[WIP] Sprite

[Gatts]

Just getting back to pixel art   



CC greatly apreciated 

[Cyangmou]

Your palette is really nice, your sprite isn't as nice at the moment. But there are some things you definitely can think off to make it better.

First of all I have to say that you jumped into detailing quite early. You started with detailing even before you figured out the pose which will lead to some big problems.
If you look at several images of link and the pose he is drawn in (I brought it down to some quick shilouette sketches, first line of the image) you see that it's in general a very dynamic or a very confident stand pose. The shilouette of the sword and the shield are quite uniqe, as well as the shilouette of the cap. Your drawing lacks atm the forms of the shield and the sword and If you break it down to the shilouette (second line, first picture) you will see that there isn't any action into it nor it looks really confident.

The second thing I have to point out is that your lightsource feels atm a bit wonky. it's better to block in some raw shapes first (second line, third image as quick suggestion) to set the general volume and add all the gradients and details later on this basis. It's pretty easy to change those planes to get a better form. It's hard to correct already detailed parts -In most cases you have to redraw them.

[Gatts]

Sorry for the lateness on replying 

I can't describe how much your post was helpful    I will be posting updates soon

[Gatts]

What about now? 

[HarveyDentMustDie]

In the first image he look like he is    cross-eyed. You should pay attention on such small details, cause they can ruin the image. 

[Cyangmou]

the stance is now much better than in your first one    But while working on the pose, some new issues occured.

It seems that you have general problems with proportions and planes in deep space.
Your current sprite is atm 5 heads high. This can be pretty fine as long as you want a cartoon figure or somewhat similar. But you chose TP as reference for your costume and so I think this happened just accidentally.

It's a good thing to know of the most common proportion canons for the human figure. A easy thing is to measure the body height and width with heads. If you are taking the measurements of common people you have a heigth of 7.5 heads and a shoulder width of 2 head-lengths (for men).

but there are some more possibilities you can use - pay attention to the shoulder width and the points where each head starts or ends, the grid is equally to head-lengths.



Just by doodling a figure, it's possible to maintain the most important proportions. After all in this early state it's possible to change the whole shape within a few seconds to make it right - the big advantage of any digital media. You can see how much impact even some pixels can have.
I just doodled the figures straight ahead - regarding to the chart above there are some improvements left to make.


The next thing is that you should also measure planes like the shield roughly with your eye. I don't referenced it but regarding to my memory links shield has a height to width ratio of about 1:0.75. The widest part of the shield is in a height of about 0.75 - by recognizing this keeping it roughly in mind you can draw the shield more appropriate. But foreshortening can affect the ratios heavily. If you don't know the ratios or exact forms you should also use some reference - I was too lazy to get one




The first thing you should worry about is to get the body without clothes right. After you set the proportions and the pose right you can add them pretty easily - also with some flat shapes.
If you aren't very experienced at drawing I'd heavily recommend to use a reference - this helps to spot issues - and if you know of your issues it's easier to work on them.