I can't help but feel like you're just being overly critical for the sake of being overly critical.Don't feel.
Thanks Tijjer! Can you elaborate on the banding? I'm not sure what you mean by that. Thanks for your feedback!
Don't try and draw what you think a cat looks like.
Look at an actual reference and draw what a cat looks like.
The thing that stands out the most apart from the wobbly shape, are the eyes which seems to be viewed from the front which gives the appearance of eyes being attached like on a fish or bird.
As for the shading, work with more roundness, right now it looks like a cat shaped in cookiedough. I'm not saying this as an insult, I just want to give you an idea of how it's perceived.
Because your brain will say "this is what a cat looks like" but depending on which side of the brain you ask, you'll get different results. The left side of the brain always wants to think of things as flat, even if they're viewed from an angle. The left side also works more with symbols and predefined images rather than what things actually look like.
I say that because I still don't have any c+c on the shading like I asked forIf your form is all incorrect, no amount of shading is going to help you. Shading is based on form. If your cat looks like an alien, there are no magical shading tricks we can give you to make it look like a cat. As for your apples - I'd imagine an apple as basically an oval, and then take a look at where the apple deviates from that, and go from there. I would pick up a pencil and paper if I were you - if you can't draw an apple using the most intuitive medium possible (a pencil), you're not going to do yourself any favors by trying to draw one that's only 16x16 pixels wide. You might get a decent looking pixel apple sooner or later, but it'll be by luck, and you won't be able to draw a larger one later.
If your cat looks like an alien, there are no magical shading tricks we can give you to make it look like a catSo when you see his sprite you rather think this?:
QuoteIf your cat looks like an alien, there are no magical shading tricks we can give you to make it look like a catSo when you see his sprite you rather think this?:
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Money/Pix/pictures/2008/10/13/AlienGetty460.jpg)
than this?:
(http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00342/114240651_cat_342943c.jpg)
On to more important things
Hey Pixelalex and welcome!
==Pixelation can be tricky as a forum at first. A lot of people here might come off as harsh and overly critical, that's a fact and I've experienced it myself many times. Try to overlook the tone people have towards you when you are new. If pixelation is anything it's a lot about the "hard school", many here are very technical and that's good, since it's why we are here writing. Just coop with it for a while, try to pick out what you think is suitable for your style/goal and ignore things that stray too far away from it. I don't want to bring up the discussion about what pixel art is, but it is an artform afterall and art is free, so even if there are basics that are good to know, don't be discuraged by the ones trying to pull you towards a very pixel purist way.(If you don't want to go that way of course)==
:y:
At the same time, people do what they think is best, so be gentle towards them who put time into trying to helping you.(Not saying that you aren't, just a tip)
Now on to your cat & apple.
There are plenty of art out there that doesn't look what it is supposed to be. It's always better to go to yourself when you are doing something and ask yourself two questions, "What do I want this to look like?", "What do I want other people to perceive it as?".
I ask myself this a lot when I do art for games. Things doesn't have to make complete sense, but you do have to mix these two up a little to get a pleasing result to everyone, including yourself.
If on the otherhand you do want both of these questions to have the answer: "It's a cat" you do need to put a real cat in front of you, if you havn't practised drawing cats for a long time.
Regarding your apple, if you ask me the question "What fruit is this?". My first thought would probably be a paprika or something like it. If you ask yourself, you would say an apple 'cos that's what you want it to be.
You have a good reference picture of an apple but you've thought too much in "pixels". A good start if you are not used to pixel art is to block out the colours. Like you would do with a set of crayons. If you want, shrink the picture to the size you want your sprite to be and study how the pixels behave in clusters on such a small scale to get the result you want.
I did this version of your apple in 2 minutes, looking at your reference picture.
(http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj114/johanaronson/6h494g_zps2fd3191a.png)
Here is sort of what I did:
(http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj114/johanaronson/Apple_progress02_zpsf3de2aae.png)
1. Picking colours suitable for an apple, studying quickly what the largest spots of colours are, making something similar.
2. Creating a rough shape to start working with, think sculpture.
3. Refine shape and define lightsource.
4. Add the other larger parts of colour
5. Add extra colours for AA etc.
6. Add the rest of the details, more colours etc.
-polish*
-polish
-polish
(*Polish being looking over the sprite on a pixular level, adding, changing things around to get closer to the goal result)
Hope this helps you on your way!
Good luck
Thanks again for your help! Admittedly, I was getting a little discouraged so it's nice to have some positivity!
So when you see his sprite you rather think this?:@coffee:I think of neither, which is a unique problem for this drawing. :lol:
Maybe it's like, if you want to attain the secret knowledge of the devil, you gotta live with getting your feet burned on the way through hell.
I could sell you this newest model of fire-fighter shoes. It's a bargain, a steal even, it just costs your soul.
No biggie though, you can draw yourself a new one then, to put in place of that hole.
=)
The main weakness of your cat is as others have already said the shape(also I know you said you wanted to draw a cartoon cat, but what I have to say will still be relevant even if applied to a cartoon):
(http://i61.tinypic.com/30th2df.png)
As you can see, it is rather difficult to see, just by looking at your silhouette, what exactly it is. It is obviously a mammalian quatroped of some kind, but it is unclear what species it is. This is because as Cyangmou rightly points out, the proportions are off. The ears in relation to the head, the head in relation to the body, the tail's shape and the oddly shaped hind quarters are key issues that make the shape ambiguous. He had no intent to insult you, and clearly was putting a lot of effort into trying to explain his points to you. He also wouldn't waste time trying to teach you something if he thought you incapable of progressing. Try not to take things personally, while a natural thing for people to do, it can be of no benefit to either you or the people dedicating time to help you. Not saying you should be a robot, no one is, but that you should learn to restrain your emotions long enough to analyze the validity of the arguments you are presented with.
In my silhouette, you can see clearly that what you are observing is indeed a cat. Why do you suppose that is? There is literally no shading applied to the specimen, so how can you possibly tell what it is, much less what species it is? All the shading skill in the world can't make the shape of the first more recognizable.
It should be clear that the shape communicates the most information about the subject, before you can master shading you have to understand shape. After that it is important to grasp 3 dimensional form and how light affects said form and lastly you can worry about shading :
(http://i62.tinypic.com/28cd1qw.png)
Finally, you should be aware that many members of this forum are not native English speakers, myself included, and it is worth bearing in mind that meaning is often lost in translation as it were.
Don't give up on your cat, pour your passion into learning to make him look great ;D
Good luck :y: