[wip] dino thingy

[JonathanOfDrain]

just because you used the pencil tool on ms paint doesnt make it "pixel art"

and pixel art is not "cartoony"....

pixels mean very much, they have great power.

Pencil tool doesn't mean it's pixel art.
Pixel art can be cartoony if it feels like it.
Pixels do mean very much and they do have great power.

Pixel art is the careful placement of pixels, sometimes in pixel art an entire eye is just one pixel. Careful placement of that pixel is required other wise the eye can be too high or too low.
Pixel art is cartoony, it's also not cartoony. It can be as realistic as life or as unrealistic as Popeye.
Pixel art is a pretty awesome and powerful thing. You can do this:

or this:

I didn't touch your work at all, I merely played with the palette.

That aside, philliptr is right. Your light source is very inconsistent. I thought it was from the top but then she has a shadow on her back. You might want to go back to the line art and fix the anatomy and then goof around with it.

EDIT:
Here's an ugly ugly guide:

I shouldn't have used photoshop but I did. Lighting is pretty accurate. ignore the hands, they're goof.

[tocky]

-colour everything flat, decide where your light is, put bands of bright/dark colour depending on which bits are facing the light. Once you've got it looking roughtly like a 3d object, then you can think about hatching/dithering.
-i've switched out you black stripes with blue ones because (I think?) blue is a rough compliment for orange. You have to shade the stripes, as well.
-don't do so much outlining - it generally makes stuff less appealing.
-he still looks a bit off, because you've sometimes used straight lines where you should be using more organic curves. An obvious example is his spine, which is wicked straight. It should have a bit of a 's' shape.

Everyone: "cartoony" is a style. Pixel art is a medium. If he says he's doing this cartooney stuff for the first time, that's not an insult. This stuff, this picture in particular, is cartooney. Don't go out of your way to be offended. Don't be dicks to people, especially when you first meet them.

pixel art is any art generated by pixels. so yes, just using the pencil tool on ms paint does make pixel art.

You're confusing pixel art with raster graphics. Digital photos, anything that comes out of photoshop, all of that stuff is raster graphics. If you zoom in on it, it's made up of pixels. Pixel art is raster graphics with specific restrictions, usually restrictions like those you'd have on an old computer, like "can't use more than 2^n colours" and "must be no bigger than X by Y, where both X and Y are freaking tiny numbers". There's a whole bunch of skillsets that developed under those restrictions, and understanding them will make you a better pixeller, but anything that fits counts. He's right, anyway. This is pixel art.

[Sherman Gill]

Tocky, you're rather intelligent post as in the shadow of that edit, which completely fails at correcting the main problem: The conflicting lightsources.

[tocky]

Point. Here's a properly-lit-but-extremely rough edit.

He, uh, seems to have lost his elbows in the photoshoppery process. In any case, I think the basic idea is down.

[bengo]

Before even worrying about colors, the dinosaur itself just needs to look more menacing, its pose is rather dull. Try something like this: http://www.androidworld.com/trex.jpg Where he has his mouth open, all ready to eat something. The lines themselves still need alot of clean up.

[lilwing]

thanks guys, i see my mistakes now x_X

i start on a new pose, because i think also the pose looks silly.

tocky, you are right, blue does look better for the stripes. i don't know much about color, but i really appreciate your pointing that out.

tocky and jonathanofdrain, i am thankful for your posts and the extra effort you put in to teach me that.

[philipptr]

One thing that you should think of while shading something is, does this surface face the lightsource, or does it not.
Since even tockys new edit has the same problem I made a small picture to show what I mean:

I added the normals to some surfaces that are highlighted in red and added the lightsource that is suggested by the shading with a bright line. The problem is, that the lightsource is so big. At daylight you have light from all around but the important thing about it is that the brightness is different from different angles.

[lilwing]

okay i started a new image, and before i do any more work on it, i'd like some input on it.


i think that the contrast could be a little better... but how are the other things? is the pose cool? does it look correct in perspective? what about the neck? etc.

oh and i drew a little sun if my lighting technique confuses you

[Alevice]

Scratch the dithering, you should focus on getting the shapes right, both in line and lighting.

[Zero]

Definitely better. But still, up the contrast (I know you mentioned this but I'm saying it anyway. Contrast is your friend ) Also, get rid of the outlines. Anatomy-wise, some of it is a bit strange, but I suppose you get a bit of creative license when drawing a creature that doesn't exist. It might still help though to find some ref pics of dragons.