Just two little tips for future reference.

There's more going on when you're shading that edge on the silhouette than just a line. It's a little slice of the tree's actual shading, and some parts would still be in shadow even with the sun there.

The leaves are still just a silhouetted blob, which is what clouds are. To really put it back into the foreground, I'd try to add some holes on the canopy, and some rampant leaves sticking out here and there.

Wait wait wait!

Improve the shading before you improve the outlines! That's usually the best way to work because the shading is the real meat of a drawing. Outlines are just a distraction if you're going for something like this I think.

Those pecs look a bit too big; even for a muscle-ho. Remember that he's got armpits—and some muscles sticking out from behind him.

Welcome to Pixelation! 

Well, this is definitely not low-res, and I don't think it would be all that beneficial to try to learn how to draw better faces when you're trying to keep yourself locked into a comic-book style. What comic-book artists do is take a real face, find the parts that really need to be there, and simplify simplify simplify. They do know how to draw a normal face though. The best advice I can give you is to study study study.

Also, at this size, pixel art starts out a whole ton like a painting. You wanna find a big brush, and get the basic planes down before moving into things like wrinkles on the lips, and eyelashes. Those come after the face is 85% drawn.

Oh, and I take it the light source is supposed to be from the upper left because of your shading; her pupils wouldn't be lit up quite so much if that was the case, and her irises would be taking most of the light.

Here's a quick dirty edit:


It's not much of a sight, but maybe it'll help you out somehow.

I basically took out the million shades you used in the eyes to make room for some more skin shades, and sculpted out a face. I'm not much of a lipstick person, so I kept her lips skin color for my own pleasure, and to show you that colors are only one tiny part of a face, and can be done without. The big thing you need to know about lips is that they're not not not flat. They have dips and protrusions that are not showing up in your piece.

Her eyes had a little bit of depth, and I'm proud of you for that; however, I think that your lack of traditional (pencil on paper, or sketching) skills shows through really clearly with the band of light making a semi circle around the bottom of her eyes. There's so much more there; find it.

Your general face shading isn't really there at the moment. You've got some nice shadows by her eyes and cheek, but you need to go further! You need some highlights to really make the face pop, and you need to really sculpt the face with those shades. EDIT: her nose is absolutely TINY.

One last thing; if you're not using a reference, then go find one asap. It will help you to better understand the face you're trying to draw, and not make stupid mistakes like I probably did with my face. If you do have a reference, post it so that we know what you're going for.

Ah, gotcha, Larwick. I see what you mean.



I tried to get rid of the static in her dress, and played around with a couple other things as well. Thanks for the critique, people!

Any oddities may just be from the fact we don't always see a girl in a see through dress- no matter how much we would like too ;]

Too true .

I fiddled with it some more, and got tired of the bambi eyed outlined-ness of it.