice job, keep the good work) will be enough for you. But as they say here in New York, "Whatever floats your boat".

Wow, you're a martyr for the cause. Way to jump in there and fight for the truth! After you pump your righteous self on your own sense of justice and your uncanny superego, you might hit earth again and realize I was just out for a little critical feedback, not a moral seminar. And how does the fact that we're the same age make either of us right. In response to your earlier statement "why didnt they get Feng to do it"; they tried, but he was out of their price range. Then they came to me. Spaz down.

Cicinimo