Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: CharlesGabriel on October 09, 2010, 12:22:55 am
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Hi everyone. I haven't been able to be active since I have no internet at home, but I have done some small 1 hour works pixel art here at the public library using these computers.
Can anyone critique me the hair of this face I made? I was trying to do Selene, from the Underworld movies.
*removed*
And any other tips. I will be working more on this. Can't really do much for now since my time is over for the day and this place will close haha... I will reply on monday hopefully.
This is the reference I used to get idea on the details:
(http://www.abbyshot.com/newsletters/photos/sugg-selene.jpg)
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Looks really good. :) I see few flaws to point out.
I think the top, main highlight (the one that connects three locks of hair), has too perfect of a line at the top. If you work that out, I think it'll look a bit better. Also a bit of dithering here and there, especially between the three darkest shades, could go a long way.
Really great work. I like it. :)
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(http://www.anti-soft.com/graphics/pixelation/edit1235213.png)
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I think the main problem is that it looks too..bright. If you look at your source pic, the lighting, is clustered near the top and spreads out towards the bottom where it lessens. The way you have it, is that the light source is spread all through out the hair, where it should only be on one location.
I would actually edit yours to get my point across, but I'm a tad to tired at the moment. The example above my post is actually a good example of proper lighting.
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Sorry EvilEye and everyone else for not posting this earlier. I have finally started working a bit on the face... this is what I have got so far. Still, after watching the reference EvilEye made, I am having issues with making the mouth realistic haha... and I believe it's cause I need to go back to anatomy school. :D
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/sprites/Selene_wipupdate_by_Antifarea.png)
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Sorry EvilEye and everyone else for not posting this earlier. I have finally started working a bit on the face... this is what I have got so far. Still, after watching the reference EvilEye made, I am having issues with making the mouth realistic haha... and I believe it's cause I need to go back to anatomy school. :D
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/sprites/Selene_wipupdate_by_Antifarea.png)
Another small edit from this last one... basically showing the hair in the back instead of all black color.
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/sprites/Selene_wipupdate2_by_Antifarea.png)
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Sorry EvilEye and everyone else for not posting this earlier. I have finally started working a bit on the face... this is what I have got so far. Still, after watching the reference EvilEye made, I am having issues with making the mouth realistic haha... and I believe it's cause I need to go back to anatomy school. :D
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/sprites/Selene_wipupdate_by_Antifarea.png)
EDIT 1: Another small edit from this last one... basically showing the hair in the back instead of all black color.
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/sprites/Selene_wipupdate2_by_Antifarea.png)
EDIT 2: I filled in a bit the gap in between her hair and her cheek.
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/sprites/Selene_wipupdate3x_by_Antifarea.png)
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I think that fuller lips would make her look more feminine. A different nose would be nice, perhaps rounder or pointier, but not so big and blocky like a man's.
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I think there is an error in where you have the part in the hair. In the original, the part is in the center of the head (if she were looking directly at you). You've got the part sort of in that location, but the hair s drawn as if it were parted on the side. Note the difference between the sharp corner you have vs the shape in the original. Oh, rats, this is hard to explain. Umm, this:
(http://cubeupload.com/files/91240dselenewipupdate3xb.png)
except with more care taken, obviously.
If you want to keep the part on the side, I think you need to move it down some.
Tourist
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In my experience, dither doesn't work great on skin. There obviously a million counter examples, so what I mean is the type of dithering you've done on the face HERE doesn't work. Usually it just masks colors that are not working together, and removes definition of features, and adds weird texture.
Look how good EvilEyes looks without dithering, he gets so much definition in such a small space. He also uses the colors well, less of a paintbucket mentality and more of a liberal approach to using them all over the place to maximize their effectiveness.
EvilEye, I gotta say that edit is amazing. Honestly I think that edit alone stands up as an amazing piece of art. You just captured that slight angle so perfectly, and the expression transcends the ref picture.
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Nice to see you are tackling this again Antifarea.
My opinion on dithering is it takes a lot of skill to make any real use of it, especially at such a small scale. With this picture there isn't much room to dither without cutting into space needed for detail. Also be aware that dithering creates a textured look, which may not be what you want, especially on the face.
That said I did dither like two pixels on her forehead if you noticed that :lol:
So far I think you have the mouth too low, she has almost no chin and her upper lip looks a bit long.
