[C&C] My first completed piece

[greengalaxy]

Hey everyone! I'm a real beginner on pixel art. I've tried a few times to do something in the past, but in the end I would give up on completing the piece. 3 days ago I made this small portrait of a guy, the first pixel art piece I've ever completed.



I started by using my black and white drawing as a base, resizing it and drawing the basic pixel outlines on top of it. Then I put the base colors and started working on it. I tried to somehow keep the style and proportions I use on my non-pixel pieces. For the colors I made my own palette based on what I would use if I was working with watercolor. I used the free version of Graphics Gale to do it. If I remember correctly I worked mostly at 900% resolution.

If possible I'd like to have comments and critiques, have mistakes pointed out, etc. This is my first time actually doing pixel art. I'm used with drawing on traditional media, so the process of having to learn everything again is kinda frustrating, but I'm eager to practice, make more pieces and improve. Thanks in advance :3

[MysteryMeat]

Long neck on this one, his shoulders would be showing here. Good stuff otherwise, but I'd either try to get the shoulders in there around 4-6 pixels from the bottom or remove the neck so it's just a floating head.

[greengalaxy]

Thanks for the critique! I like drawing my characters with long necks, but it's good to see that others may not like it, or that maybe it doesn't translate well into pixel art. I'll try adding the shoulders on the next portrait I make, thanks for the tip!

[MysteryMeat]

long necks can certainly look good, it just doesn't work here because it's not a full piece able to relay that it's an intentional decision! Stylism tends to be hard to work with sometimes.

[32]

This is really nice, lovely colours.

Main suggestion would be to take another pass on the rim light on the hair, there's a lot of banding going on. I'd suggest making to two pixels thick and using a slightly darker colour.

And the neck needs some work, the two indents just look like veins. You're ignoring the light source.

[greengalaxy]

I think I can see the problem with the rim light. After I showed it to a friend who has experience with pixel art he pointed out something similar about the rim light too. Honestly I feel the hair lines are kinda jaggy, and I should have done anti-alias, but although the concept of anti-alias seems simple, applying it is really hard to me 

Thanks for the critique! And of course thanks so much for the compliment on the colors, it means a lot to me 

[MysteryMeat]

Anti-aliasing becomes way easier with practice and the understanding that more often than not less is more. Usually you just want to use it to round out curves that are too jagged or to create the impressions of fine details in limited spaces. Keep practicing at it, much like with shading and musculature it only gets easier after you do it a bunch.

[greengalaxy]

So I made one more portrait, and updated the first one a little bit, including shoulders. I tried to keep the character design and palettes of the two guys different, while trying to keep similar proportions and a similar style that would fit together with each other. I gotta say the hair was a nightmare, and even now I really disliked the result, but I think I'll let it rest a bit before trying to fix it.

I dunno, I think the color scheme and shading feels less cohese than the smaller guy, and the hair looks really messy. :< The more I look at it the less I like the result, but at the same time I'm glad I "finished" my second piece of pixel art (even though I'll work a bit more on it). Criticism, comments and tips are sure welcome!

[MysteryMeat]

Actually I think the guy looks great. The slick in his hair gives him that classic movie mafioso vibe, I can already picture him going on a tangent about hookers and blow to the tune of accordions other italy-associated instruments while the stoolie next to him fidgets nervously, adjusting his wired tie.

YA DID GOOD, look at it with fresh eyes later.

As for string-bean, he looks a lot better with shoulder muscles on. good stuff!

[greengalaxy]

Oh, thanks a lot for the compliments! I didn't think of any particular characterization before, so it's really interesting that it gave you this impression haha

I dunno, I don't like the way colors interact in his hair, but I couldn't make it better so far. Maybe I can improve it later. I also don't like his palette so much as the other guy. Maybe it's because the first guy I made the palette more organically, just going with what I felt was right, while in the second one I tried to avert using the same colors on both palettes (that's why I went with greenish shadows for example).