Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Peyton on October 01, 2013, 04:09:31 am

Title: Looking for critiques on all my work
Post by: Peyton on October 01, 2013, 04:09:31 am
So, this is a rather general thread. These are some of my recent pieces that I thought were good enough to be posted over at Pixel Joint. Though I have decided to call them finished, I would like to know as much as possible about what I did well, and what I did not do well to help me improve the pieces, and future artworks.

I have decided that it would be a good idea to post some of the critiques I have already got along with the piece, to avoid unneeded redundancy. Red text means that I have not fixed it, green text means I have fixed it to the best of my abilities.
So, without further ado, here are the pieces, with links to their posts on Pixel Joint.

"The Mountains"
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/80984.htm
(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/wip1326.png)

Current known problems:
Path gets too wide as it gets close
Pillow shading on the trees
Blue clusters on mountains are too large in places
Odd depth and scaling

Thoughts about the problems of this piece:
I think that for this piece, the problems lie within the core of it. The very design and style of the entire piece is what causes many of the problems, and most will be very difficult to fix without redoing an entire section of it.

"16x Animals"
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/80967.htm
(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/16xanimals.png)

Current known problems:
Unicorn shape is odd
Tiger is difficult to read
Squid is oddly shaded

Thoughts about the problems of this piece:
The problems with this piece are mostly small ones from what I have gathered. With each one being a very small sprite, it would be easy to completely redo them, touch them up, or even scrap them without ruining the other sprites.

"Jungle Temple"
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/80847.htm
(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/ere__r1123387931.png)

Current known problems:
Odd depth and scaling

Thoughts about the problems of this piece:
The problems with this piece also lie at the core of it. It was designed with many flaws, and will not be extremely easy to fix.

"Desert Walker"
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/80784.htm
(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/desertwalker.png)

Current known problems:
Face is positioned oddly
Collar thing is difficult to read
Hair has bad clusters

Thoughts about the problems of this piece:
The problems with this piece come from my lack of knowledge and experience in creating things like collars, and hair. The experimenting that was done on them caused the issues.

"Spunky Sprite"
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/80735.htm
(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/sprite__r1036387931.png)

Current known problems:
Legs look really short, while head looks really big
Neck area is completely awful.
Wand/staff is hard to read

Thoughts about the problems of this piece:
The canvas restrictions for the weekly challenge I entered this into were part of the problem for this piece. I tried to squish the sprite in places that did not work well.

That is all for now, so, please, give all the critique you can :)
Title: Re: Looking for critiques on all my work
Post by: Peyton on October 04, 2013, 10:03:13 pm
I apologize for bumping the thread like this, but I am a bit curious as to why I have not received any critiques.
Did I already point out all of the issues that the pieces have, is there a lack of interest, or have people just not seen this thread?
Title: Re: Looking for critiques on all my work
Post by: YellowLime on October 04, 2013, 10:12:52 pm
In my personal case, I am too lazy to give critique on even a single piece, so five become much more intimidating

And also, since you seem to have pointed out quite a few flaws in each of them, it does seem pointless to try and find more, if you're not going to fix the previous ones

So, next time try not to post so many pieces at once, and only ask for help when you don't know how to get it to look better

In any case, I like your stuff, keep at it :)
Title: Re: Looking for critiques on all my work
Post by: Ryumaru on October 04, 2013, 11:11:18 pm
In general, you are focusing way too much on stylization as opposed to creating real forms. If your compositions were more cohesive you could get away with it, but as it is now, everything just seems flat. Things such as the straightened hair swooshes and general angularity of everything, you are treating each object as if it is made up of relatively shiny geometric blocks.

edit:
(http://i.imgur.com/8LcaPn4.gif)

With something like this you could still use stylization with your shapes and have it work in perspective. To give you an idea of how off the scaling was, the green in my edit could very easily be an entire forest in a valley created by these mountains.

Your pixel placement is really concise and well thought out. I don't think you need to focus much more attention to that aspect right now. More work on fundamentals would serve you well.
Title: Re: Looking for critiques on all my work
Post by: PixelPiledriver on October 05, 2013, 09:36:17 pm
Some quick thoughts on this one.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aW96Cg76CtI/UlCFa4F-ZhI/AAAAAAAAH5k/skrJrzBBiQ0/s1600/paytonFace_4.png)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qyzb67uY3mU/UlCFbGR1nzI/AAAAAAAAH5o/6NlRA0qn_Cg/s1600/paytonFace_4.gif)
Title: Re: Looking for critiques on all my work
Post by: Peyton on October 05, 2013, 10:52:27 pm
In my personal case, I am too lazy to give critique on even a single piece, so five become much more intimidating

And also, since you seem to have pointed out quite a few flaws in each of them, it does seem pointless to try and find more, if you're not going to fix the previous ones

So, next time try not to post so many pieces at once, and only ask for help when you don't know how to get it to look better

In any case, I like your stuff, keep at it :)
Ah, I can understand not wanting to give a ton of critiques here, I too don't like to go and write out big things of the sort :p
But I am planning on fixing the flaws  with the ones I have posted, once I have the time that is. I am just trying to get all of the issues with them known before I start, so I don't have to do a ton of edits.

In general, you are focusing way too much on stylization as opposed to creating real forms. If your compositions were more cohesive you could get away with it, but as it is now, everything just seems flat. Things such as the straightened hair swooshes and general angularity of everything, you are treating each object as if it is made up of relatively shiny geometric blocks.

edit:
(http://i.imgur.com/8LcaPn4.gif)

With something like this you could still use stylization with your shapes and have it work in perspective. To give you an idea of how off the scaling was, the green in my edit could very easily be an entire forest in a valley created by these mountains.

Your pixel placement is really concise and well thought out. I don't think you need to focus much more attention to that aspect right now. More work on fundamentals would serve you well.
Quite a few great tips there :)
I really like what you did in your edit there, I think that I am going to rework the piece to have something of similarity to that.

Some quick thoughts on this one.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aW96Cg76CtI/UlCFa4F-ZhI/AAAAAAAAH5k/skrJrzBBiQ0/s1600/paytonFace_4.png)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qyzb67uY3mU/UlCFbGR1nzI/AAAAAAAAH5o/6NlRA0qn_Cg/s1600/paytonFace_4.gif)
Ah, fantastic!
I you have really given me an idea of how to fix the collar area especially :)

Thanks for the critiques everyone :)