Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: gliding on August 16, 2007, 01:03:37 pm
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It's been a really long time since I've done any real pixeling, so I decided to do a small portrait. I'd really like some nice C&C to help me learn from this piece. Thanks guys :)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/3.png)
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I think its a great piece! I have a few touch up reccomendations.
1. I think her hair needs some shading. The white hightlights are good but it looks a little plain.
2. I think there is a little too much shading around her mouth and nose. I'd say her nose even looks a little skew. If you remove the shading on the right side and straighten up the left it should look better. also a little too much shading around the corner of her lip.
i have an edit but can't upload it right now.
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Thanks Franky, :)
Here's what i came up with so far after your edits. What do you think?
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/3-3.png)
edit, my main problems are getting the mouth to look relaxed without overshading, so i hope someone can help me out with this as well :)
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little edit trying to define a few things :
(http://xs218.xs.to/xs218/07335/Quickie.png)(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/3-3.png)
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Wow, I really appreciated the edit adarias. I took as much as i could to heart, although I kept the face slightly thinner than yours.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/newone-1.png)
I also changed the eyes somewwhat and tried to define things a bit more. any comments?
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Ok heres mine based on your last edit.
EDIT: (was previously in JPG format)
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff175/alfiescuba/portraitfrankyedit.gif)
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Thank you for the edit Frankym, I just don't know if it really fits the direction i was going for. I do, however, see where the edit on the hair is going- mine seems a bit to square/angular.
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Franky, haven't you made her quite manly now? and jpeg'd?
Glid - the reason i filled out the cheek wasn't so much to make her fat; there are some necessary structures that people like to carve into when drawing women that really cant be carved. The biggest issue I have with the current and all past iterations is that she looks like that guy in the health-class videos who lost half his jaw chewing tobacco :
(http://deseretnews.com/photos/2780764.jpg)
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I wouldn't say Franky's is more manly, just less anime. There's all sorts of face shapes, and gliding's free to go for whichever he wants, of course.
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Thanks for the crits guys,
Franky G: I think your edit is very valid (even though it seems more masculine), but I don't know if it's going in the direction i really want for this piece. I do see how the edit on the hair could be used though.
Adarias: I sort of see where you're going with the comment on the jawline. Does this look better?
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/newish.png)
I'm trying to find a happy medium between the rounder face yours demonstrates, and a sharper jawline that i'm going for.
Helm: thanks for that aswell, do you have any crits regarding the face shapes that might hold with the style. I was also wondering if you guys (including the others) had any ideas as far as the colours go. I'm still feeling iffy about the blue/green as a mid tone (it might just be my looking at this portrait for too long :/)
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To me the second-lightest colour (used on both the skin and hair) looks a bit grey. It's less saturated than the other colours used on the skin, and makes the skin look a little too bluish overall..
Of course, if you make it a smoother ramp with the other skin tones, you might not be able to use it in the hair as well. But if you don't want to increase the colour count, you could probably remove colour #747A4C since it's hardly used (and replace it with a new lighter shade to buffer the highlight on the hair)
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To me the second-lightest colour (used on both the skin and hair) looks a bit grey. It's less saturated than the other colours used on the skin, and makes the skin look a little too bluish overall..
Of course, if you make it a smoother ramp with the other skin tones, you might not be able to use it in the hair as well. But if you don't want to increase the colour count, you could probably remove colour #747A4C since it's hardly used (and replace it with a new lighter shade to buffer the highlight on the hair)
I might try adding a colour since i sort of like how #747A4C (which i had to go check to make sure which one it was :P). I'm not completely worried about the saturation of the blue/green, I just feel that it leans towards a hue that isn't warm anough for the rest of the piece :/ maybe i should use an orange or something like that?
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Colour edit: (although now I look at it again, I seem to not have made the new colour on the skin quite light enough...)
(http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/663/image1zw1.png)
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That the eyes are manga but the nose/mouth isn't reminds me of the art by the Amberstar/Ambermoon/Albion guys
http://hol.abime.net/3256/screenshot
http://hol.abime.net/5117
with the straight noses and minute mouths. This is a very 'alien' look for me, which I don't like, but it's up to taste.
