[~*~violet thunder~*~]

I dislike this picture for several reasons:

1. The "CHRIST" is done in too many colors, it makes it hard to read and almost seems to fade away which I think would be contrary to the religious message that the image is trying to convey. The angle of the stripes are not uniform they appear to start at a 45 degree angle and toward the end of the lettering they approach 10 or 20 degrees. It is very inconsistent.
2. The text otherwise isn't solid in color enough to make a statement - the pencil strokes allowing the white to show are distracting. The T in "NOT" sits higher than the NO.
3. The faded and blurry tree in the background seems rather flat. The balls on it don't hang properly. Three of them don't seem to be attached to the tree and one of the purple ones is particularly sharpened/focused more than the tree. The decorations don't extend to the lower level of the tree and what looks like brown tinsel is wrapped a little too tightly around the tree making it seem an unnatural positioning.
4. It's hard to tell what is in the horse's mouth. It doesn't have any particular dimensions. The colors on it make it difficult to tell what the material is. It looks like it is painted on to the bottom jaw or is stretched tight around the jaw and then it sticks out straight at the viewer. The only thing I can think of that might do this would be Styrofoam but the waves on the right of the green thing seem much different from the jagged parts of it on the left. The position of it in the mouth is awkward. The teeth don't quite hold it in place, it seems painted or draped in there, however the very top of it extends into the horses upper palate as if it were hovering.
5. It's hard to tell where the light source in this picture is coming from. The tree isn't giving off any. The light pink on the top of the cheek and bottom of the eye ridge are contrary to each other. The lack of a light source causes the entire picture to fall flat. That would be fine if this was done in a comic style, however what looks like shading on the green thing in the horses mouth seems contrary to that.
6. The hat: The hat on the horse doesn't lie naturally. If it is supposed to have holes for both ears it would sit forward across the brow. If it was made for one ear it would drape more down the side of the head. It also needs a lot more shading to define the fabric folds and the small poof at the end of the hat is a little too small. They are typically a pretty decent size. The curve of the end of the hat with the poof on it is over pronounced.
7. I don't understand why the horse would need a "Santa Hat"/hat commonly associated with Santa Clause, if the theme of the picture is to promote "Christ in Christmas". It makes the message confusing.
8. The bottom of the cheek rounds way too much like the horse has an orange lodged in its cheek. The top of the cheek is extending into the eye which makes it look strange and over the top. Placing the ears, nostrils, and eyes more naturally would give a better "angry" look to the face.
9. The eye is rather flat and it's hard to tell where the horse is actually looking. It needs more definition.
10. With the horse's nostrils, they flare at an awkward position by tilting forward instead of back. All of the features should sweep backward based on the positioning of the horse's head in an "angry" pose.
11. The hump on the top of the ears is too pronounced. It looks more like a floppy dog ear than a horse.
12. I am not sure what breed of horse this is supposed to be. My best guess would be an attempt at an Arabian - if that is so the eye brow needs to be more defined so that the eye flows into the dished face and forehead.
13. The forehead sits way too high up, even for an Arabian.
14. The background shading is awkward looking. It looks like the light blue was added after the rest of the picture. It has even overlapped the tree slightly on the right side of the tree. That background layer needs to be moved into the background. It needs to flow throughout the background. It looks choppy and confused on the bottom right part of the text bubble and the section where the signature is placed. The dark blue in those spots makes it look like an after thought addition to the picture instead of a purposefully placed background.
15. The text bubble leaks out of its outline in a couple places. It's shape is rather awkward as the font isn't center aligned. It's very lumpy looking. Text bubbles are usually symmetrical and sleeker looking. This one is rather lopsided.

A little bit excessive. Don't you think?
I really do love this picture^-^

[Equid Phantasm]

To Phantom Hawk. "420's use of "white knighting" is when a white knight (the good guy, you) comes and rescues the fair maiden (me) from the bad guy (420). It's from medieval times when there really was supposedly in history a white knight who rescued people (damsels in distress)from bad knights and evil doers. Rarely used in a forum that's mostly kids aged 10 to 20, but understandable in his use of it, at least to me because I do a lot of reading. He's referring to it and using it in a negative way to all the people that came to my defense and using white knighting as the term to describe them (like you). Thank you for being one of my very own white knights. I shall have to award a chicken smoothie sword tap on the shoulder.

You have Have a Merry Christmas PhantomHawk.

Ok, to make it one post instead of 2... here's me going back at Mr. um... "420"...

Ya know the old addage "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" he should think about that. I'll say my one nice thing first... thank you for pointing out so many um... to everyone on CS irrelevant points. The only thing you pointed out with any merit in this site is the eye and I'm going to fix it, not because you pointed out, because P.H. above did thank you.

I almost stopped right there, but I was parusing the oekaki and saw he made another post and started on a tirade on one of my friends, and now that I've seen his second post I'm even more sure he's just trying to be negative having attacked each person that made positive comments in turn and my friend as well (Not even Phantom Hawk, it was another positive poster he attacked.). Each thing he points out really is normal on this site, small imperfections that don't affect the overall work and combining styles/types of artworks... sorry, I think that was a run-on sentence but his attacks on my friend's stuff did bring my ire up even though I disregarded his original post as irrelevant. I'd say with conviction that the only artist that doesn't make those kinds of mistakes in Every artwork they do (Because no one is perfect.) is Oofay... you go Ooofay. I have yet to find anything in Oofay's works to critique to improve on, he's like perfection personified.

Really, 420 should look more art. He says he's used oekaki and yet has none posted, also doesn't know about the 2 different paint brushes and how they affect the finished art, especially lettering, and he obviously doesn't know about dodge, burn, overlay and a few other choice tools used in this oekaki. I used dodge to get the lighter blues and it was right after I did the lines on equid, so since equid was done before the thought bubble, the lighter blue had to be added to the thought bubble... but then he didn't need to know that.

He then later calls Microsoft Paint the most advanced paint program... Definitely undereducated on art programs, obvious error... Um, lets see, Corel, or is it Photoshop's current version and other programs are much more advanced than Microsoft paint ever was. The person posted the "Venice" to Deviant from his computer where he used ms paint which doesn't have any of the current tools we enjoy in oekaki just to his edification. To call Microsoft Paint the most advanced art program out there, again shows his lack of knowledge of online art and the oakaki because Xara or maybe Draw Plus or Real Draw Pro and my favorite I cannot use due to my current computer... Corel, are the best out there, and even the one on Deviant which is Oekaki based somehow similar in many aspects to this oekaki tool can be considered "better" than Microsoft paint for certain. Before oekaki I used paint by the way. Did loads of colorful imperfect drawings. Does he not realize that the person who created the Venice in paint had taken over 500 hours to create. I don't have 500 hours to create a post for Chicken Smootie, does anyone? I looked it up, (( Venice in paint)) I think he lied in his post because If he has done some oekaki,then where's his posts? He may have seen it, but his comments show he's never used it, especially the one about the blue, obviously didn't know about dodge or that stuff can be added later as another layer which the lettering was and so of course, the background had to be adjusted to accommodate the bubble. Obviously he's got no drawings under his screen name... hmmm, isn't that against the rules to do artwork on another screen name and then create a new screen name and clearly state on the new screen name that you've done oekaki before... isn't that called multi-accounting, especially when the new screen name was created on December 18th which he had to have known was the advent special event day if he has a wife and daughter on CS? If he'd done an oekaki on CS he would know just exactly how hard it is to do lettering... to be perfect you have to go pixel by pixel and no one really has the time to do that, not for a little cartoon, and not unless they are doing it for money or don't have anything else to do. If I were a paid artist, then for sure I would have looked for those minor things... it is not as important to be perfect in a cartoon/semi realism. All of us "real artists" on CS know it'd take hours to make a perfect 100% filled in lettering, it's just how the brushes work. Stroke, ok, lets go fill in the stroke... stroke, ok, lets go fill in the stroke... count the square lines in all those letterings, go back and count the times it takes to fill in all the pixels and it would add up to many hours. AS for using no references, many many people do that and have the minor imperfections you've pointed out. Once you know how to draw using the oekaki, unless you want to be a perfectionist then usually ya just go on and draw without reference. Especially if you're pretty good like I'm sorry to say, I know I am pretty good at this. References are not needed when you have any kind of artistic ability and only the worst critic would find such minor flaws as you seem to persist in pointing out. Go read your local sunday paper and the comics... you'll find tons of imperfections because the paper pays for the rights to the cartoon and they dont' care if it's imperfect or not, they just want the cartoon. So many errors every week.

