I'm really bad at drawing hair

[Pusty]

@Friend wow I never looked at the grayscale image but I have seen that some colors are harder to see. Thank you this is really helping!
I'm mostly using ProMotion. I though he made it beforehand because the colors have relations with each other (and ain't just strait lines) ,well I didn't mean to pick colors and never change them I just meant the relations.


Well I tried to use some of the stuff I learned and made a new image (as I'm not really able to redo something because I always fall back to use the original ^^)
I'm not too happy with the eyes and I know it is not good in general but I hope I improved a bit:



Referenze:
Spoiler

http://fruitbatfactory.com/100orange/img/Suguri.png

[Friend]

it's a step in the right direction.  the hair and skirt have better contrast.    though the hair probably now has too much if you're not gonna use an intermediate color. the shirt needs more contrast though.

i hope this helps:

[Pusty]

Thank you! I tried to adjust things:

[Friend]

great  the contrast is wonderful and everything is very easy to see yet well balanced.  now try improving your pixel clusters.  how i do it is i sorta chicken scratch in an  idea of the cluster i want.  after i can see that the cluster will work, i go back and refine, noting every pixel's influence on the cluster.  this may mean altering several pixels or maybe only 1-3.  sometimes i have to AA a particularly complicated cluster into the right shape. 

many of your pixel clusters can be refined into a more controlled shape, but particularly ugly clusters are the light hair clusters sticking out of the hair in shadow-the clusters near the bottom right of her hair.  the more refined your clusters, the better your pixel art will be.

take another crack at the eyes.  something like that just may take practice and trial and error and lots of moving of single pixels. 

lastly, it might not be necessary to shade the head.  we already get the round feel of the head by the shape and shading of the hair on top of her head.  shading the head may take away from the anime feel in this case, making it look more like a toy doll, but i could be wrong

[Seiseki]

You should take another look at the reference.
Mainly the eyes, you're missing the eye whites and the reflection.
This makes it look like she has red matte sunshades on.

Also, you keep missing the jaw, in this one and the previous one. Without a defined jaw it looks kinda freaky, like a balloon head.

[Pusty]

@Seiseki
Thank you! I have looked at the reference and then I noticed it as well. No clue how I have overseen that.
The reflection on the other hand was noticed by me but I have not clue how to implement that (I tried for half a hour but really nothing looked nearly like a reflection)

You are right! These look like a balloon heads lol. But I'm not sure what you meant by defining the jaw , I tried some stuff (and I'm able to imagine how it should look like) but I don't think this good enough (if it's any good that is)

[Seiseki]

You don't want a smooth transition between neck and face, the previous dark shade you had on the chin and up the cheek looked like one connected piece.
But it doesn't look as jarring now when you removed it. Adding the eye whites is also a huge improvement.

If you look at Friend's edit, he also puffed up her right cheek which I think balances out the head more and gives you that typical anime shape.
Also, you should look at his eyes, especially the dark outlines which further helps sell the anime style.

Remember, some things look kinda odd up close, especially eye reflections, since they tend to bleed into the eye whites. But you can't only look at it zoomed in.

[Pusty]

Hmm I tried a bit not sure tho':

[Friend]

dude that's awesome improvement over your original.  You actually captured the emotion of suguri really well.  The only thing i'd work on is just pixeling more carefully, going back to the thing about pixel clusters.  Everything is there, it just needs to be cleaned up.  Get rid of jaggies and ugly clusters.  Smooth clusters into nice curves and flowing shapes.  This breaks up the pixel grid and makes it look more like you arent so restricted by blocky shapes. 

not sure if this helps but i went and made a chart showing your improvement in addition to my finished version




(didnt realize her shirt was white lol)

[Pusty]

Not sure if these changes make anything better. (Thanks for giving me so much feedback! )