@Jinza:
that looks really cool. it does kind of change the dramatic lighting i was attempting but maybe that's a good thing? the only negative i have about your version is i lose some of the interesting highlights, like on the dimple in his cheek. other than that it still looks great and gives me some ideas on how to re approach this. i really appriciate your input
@Helm:
the outline is something i've been kinda fighting with...
(a little back story)
here's something i'm sure no one on these boards has said: i'm working with a friend of mine to try to make some games.
doing our stuff in pixels was my idea but he wasn't super familiar with that medium. he found the derek yu tutorial, saw the selout stuff and decided we needed to learn that.
so that's what that is. an attempt at selout. hopefully this doesn't turn into another one of THOSE threads. as far as my stance on selout, i'm agnostic. sometimes it looks good, sometimes it isn't necessary. i guess for the most part this character doesn't need it because he's already in a cartoon style that relies heavily on bold outlines. like i said though, this was mostly practice so i'm not afraid to throw out the pseudo-selout. if i did throw it out, would you mostly worry about the exterior outlines/outlines for larger shapes? i ask because of cartoon line theory: larger/more important forms have bolder outlines. i.e. the outlines on his gut would get bolder while the outlines defining his mouth and chins would potentially stay the same?
thanks again, to everyone for crits, help, example improvements. i typically suffer these kinds of things by myself but from what i've seen this seems to be a pretty helpful community.