"Xianghua, Kilik & Edgemaster" by Johan Aronson

Lets just hope kilik doesn't fall, because then he would have a stick where you would not really want one.... The rainbow is ridiculous...

Johan Aronson replies: "Don't blame me, it's Nature's fault for making rainbows appear in waterfalls!"

I don't agree with Alex (above). I love the two bottom characters, especially the edgemaster. I love his detail and he lends a sense of purpose to the picture beyond just study of one character. The rainbow adds color and reality, and I really like the water coming from the temple. I do agree that maybe the mountains could have had more done to them, but having too much detail behind those two characters would be too much. Maybe just a little less sketchy, like not being able to see the strokes so much.

And I love your style. It makes me smile.

Johan Aronson replies: "Thank you very much!I drew Edgemaster last, and by the time it was time to draw him I hadd gotten much better with photoshop. So the painting techniques used for him and Xianghua worked much better than the ones used on Kilik. But I was running low on time when I did him, so he is a bit rushed."

Whoo, that is the best peice of soul calibur fanart i have ever seen in my whole entire life, i never even thought of soul calibur im going to try and do some (never as amazing as that but i'll get better) well, anyway thats brilliant, keep up the great work.

Johan Aronson replies: "Wow, thank you! I'd be happy to see any SC fanart you do."

Hey firstly this is an absolutely excelent picture with a really nice mood and it's plenty better than I could do at the moment but there are a few weak parts in my opinion firstly xianghua and edge master are much weaker drawings in my opinion, I think it would look better if you got rid of them especially considering their odd placements with regards to the composition of the picture, also the background seems a little weak, the clouds and sky are nicely painted and and the colours are beautiful but the mountains look strange the two mountains in the back could just be faded into a desaturated shade of blue a bit darker than the sky. The temple on the left also needs a bit more work and the rainbow in opinion looks ridiculous and is a bit pointless really but despite all that I really do like this, it's inspired me to do a bit more character based work myself as I've been concentrating on environments for quite a while now.

Johan Aronson replies: "Thanks a lot for the compliments and criticism. Especially the criticism - compliments are always encouraging and flattering, but it's the critique you learn the most from.You have a point about the Xianghua and Edgemaster. Reason they're squeezed down at the bottom was that I needed space for the joystick and all the buttons. I actually did a version with just Kilik, and maybe it looked better, but after spending so much time doing the other two I wanted to keep them. It's hard killing your babies. I agree about the background, it could have used a little more time to touch it up. Though I disagree about the temples, I think putting too much detail in the background would just have been distracting. The temples are actually one of the things I'm most happy about in this picture. About the rainbow, it's really not there to add some cheesy romantic feel, it's just that rainbows appear in waterfalls in reality. Again, thanks for taking the time to write such an elaborate comment. I'll be sure to check out your gallery too!"

What makes you think her love is unrequited??!?!? When I played sc3, in her canonical ending, kilik says he wants her to stay with him === <3

Nice picture btw.

Johan Aronson replies: "Hm... As I recalled, Kilik was totally oblivious to Xianghua's flirting, and was just happy to have her as a sparring partner. But I guess I'm remembering it wrong or something. And thanks!"

I gotta say, it's an art to balance like that when you have edgemaster poking you with a stick and Xianghua making lovey dovey eyes at you. Congrats though and ::blows a raspberry at all those who say the rainbow is stupid:: Go look up a picture of rainbow and waterfalls. It looks just like that. Very nice job.

Love the sky!

pretty cool

Hey, it's always nice to give crits to people who really understand and value them and just about the rainbow I do know that rainbows can appear in waterfalls but it's in no way neccessary for example I was in Canada at niagara falls a couple of weeks ago in bright sunshine and didn't see so much as a hint of a rainbow but also this one looks very forced as it's been placed just down in that bottom right corner (I'm trying to say it's the composition that I have a problem with not it's theoretical existence of said rainbow) oh also it's quite likely for it to be a broken rainbow in a waterfall as the rainbow can only exist when there's water vapour for the light to refract through. Another thing about the rainbow is that the arc seems very sharp again adding to the forced effect, it looks like you bent it so it would fit into the space you needed it to be in. I do however take back what I said about the temples, you're right they are fine maybe the rocks behind them need a little work just to make it look like the temples really belong in them, I understand that you want to keep focus on the foreground as theres a fair bit happening there but they look a little pasted on at the moment but hey thats really nothing more than a nitpick oh and with the rest of your background I was really talking about simplifying it rather than making you spend more time on it here's an example although you
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/boreal-forests/picture.boreal-forests.wrst37132.html
probably already get the idea
Wow that was a long post considering the majority of it was about a rainbow that composed about 4% of your picture, anyway best of luck in your future pictures.

Um I kinda hate the look on Xianguha’s face. looks like she had a makeup overdose around the eyes... everyone else looks cool though...