[WIP]First Serious Pixel in a long time.

[Marth]

Hello I'm Marth aka MarthisMarth on PJ. It's been a while since I've seriously pixelled anything. I'm was never really any good and still am not even decent. But Pixelling is fun and I intend to still do it as a spare time hobby. What I have pixelled here is Mario, easy to see, I'm aiming to have it in Josiah's style that Luigi was done in. So I would gladly appreciate some comments and crits on this. Also just for an FYI I did not steal the eyebrows from Josiah's Luigi, I will not lie they are the same as his, but I repixelled them so I can honestly say I made them. The reason why I repixelled the eyebrows exactly as his is because mine were terrible no matter how many times I tried to make them. Josiah seemed to be ok with it. If it really is that bothersome to anyone here I will redo the eyebrows again.

[Souly]

I'm all for scratchy style and all, but it just looks so messy, so uncontrolled.


I really don't like the eyes they're not round they have tumors due to the jaggys.
There's lots of different ways to dither, I suggest you fool around, try and make your peices seem more controlled, get the volume in with blocks rather then with the pencil?
Which is what it looks like here.

[NaCl]

I think someone else made the Luigi, and he "made" the Mario.

[Marth]

Souly you offered some great pointers, and your edit of the Luigi really is a great visiual aid. But the Luigi is not mine, it is Josiah's the Mario is mine. 

[Souly]

Well first off, your first mistake is starting to "sketch" detail in on half of the face before the other one is even colored.
Are you using MSPaint?

If so you should try the eraser tool for filling in proper volumes, some people may use the paintbrush.
But I like the eraser because you are able to add to just a specific color.


So if you had black in the top box, and white in the other, and you held right click and went over any black, it would turn white and not harm anything else.

Also I suggest you change his eyebrows as well, you've simply copied luigi's right eyebrow and flipped it for both sides of marios face. :/
With some minor un-productive edits to it.

[Marth]

I know you said not to sketch out detail before the other half is colored, But I just did a trial and error shot at this new shading you advised. Now for as long as I can remeber people have told me not to shade that way even though I loved to. So it's kinda awkward going back to it after not doing it for such a long time.  But all I wanna know is is this even the smallest step in the right direction? Or am I so far gone it's sad?
EDIT: Also I forget to redraw the eye and reshade my apoligies.

[Souly]

Just because you love to shade with the pencil doesn't mean it's doing you or your work any favors, it shows no control.
And I know you're trying to simulate the style of the Luigi here, but there's so many mistakes with it that you're more less just copying.

Because where you're copying him is where he made all his errors.

[Claredeth]

Heres an edit pal.


It seems you're so eager to dither, but this isn't exactly the step to do it in, in this edit I tried to edit some noisy parts, right now theres hardly any dithering in my edit, the dithering would most likely help you most after finishing the overall depth and face structure.  Remember, dithering when used wrong makes the pixel look messy.  Sorry if I made it too pretty.

[Dex]

I don't really like either of those edits, to be honest. I think Claredeth's is going too much into actual style than realism which is what I believe you were goin' for here, man.

Souly's is more in the right direction, as he's talking about volumes and form and chiaroscuro, that stuff.

I think you can use a similar "wrinkly, old" texture, but making it more smooth and making it not looks so flat and scribbly!

Edit of Souly and Clare's edits:



I didn't have a lot of time, but that's what I want to show you. Use wrinkly skin textures, but make them work to your advantage. Use line to show texture and wrinkles, and most importantly, think about making things clean and not so rough.

Since you talk to me on AIM anyway, ask me any questions ya' got there.

-Dex

[Claredeth]

Judging by all three of our edits we are all trying to lead him in a different direction.  Not sure if your edit shows the wrinkles so well.