I decided I needed to be more disciplined in practicing art skills.. so, I drew a series of fruit and am currently pixeling them (64x64 images); Don't usually post my stuff here, but this looks like it could go for a few more weeks at least, so hit me with any crits you have

Basis sketch image (sketched from right to left, not the converse, BTW):
(full size image here)

My aim was... to -effectively- use as many colors as possible. (aside from improving skills with planes).
I have previously experimented with 'iterative/recursive shading' and I'm beginning to get it to work well here.. Also motivated by a desire to find some of the techniques Henk Nieborg has used that make it possible to churn out many sprites with high shading detail, really fast; I suspect really strong understanding and application of planes is a key element.

Here's an earlier stage (just to dispel any suspicions that I CGed anything, heh):



I failed in various degrees on the first two: the cumquat and lemon both needed roughish texture, which confused my attempts to expand the ramps used. Putting that in the too-hard basket for now, I went to an easier attempt, a smooth skinned plum. Latest stage:



Somewhat complicated by the palette restriction I was working with -- 64 rgb intensity levels, ie. VGA palette restrictions. I ended up dithering cause I couldn't insert any more distinguishable colors, in the dark end of the ramp.
Also doing some hue mixing, due to the VGA palette restrictions, too.

I'm feeling happier about this technique now. Back when I remade the graphics for Bub-N-Bros, I used this recursive/iterative shading technique.. bit less happy with that outcome, even though I did like it, it seemed messy at times.

I think I cracked that, though.. one technique I used a LOT in this is to view everything as diagonal gradients. This makes it easier to avoid lumpiness, and rounds things well.. (well, I think the plum is a little too rounded/smoothed, haha. OTOH, it has practically no banding/lumpiness.)..
The other technique for unlumping is, if you must stack strips of color, stagger them in a direction that matches the planes of the object you're representing.
Oh, and make sure color regions taper smoothly throughout the image -- the other two techniques help this, but it's still challenging to me.

One thing that's pretty time consuming is redoing all the tapering when I add another color to the ramp. This isn't too bad as long as the underlying clusters are tightly structured; then it's quick to find the corners.

I'll also be setting up an auto history-saver as I proceed further in this.. I'll make a GIF or APNG when I finish.
Think I'll go for something more textured, like the peach, next.

Stats: cumquat = 15col, lemon = 12col, plum = 44 , cherries = 24. Time? 7 hours so far..?

EDIT: Nah, went with the cherries. (also, fixed up the depth of the plum.)



</text>