He also said "It looks like the tree is being strangled by the brown snake tinsel." Obviously he has never had any other type of Christmas tree than Douglas fir. Or a fake. My Christmas tree has fluffy needle filled arms and fluffy needle filled top and the arms extend out in long branches away from the bushy body, like a Doug' Fir with arms. (It's live too.) I don't know it's variety for sure, maybe Scotch pine?, but it makes the tinsel go way nearer to the body of the tree than the branches if you do it like I do . He has obviously NEVER put red tinsel in spray paint over the top of a green spray painted anything either... or done any kind of art, because a real artist would have known that green and red when you lay red over green makes the eye see brown, it's a trick of the eye and is used specifically in a style of art called Pointilism, I hope I spelled it right. Pointillism is a style in which red, yellow, and blue mainly are used to create other colors by appearance only with tons of little dots. You can use red and green to make brown for example or red and blue to make purple... there is no brown on that tree, it's a trick of the eye. The tinsel is red over green making his eye see brown and that was an attack calling it being strangled by a brown snake. And about the ornament, I just used the spray paint a little hard on that one, oh well, didn't hurt the artwork at all. Not like I went back and put in highlights to make it stand out, you again showed your lack of knowledge of the oekaki because spray paint is hard to get just the right amount, sometimes like the little balls you refer to, sometimes it's too much or too little. I was NOT GOING FOR PERFECTION AND ALMOST NO ARTIST DOES. Well, maybe except you. I'd seen Venice myself by the way before you pointed it out, and if I had 500 hours to spare, I could do just as good of an art as Venice thank you. I might just do that sometime to prove it. For now, I'll stick to quick ones that are imperfect and flawed like a normal artist.

Besides, regardless of all you've said, like I said twice I think now, even the very worst, meanest art or movie critic or art critic (even if they aren't an artist or an actor) always finds something positive about what they are critiquing. That's how critiques are done. And, it is how art critics are trained if an art critic actually does go to school for it which some do. By the way, before you posted, there were very few artistic comments yet about the artwork, I hadn't seen but one positive and no negative, mainly everyone focused on the issue til Hokami shut them down, so your point about it having enough positive criticisms already is incorrect. Maybe about my other art but not pertinent to this artwork. No an art critic doesn't have to be an artist, but they must understand the program and techniques used and since you didn't understand that in lettering on oekaki it's rarely ever perfect, (and by the way, in paint, you can just turn on a text tool and it does the work for you, oekaki does not have that), especially in such a small space, we can only assume you had no knowledge of the lettering, which, by the way, I started coloring the CHRIST on the right side where it is wiggly as you pointed out, not on the left like classic English left to right... it's because I used lock alpha, another technique you obviously don't know of to lock the original color in a left to right motion, reached over, clicked lock alpha and going right to left put in the lines, and then just threw in random color lines by grabbing complimentary colors from the color grid. But I am giving away some of my techniques, oh well, anyone is free to ask me anyhow.

You obviously from what you've said have contradicted yourself a few times and shows your lack of knowledge of online art and how it's done. Anyone can google artworks that have been done in paint but if you look at the time consumption on all of them it is in the hundreds of hours which normal people who have regular jobs or a real life (you have family and at least one kid you mentioned... do you have 500 hours for an oekaki) just don't have.... that Venice would have taken a full time job 5 days a week for 12 and a half weeks to complete... people like me and almost everyone on CS don't have that kind of time to do a quick artwork. I'm sure every single person will agree that if I took 500 hours to do a oekaki drawing, then it would be every bit as good as your sited Venice.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I am glad I can make you feel better about yourself which is obvious by all the negativity you're throwing at me and even my fans.

Equid

[All THAT]

wow <3 cool horse! great job! and usually I only use x mas i texts for short. but thats usually it, cool angry horse btw >3

[PhantomHawk]

To Phantom Hawk. By the way, his use of "white knighting" is when a white knight (the good guy or "equid phantasm") comes and rescues the fair maiden from the bad guy . It's from medieval times when there really was supposedly in history a white knight who rescued people (damsels in distress)from bad knights and evil doers. Rarely used in a forum that's mostly kids aged 10 to 20, but understandable in his use of it, at least to me because I do a lot of reading. He's referring to it and using it in a negative way to all the people that came to my defense and using white knighting as the term to describe them (like you). Thank you for being one of my very own white knights. I shall have to award a chicken smoothie sword tap on the shoulder.

That is what I guessed it meant, but you never know with some sayings lol...

I guess all I have to say now is that I would rather be a white night then a black night, and thank you Equid Phantasm<3

I believe in constructive criticism! And relevant critiques lol

[Bernouli]

I'm closing this since you guys are just arguing for the sake arguing now anyway because you were told not to turn this into a religion debate. The subject matter of the image probably wasn't going to stop sparking such conversation anyway.