I've had the same avatar for years. The anti-aliasing on that thought bubble rode out the forum's entire loss and resurgence of theme color.

Anyway, I'm still enamored with the little guy, so I don't want him gone. His little skirt gave me the inspiration to make him dance!

Behold, iteration 1:

Not the prettiest.

Iteration 2:

Beautiful, isn't it? I very quickly remembered how important it was to make a few key frames.

Iteration 3:

The magic of a few good key frames makes all the difference. A nicer looking orange also helped. Progress, right?

Iteration 4:

Oops! I wanted to get fancy without putting in the extra work. Didn't work. He's ice skating! At this point, I tried to salvage it with an iteration 5. It only made the animation even worse, I got frustrated and let this piece rest for a few months.

Iteration 7 (the current one): ^{Iteration 6 is too similar to really deserve a mention}


What I'm currently working on:

• General cleaning of the frames; trying to make sure things don't shrink or expand too much.
• Not happy with every frame of his skirt.
• I'll be messing with his body and head color some more.
• I want his plume to be stiffer than his skirt.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it so far, but I want a second opinion before I start refining in earnest.

Could you please post your reference too? It would help us keep our critique useful.

Count me in.

I like steampunk, lots of atmosphere, and ridiculously outrageous guns. Bright colors are also a plus.

Having essentially grown up with this forum (I was part of the original forum, and was ecstatic when I found it again in '05) I can see where you're coming from. There is definitely more attention paid to certain topics than others; however, I'm not sure if this forum is meant to be a place for long-term mentorship, and there certainly is never any guarantee that you'll get the critique or attention you hope for. Maybe I'm just used to the environment. Most of my experience with posts is about the same as yours. Sometimes I'll get a few comments, sometimes nothing.

I'd argue that most of the forum is people that are just a couple years into pixelation. People tend to come in swinging and slowly taper off, contributing less and less to the overall content of the forum. Eventually they'll either lose touch or become lurkers like me. I notice just a handful of really big posters who have a few new critiques every day, but these people come and go, making mini eras as they do. I think the main reason for this is because of the general vibe of the forum. It's a place to go when you're stuck mostly. Can't get that leg to look right? Post it. Can't get the tusks to look menacing enough? Post it. People will usually be able to help with those things, but as the issues become more general, it gets harder to post valuable critique.

I see a lot of "help me improve this [whatever]!" posts, and people will try to help the best they can, saying how the leg is a little too small or the tusk isn't pointy enough, but this forum is usually only useful for adjusting yourself. It's less a classroom and more a resource. People will tell you what looks wrong and how to fix it, then let you fix it. If you can't fix it, it's probably a something that just needs more practice. You practice, fix it, and post another thing in a week or month or year. Repeat this process, and that's Pixelation to me. This is also why I see the threads with minimal replies not as a problem. Sure, it feels crappy if you put in your time and make a fabulous new update to your art only to have it sink to the bottom of the page, but I think that's just because there really isn't much more to be said about the piece. It's mostly finished, and there really aren't many flaws that can be adjusted any more.

There are sometimes some really cool pieces that get posted, and there's huge progress and pages of critique, but those are generally weeks and sometimes months old where the artist has made major fundamental changes to the base art. Most of the motivation to post comes from the change in the art. When there are limitations in skill, there isn't much change between the piece at the beginning of the thread, and the subsequent updates, to the end. Sometimes there are posts with pages of critique and virtually no progress. It doesn't happen terribly often, but they feel just as lonely as a post with no replies.

As a forum, I think it's impossible to make people stick around and work with one artist, or make sure there is a reply to every thread. This is an open forum, so what you get out of it isn't necessarily what you put into it, but the longer you stay, the closer those lines will become.

I see a lot of motion in your reference picture that I don't see reflected in your rendition.

In your picture her left shoulder is down below her right, her feet are both firmly planted on the ground, and she's leaning slightly away from us.

In your reference her left shoulder is up, her left heel is raised ready to pin her around, and she's leaning towards us.


Here's an edit trying to capture that motion.


I used this action line as a guide for where to and what angle to place her limbs.

You've got some issues with her proportions. Her shoulders are too small, her butt's too big, and a few other little things. What I usually do to keep the proportions on target (or get them to the target) is look at how the different parts of the image line up with one another. For example, her left palm lines up perfectly with the middle of her butt, and the back of her hand would be touching her heel if they were at the same height. You can also compare different sizes this way; her left arm including her shoulder and hand is about as long, in the image, as her left leg including her foot all the way up to right below her but. Doing little checks like that while you're still in the beginning phases of the picture—and throughout the entire process—will save you a zillion bottles of aspirin.

I'm sensing a little bit of symbolism in certain parts of your picture too. Mainly her face and her spine. Try to draw the shadow that her spine creates instead of the spine itself. That's sometimes a very subtle difference, but it becomes incredibly valuable when drawing strange poses or lighting. The same goes or everything else you might be tempted to abstract into a symbol. I really think that's what separates an artist from a person with a pencil and paper.

That's about all I have. I hope something in here is useful to you!