Dragon

[Deluxe0111]

What do you think of my dragon? XD

[dpixel]

It looks a bit contorted and the perspective seems off.  From the size of the wings and the big eye I would say it looks like a scared baby dragon, but I'm not sure.

I played with it a little:

[Decroded]

It looks a bit contorted and the perspective seems off.  From the size of the wings and the big eye I would say it looks like a scared baby dragon, but I'm not sure.

I played with it a little:

And stronger use of dithering implies texture (scales) well.

[Manupix]

It's a good and cute start, but there are some basic flaws.
If you haven't already, you should read this tuto (and / or others like it).
Did you use a reference? If yes, link it. If not, find one (or better: several). It looks like you used one for some of it (head, legs), but not all (wings).

This is a good size for practice because the number of pixels remains manageable, but it also means that line work is unforgiving. You should begin by fixing that: there are many places where the lines look jaggy or sloppy and could be improved. For instance, the curve of the back; the variable thickness of legs and tail.
The wings need to be redrawn entirely, on both readability and realism counts.

Then the palette needs tweaking. Study dpixel's edit, it's a big improvement in this (and others) respect.
Shading: you already have a light source, but you need more contrast to make it obvious, as well as highlights.

And stronger use of dithering implies texture (scales) well.

Although I agree with this, I strongly advise against dithering at this point.
Dithering (and generally refining) is something you should only do on a solid basis, which means a piece where composition, anatomy, color and shading issues have all been fixed.
Also dithering is advanced. That's no reason for not trying though, but just be aware that it's a long, pixel by pixel adventure. Generally, the less dithering, the better.

[Daimoth]

It looks a bit contorted and the perspective seems off.  From the size of the wings and the big eye I would say it looks like a scared baby dragon, but I'm not sure.

I played with it a little:

And stronger use of dithering implies texture (scales) well.

I don't think so. I think it's very, very difficult to make dithering imply anything specific. Cyangmou had a knight recently that somehow make it look like chain mail, but to me dithering is almost always a form of stylization.

[Deluxe0111]

It's a good and cute start, but there are some basic flaws.
If you haven't already, you should read this tuto (and / or others like it).
Did you use a reference? If yes, link it. If not, find one (or better: several). It looks like you used one for some of it (head, legs), but not all (wings).


Then the palette needs tweaking. Study dpixel's edit, it's a big improvement in this (and others) respect.
Shading: you already have a light source, but you need more contrast to make it obvious, as well as highlights.

Thank you i'll have a look

This was my reference which was really just for my line work

http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/4234/2/1/20335/how-to-draw-a-cute-dragon-step-7.htm


I think I probably need to go through a few tutorials when it comes to creating a palette and contrast

[Deluxe0111]

My improved version

[Manupix]

Much better! Nice wings.

The curve of the back is still a little jaggy at the very top.
The head could possibly use some tweaking too, to keep closer to the ref baby-ish face. The horns will probably need to take some liberty from the ref though; they also might have a different color.
It might be interesting to get away from the ref and try a bigger head anyway, to make better use of what little pixel space you have. It should go well with the cartoon style you're going for.

The brown underside is too thick in the front (neck), as its horizontal outline in continuation of the belly makes an unwanted eye-catching element.

Generally, beware of inside outlines. They take up a lot of space that could (should) be used for shading, and don't help with readability for the smaller elements (eye, claws, wing tip).

Colors: here's a breakdown of your palette.
At least one of the mid-greens should go, possibly two (one is used in only 2 pixels!), and you could do with two browns.

The shadow purple is very dark (almost black on my monitor) and too saturated; also it doesn't make sense as you don't have purple anywhere else, and it's not consistent with the dark green shadows on the dragon itself.
On the contrary in dpixel's edit, the dark blue outlines, dark brown shifted towards colder tones and bluish light greys elsewhere give sense to his light purple shadow.

Avoid pure white, esp in the claws which come out as very noisy.

Try some hue-shifting (as explained in cure's tuto I linked before, also here). Notice how the hues (H column in the HSV breakdown) are very close for all the greens, and for all the browns? You might shift the brighter greens towards warmer colors, and the darker towards colder, and so solve the shadow color issue. You also need near neutrals, to bridge between the greens and browns, for instance. As it is, most of your saturations are above 70.

[9_6]

My improved version

(I don't know what's up with the white pixels here. Graphics gale acts dumb about transparency sometimes.)

You should turn the saturation down on your colors.
Generally, colors get more saturated the more shaded they are.

Green is cyan mixed with yellow, you can use yellow highlights and cyan-bluish shadows instead of a boring, monochromatic, green ramp.

That shadow color is so dark, it looks like part of the dragon rather than the shadow underneath it.

You don't need to dither here. Especially the belly area absolutely doesn't need it.

[Deluxe0111]

I attempted some hue shifting - not sure about it though

I tried to turn the shadows to a bluer hue as well however it looked odd - I did this by keeping all the values the same except the hue value



Is this the right way of going about it?

[Manupix]

Beware of the word 'value' in this context, as it's what the V in HSV means (you'd say 'brightness' in ordinary language; it's what remains when all color information is withheld).

I only see the cast shadow as blue, not the shaded parts of the dragon itself. Compare with 9_6's edit.
Also it seems you turned down all saturation: that's not the idea!
Breakdown of both your latest version and 9_6's edit.

The most saturated colors now are the outline dark green (052807), then the browns (there's still one single pixel of 034917 btw, you can find it by hovering over the palette swatches). The idea is rather to create a palette that has a range of values and saturations, so you can find a suitable color for every use in your piece.

Generally, colors get more saturated the more shaded they are.

This is one way to do it, I wouldn't say it's the best for this piece though, although 9_6's edit is the best and my fave so far =)
Cartoons would rather use highest sat in the mid-ranges, I think, and saturated highlights can give some vibrancy (rather advanced though!).

Take your time about it. Palette construction is no easy sport. Search here and on the PJ forum for threads specific about this. Might post some links later.
Also a good exercise is to use a pre-set palette, either from a palette challenge or some vintage system specs. If you can grab an 8-color palette somewhere (the crazier the better!), you'll learn a lot about color use through the restrictions, and that will in turn help you create your own, later.