Here's stream of consciousness critique as I edit the piece:
About colors. You have too much middle ground, not enough shadow, not striking highlight.
And I know I'm always suggesting people to mix their colors and cover a range of hue but here it seems a bit thoughtless.
You have a color that is ONE pixel, on the top right.
I don't think you should be dithering hair strands, you get a 'the weeping willow, is weeping' effect which I don't think suits them, but if it's intentional, alright.
Eyebrows?
Cluttered facial detail. At this size you have to be really comfortable with drawing faces to stylise and symbolise cleanly, therefore you need to do more - realistic - face studies before you can pull such things off without reading as uncomfortable to the trained eye.
Girls usually wouldn't go for an uneven hairstyle, but I wouldn't really know what with today's messy emo styled hair :yell: old-man :yell:
Hair doesn't shine so much unless it's made from plastic or something
(http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/663/image1zw1.png) (http://www.locustleaves.com/newish_edit.png)
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That the eyes are manga but the nose/mouth isn't reminds me of the art by the Amberstar/Ambermoon/Albion guys
http://hol.abime.net/3256/screenshot
http://hol.abime.net/5117
with the straight noses and minute mouths. This is a very 'alien' look for me, which I don't like, but it's up to taste.
Here's stream of consciousness critique as I edit the piece:
About colors. You have too much middle ground, not enough shadow, not striking highlight.
And I know I'm always suggesting people to mix their colors and cover a range of hue but here it seems a bit thoughtless.
You have a color that is ONE pixel, on the top right.
I don't think you should be dithering hair strands, you get a 'the weeping willow, is weeping' effect which I don't think suits them, but if it's intentional, alright.
Eyebrows?
Cluttered facial detail. At this size you have to be really comfortable with drawing faces to stylise and symbolise cleanly, therefore you need to do more - realistic - face studies before you can pull such things off without reading as uncomfortable to the trained eye.
Girls usually wouldn't go for an uneven hairstyle, but I wouldn't really know what with today's messy emo styled hair :yell: old-man :yell:
Hair doesn't shine so much unless it's made from plastic or something
(http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/663/image1zw1.png) (http://www.locustleaves.com/newish_edit.png)
Thanks for the advice helm, I'm actualy working on an edit. Could you please tell exactly how the colours seem thoughtless? I feel that I put a lot of though into tweaking the colours (which is why there might be some leftfrom previous instances of the palette). I'm not saying your advice on that wasn't valid, I just wish you told me how so instead of a point-blank type of thing. :/
Also, I don't know whether your edit is more or less manga inspired then mine is, which was confusing. Were you going for that style? Or where you trying to make it more realistic? If it was the latter I don't know how successful it was in that respect. Lastly, could you tell me what led you to choose certain colours? I just think it might be a good opportunity for me to learn something new :)
Thanks.
P.s plenty of women have uneven hairstyles these days- emo or not :D
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Could you please tell exactly how the colours seem thoughtless?
large jumps between slots that would need more buffer shades. The purple darkest shade is burning, not very dark either. Lack of range, yet too much separation. The hair and face sharing the highlight colors, which doesn't make much sense. Green tint on face (usually reserved for sickness-effect). That sort of thing.
Were you going for that style? Or where you trying to make it more realistic?
I moved more towards anime to get away from the uncomfortable middle-ground with manga eyes and straight nose. I thought it was clear.
Lastly, could you tell me what led you to choose certain colours?
I'm not sure how to answer that. Which colors? I added a few more where there were large jumps, mostly. The flesh highlights go towards yellow as your shadows go towards purple, so I went with the customary complementary.
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I finished the edit of this portrait, and I think I learned a lot.
Thanks for the help guys- is there anything more I can do with this? (she'll probably be the main focus of my mockup frenzy entry (if I get around to it).
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/edited-1.png)
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large jumps between slots that would need more buffer shades. The purple darkest shade is burning, not very dark either. Lack of range, yet too much separation. The hair and face sharing the highlight colors, which doesn't make much sense. Green tint on face (usually reserved for sickness-effect) That sort of thing.
