I'm glad you like the non-players so far.  I've mostly been doing them to take a break from the frustration of tiling, but it's good to get their concepts rolling.

I totally didn't see the eyes until you mentioned it.  They were supposed to be her checkbones, haha.  So I just removed the pixels there entirely.  Also, for some reason, my mind did some mental loops, and thought that all red was bad.  So I did some alternate coloration of the red stripes on her costume.  Which I now realize were entirely unwarranted, but oh well.  Kind of partial to 4 (warm gold) a bit though.



hah, and I have been a bit cruelly vague about my intentions with this whole project.  I suppose when I said infinite forest, I really meant that the entire world and story takes place in a forest.  A forest you can't leave, because there's nowhere that it doesn't end.  Things like sea's and oceans would be words of myth there.

I have a certain story that I want to tell through this game too, and I have a way that I want it to feel.  I may or may not have enough knowledge of game mechanics to actually explain how that's all going to happen. XD
I guess a quick story synopsis is in order though, since it seems I have yet to post one here.

There is an old forest that creaks under the weight of spells from centuries past.  Hidden beneath this canopy of ragged moss and dead wood are many spell casters known as mancers.  Some are young, and some are old, but all of them have a specific mastery of some element.  It is in this never-ending forest that you find yourself, with no recollection of your past and a terrible snake curse brewing in your throat.  Will you find answers in these woods, or be consumed by it?

A lot of the world is explored by finding other inhabitants and talking to them.  Some of them will reveal gossip and history, others will tell you to go away, and sometimes you have to find things or solve puzzles along the way.  I also want to make a lot of optional (won't be necessary to complete the game/main storyline) things to find and interact with.
I know I haven't shown much of the world yet (one scene wow), but I'm really trying to nail down these assets solid before I go making more specific places. 

I've also been thinking of adding spells that the player can use, since the forest itself is steeped in them.  There wouldn't be any offensive ones, but spells could have specific effects on the environment.  I've been meaning to draw some runes and things to go along with this, but one thing at a time I suppose.

I'm kind of slow as molasses at this, since all this pixeling and tiling is entirely new for me.  Eventually more of the above stuff will be happening, and I'm sure it will be awesome and what not.

And those cliffs... fffffffff
I would have never though to make them layered like that.  I will try something new along those lines when I have a chance to work on it again.

I can not express enough the gratitude for the critique I've been receiving.  You are all good people.

Some bedtime werewolf. 
Was trying to go with something fluid and active looking. 

it seems to me it comes from not noticing how the location of highlights depends on the angle of the individual hairs, not on the angle of the general shape

This is confusing to me.  Did you mean to say the opposite?


I made up a quick image on how highlights tend to work on hair. 

First you have to take into account the shape of what the hair is resting on, in this case the spherical shape of the head. 

Then I showed some various hairstyles and how highlights might show up on them. (I did not take into account any other lighting effects such as shadows, reflective light, ect.)

The first one curves over the head and really only presents a couple places where a highlight can be seen.  The rest of the hair curves with the head and doesn't have another surface in which to reflect the light source.

The second has longer hair, and as the hair rests on the shoulder it is directly under the light source.  It starts to reveal clumps and strands as it reflects light.

The third one has shorter hair and a lot of clumps.  Highlights will reflect off each clump revealing it's shape and volume.

And then I did the mouse too.  If you see the three dimensional shape of the mouse, then the glossy highlights on it's fur make perfect sense.  They're all curving over the shape of the body, shoulder, and face. 

Short version: Highlights follow the shape of the three dimensional form.

Also that boa example doesn't seem like a good choice for lighting reference though.  It's so dark in the center because it's a three color dye job (the bottom of the hairs are dyed dark, while the ends are dyed light)  So it makes it hard to see exactly what is happening with the light versus the local color of the object itself.

As for the artwork itself, maybe your boa just needs some variation in the clumps.  Not a whole lot, but if a few of the clumps where facing different directions it might look more natural

I guess this is kind of a color key for a comic panel I did yesterday.

Also, yeah, my sketches are all digital in Photoshop.
I use the stumpy pencil brush a LOT.
You can get it here:  http://stumpypencil.blogspot.com/2009/11/return-of-stumpy-pencil.html
I highly recommend getting it, it is so choice.

Great for sketching, but also painting too.  Nice blocky brush.

Also the watercolor one is very nice too. 
http://stumpypencil.blogspot.com/2009/08/watercolors-v01.html
you can actually see both brushes used to great effect in their blog banner.
(although I use the watercolor one a lot cause it gives a nice uniform texture all around.)

I use a tablet as well, which accounts for all the line variation.

I really spent most of today tiling pixels, so my sketch turned out really self gratuitous.