Notice the lighting on the reference, the lighting is coming from above primarily. You have it coming from the left ( on her face at least ).
Looking at your color placement I get the impression you avoid placing two highly contrasting shades ( e.g. the lightest skin tone and the darkest skin tone ) together without an intermediary color. It's unavoidable that you will need to place two highly contrasted shades together to get any real definition especially at smaller resolutions. Don't cling to notions about having to smooth out everything, many times you can't and shouldn't.
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@ Glak = Yeah, I agree... I'm working on them more. Thanks.
@ Photocopier = Thanks for pointing that out, that really made a lot of difference as to her looking feminine, which is the main goal haha.
@ NaCL = Yeah, you're right. Thanks. I didn't really know that about dithering until now... I was wondering what I was doing wrong as for her looking the way she did, and as soon as I removed back the dithering, things improved.
@ EvilEye = Thanks a lot, for the earlier edit and the killer tips. I am trying to follow your advice and been observing your edit. There's a problem I have, that I noticed so far, and it's that I lack ability when it comes to mouths, mostly feminines haha... I've been observing, and have worked the lips a bit more. I'm still working on the piece, but this is what I've fixed so far:
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/Selene_update4x_by_Antifarea.png)
Another thing I'm a bit confused about, was what you said so far, on regards the putting up two highly contrasted shades together... do you mean using two colors instead of 3? (bright - regular - dark). And do you have an example image that I can see so I can make sure that I really know I'm on the right track...? Thanks, and sorry for being a pain over these, I'll appreciate if you can show me that image.
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There's a problem I have, that I noticed so far, and it's that I lack ability when it comes to mouths, mostly feminines haha...
Just a matter of practice really.
Find a tutorial / book on drawing human faces.
There are a few here I believe:
http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=42 (http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=42)
Another thing I'm a bit confused about, was what you said so far, on regards the putting up two highly contrasted shades together... do you mean using two colors instead of 3? (bright - regular - dark). And do you have an example image that I can see so I can make sure that I really know I'm on the right track...? Thanks, and sorry for being a pain over these, I'll appreciate if you can show me that image.
I was worried about that not being very clear. Unfortunately I don't know the actual term for what I was trying to convey, maybe there isn't one.
When I look at your picture I see a lot of this:
(http://www.anti-soft.com/graphics/pixelation/edit23erqltwert.png)
A blended look, no sharp contrast. There are very few instances where you want to do that, especially in small scale pixel art.
You show depth through contrast, less contrast = less depth. More contrast = more depth.
If you look at your picture there is very little depth because you smooth everything out with the use of intermediary colors. On the armor this is ok because it's a smooth, mostly uniform, surface with a low curvature. On the nose and around the eyes it makes these features look flat.
Take a look at the nose on your image:
(http://www.anti-soft.com/graphics/pixelation/edit23erqltwert3.png)
Notice the shadow ( brownish color ). You surrounded the brown shadow with the yellowish-grey intermediary color, negating any real contrast on what should be a highly defined part of the body.
Here is my edit ( on the right ):
(http://www.anti-soft.com/graphics/pixelation/edit23erqltwert2.png)
Notice the nose again. I put the brown shadow color directly under the light skin color creating a high contrast and thus indication of a sharp angle, which makes it look like there is a protrusion on the face ( which we refer to as a nose ).
Well that's about as good as I can explain it. I hope that helps.
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Nice picture!
Hair is kind of interesting to draw because in addition to shading volume, it tends to have a shiny texture. I find what works well is to keep parts of the hair matte, while other areas have a very strong highlight which shows in a band. You only had a few colors to work with, so I used the skin tone as the brightest highlight.
I made an example, yours is on the right.
(http://dansilber.com/blog/transfer/examples/hiar.gif)
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I can't work on this anymore since I have to work on other things...
Anyways, the last edit I made, fixed the nose problem (I hope haha).
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/Antifarea/Selene_lastedit_by_Antifarea.png)
Thanks EvilDan, EvilEye, and everyone else who edited / posted tutorials / gave input on this. I'm going to study those tuts before I start any new portraits.
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(http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr343/bottomrubs/nosemouthchin.png)
I raised the mouth up a little because I was seeing a bit of chin-conflict there, but more importantly I thought the nose-shape needed tweaking. Unless you're going for this kind of situation http://nighthawknews.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/lon-chaney-phantom.jpg