All of that could be intentional for a variety of good reasons; palette restrictions, some strange elf race with skin like that, needing it to break from other elements of the game in certain ways, perhaps just a deep love for Ogre Battle.......but I'm gonna have to side with helm, they seem arbitrary.
The only thing I won't necessarily disagree with is that hair doesn't shine so much; well-cared-for hair can be the darkest and brightest object in a scene.
While girls do have uneven hairstyles, a sharp bend like that is a little funny. Quick fix is to make the top and upper sides pulled back, with the rest of the hair falling straight underneath it.
Funny photo and not quite what I mean (use straight hair and keep ears covered), but all I could find :
(http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/digital-matting/image-matting/other/galadriel-input.png)
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Lol, I also agree about the sharp bend, It was really just an error that i left in the portrait do to how it might be annoying to fix. I'll probably go the route you described or just make it curve more. As far as how arbitrary the colour appears, I suppose it comes with practice as I've really been trying to experiment with my colours. Do you guys have some helpful and reader-friendly colour theory tuts or any resources that might aid me in the future? I know a few basics like complimentaries and the like but I could use help in finding those colours that really "work" for this type of thing. I really like your colour choices in particularm Helm, and Adarias, so I'm very happy that you both took the time to help me thus far.
(pardon any spelling errors as I'm sort of busy right now)
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helpful and reader-friendly colour theory tuts
Oximoron alert! Beyond the basics, there's very little written that is reader-friendly about color. Same goes for light, and the history of agriculture.
Basic primer (most of which you probably know):
Hue - The range from red on through the rainbow to red again and percieved color's position on the color wheel
Value - The range from light to dark and the percieved color's position in that range.
Saturation - The distance to gray and the percieved color's position in that range.
Intensity or Contrast - the percieved color's vibrance based on the above values and the relationship of the percieved color to those around it.
Types of colors on the wheel (based on pigment) :
Primary - RYB
These colors are often seen as bold and are often used more for advertisements or other attention-getters, red in particular
Secondary - mixed from two primaries
These colors are attractive but less saturated, they are often used more for landscapes and still lifes.
Tertiariy - mixed from a primary and a secondary
These are mostly delicate colors that can be very beautiful. Most painting is done useing these tones to give life and depth.
Types of mixtures (some varience here) :
Hue - The pure pigment
Tone - A mixture of two pigments
Tint - A mixture of either a hue or a tone with a white or near-white
Shade - A mixture of either a hue or a tone with black or near-black
Cast - A mixture of either a hue or tone with both white and black
False-Black - A mixture of two complementary hues or tones, it can appear black, but contains no black pigment.
Achromatic - Devoid of colors not native to the chosen whites, blacks, and paper or canvas tone.
Monochromatic - Devoid of colors save for the above and a chosen color pigment.
Polychromatic - Breaking any of the above rules.
Complements - Opposite on the color wheel.
Complements used in separate articles will lend percieved saturation to each other. Complements used within the same article will remove percieved saturation from each other. Mixing the two pigments will darken the coor which is more prominent, or - if present in equal amounts, will create a false black, or - if white was present in either color - create gray.
Analogous - Colors aside or astride each other on the wheel.
Analogous colors are often used to provide color interest in a seemingly monochromatic area. Compositions using analogous colors are often less intense than compositions using complementaries.
Triadic - Colors evenly spaced by thirds on the wheel.
The three primaries together have a triadic relationship. This often forms the basis for paint mixing. Compositions using triadics often seem balanced and subdued.
Tetradic - A pair of complementary color pairs, four in all.
Compositions using these relationships vary tremendously, often teetering on the edge of disjointedness.
Full color - Every color appears. Often the presense of so many colors leads to percieved dullness, lack of focus, etc, but it can be done well, too.
Warm colors - The half of the color wheel divided from the red side of violet to the golden side of yellow. These colors come forward in the piece regardless of supposed placement.
Warm Tones occur when a pigment reaches towards the warmer end of the spectrum. Blue-violet is a warm blue.
Cool colors - The other half, these colors recede in the piece.
