Sta.sh
Theme
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But of course there are always the rules......
Please please please fave the journal!
Make another journal about this giveaway and provide a link of that journal in the comments (this will help spread the word about this giveaway)
this journal 
oints:That's why I would like to express my gratitude to you for all your wonderful comments! To be honest, I was stuck with this image for many months because I didn't know how to draw it. Especially
and 
- thank you for your patience with me, for your great advice , suggestions!I'm going to correct the things you mentioned in your comments and when it's ready, I will submit the 2012 version (but this time as the 2013 upgrade ^_- ) as the separate deviation.
Once again, thank you DA community for your support and feedback
.Also, thank you so much for all the devwatches and favs!
Our Sweet Army of Cupcakes
You know, it's the first time I received so many comments which are not just "cute", "kawaii", "nice". Except comments "he is Death Note man" etc which are funny to me because people tend to find similarities to the characters they already know (but it wasn't my intention to make another Light's copy OTL).
The shading on the skulls for instance, is much better defined with sharper and more contrasted shading, which is more effective than the soft edged brush style shading on the older one, where I feel like there is an overall stronger emphasis and/or reliance on the overlayed textures in order to increase the detail and interest in the piece (although not always a "bad" thing I think it's always a mark of improvement when you can come to rely mostly on your own shading and drawing techniques with less use of outside textures and materials, or at least in a less obvious way).
The shading and highlights themselves on the face alone are more defined and give variety and expression to the face that isn't so smoothly conveyed in the first. The chains are more effectively used as parts of the composition by being added to the background rather than just the foreground, because in the first their almost unusually uniform squareness distracts some of the attention from the main subject, whereas in the second, being partly in shadow helps to become an accent or nice addition to the overall atmosphere rather than distraction, and makes better sense composition wise.
There's so much I like about the second, I could be here all day explaining why I like it better in so many aspects
In 2008 I discovered how the textures can be appplied to the pictures and I started experimenting with them. The beginners in using Photoshop tend to make the shading in their pictures look very smooth, almost plastic like (especially when you use airbrush only ^_-). Adding textures results in a more rough surface. The disadvantage is that it flattens the whole shading and the details are less visible. Back then I didn't know anything about color and light theory and I didn't pay attention to the folds or fabric. I feel that I still have to learn but my actual knowledge doesn't let me look at my old drawings with pleasure or satisfaction ; ).
*goes to check out the deviation you're talking about*
Dude, wtf. I didn't even get this in my inbox. D; I love looking at before and after deviations. TBH, I like your more recent version more, but people have different tastes in styles, and maybe that's why they liked the old version better. I think you improved a lot, imo. The actual before and after deviations - there's so much more accuracy, detail, and correct shading/highlighting in the recent one.
However, it's good that, though you didn't get much feedback, and it might have hurt or have been discouraging that people liked your older version better, that you found positivity in it, and were able to rise above the situation.
Keep working hard!
just keep practice, i love your arts.