Cool Tones occur when a pigment reaches towards the cooler end of the spectrum. Red-violet is a cool red.
Temperature at work :
If warm colors come forward and cool colors recede, then compositions with a warm foreground and cool background have more depth, which is often impressive or empty, while compositions with the opposite setup have less depth, and are often constricting or cozy.
Warm colors are of a higher intensity, and therefor can be used to attract attention to focal points.
Range and distance:
Range has to do with what parts of a value, hue, saturation, or temperature scales are being used primarily, and distance has to do with the space between the values used. Complementary colors are opposite on the color wheel, meaning that the distance is huge, but the range might be narrow, containing a minimum of only 2 percieved colors. Similarly, white and black are very far apart, but a composition using only them has little range. Often, distance lends "pop" to a piece, while range lends subtlety.
The most "pop" :
Typically, to have the most popping composition, splitting into simple distance dichotomies with little range is best. Take a pair of complementary colors, split them then into light and dark, saturated and not, warm and cool. Use onyl this palette and place colors in real quantities directly beside their counterparts (or close enough).
Natural Colors - Pigments taken directly from the natural world such as earth or plant dye
These were all that was avaiable for centuries and I consider them to yield far superior results. Such colors are true ultramarine (a process of grinding and firing lapis lazuli), cinnabrese, or sinoper, there terre's and the ochres among thousands of others.
Alchemic Colors- made on their own through chemistry
These colors are often used in modern painting but were seldom seen traditionally. Common colors include Chartruse, Phthalo, and other colors I find unattractive, but there are also very nice mimicks of traditional colors, such as synthetic ultramarine, that are often cheaper.
There's so much more just to get to a functioning vocabulary, it's like learning a new language. I'm tired though and this took me a while. While this is mostly about painting, all of the old rules apply to pixelling. Hope it helps.
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Thanks a ton for taking the time to lay that all out for me; I really appreciate it. Although I knew a little about what the terminology, I really think I got the most out of your explanations of range and distance, although I didn't fully understand the second/third line of this quote...
"Typically, to have the most popping composition, splitting into simple distance dichotomies with little range is best. Take a pair of complementary colors, split them then into light and dark, saturated and not, warm and cool. Use only this palette and place colors in real quantities directly beside their counterparts (or close enough)."
-so I'm hoping you can muster up the strength to answer that small question for me lol.
Lastly, I'm going to impose on your kindness a bit more and ask if you have any suggested reading or something of the sort to help me with the more advanced stuff. Thanks again
EDIT: oh and reader friendliness simply means nothing that isn't worth deciphering :P If it's really that great of advice, I'm willing to take out my readin specs
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/edited-2.png)
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The eyebrows are still wonky. Look at it with a fresh eye, don't you feel they lack symmetry?
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place colors in real quantities in large enough portions to be their own region, i.e. of significant size
directly beside their counterparts
right next to the colors which are opposite them (or close enough) or near enough that they still complement each other well, don't space them so far that the effect is lost.
There are some great books but it will take me a while to get the names together, I need to get digging
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Thanks adarias, I think I understand that now :)
@ helm: I think I see the lack of symmetry, but I don't see how i could fix it unless I changed her hair and moved it out of her face. Is it really an obvious thing or is it more subtle?
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(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/json10131/edited-2.png)(http://xs218.xs.to/xs218/07330/Moop.png)
?
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I dunno, It makes her expression seem a bit like she's raising her eyebrow at someone (regardless of the physical symmetry). I think I'll leave that part as is.Thanks though :)
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Before you called it quits on the eyebrow I made a little edit that might work. I shifted the eyebrown, deleted two colors altogether (besides the boarder that is), removed the boarder, and removed the orange color off of the face. I left the orange on the neck but it really isn't needed.
(http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/7515/edited2vf3.png)
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Thanks for the edit jace, but it still has that raised brow quality going on.
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I think a lot of us see your eyebrows rather as being a bit like http://farm1.static.flickr.com/67/161591255_4853c41805.jpg , but if you are happy with this now I'd call it done :P
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On to bigger and better I suppose. Thanks for the help :P