Female Portrait

[Kreator1990]

I just signed up, so firstly hello to everyone! I've done plenty of lurking and only now finally decided to sign up, to get some constructive criticism on my work.

Alright, so I've gathered inspiration recently, and decided to pixel a very close friend of mine. I tried to limit myself to 10 colors, although ended up throwing blue in there too. It's still a work in progress, although I feel I've now finished the ascend, and everything is downhill from here!

I'm after all feedback and critisism, as I would like to touch it up as much as possible before showing it to her. Whether its advice on the palette, tips or edits. I'll be grateful! I really want to do more with the shirt, as well as eventually add a background.



Thanks. =)

[Kreator1990]

Done some more work on it

15 colors so far

[Kreator1990]

And some more...

[Sherman Gill]

I think the dithering is really making everything look amorphous and undefined. Your newest edit is a step in the right direction, and I think you could leave the background the way it is, but dang, you're losing all the sharp edges and stuff on the skin.

[The B.O.B.]

Out of curiosity, and pertaining to the means: was this color reduced than lightly touched up?

[Kreator1990]

Thanks for the replies. I ended up finishing it after pouring a few more hours into it.

For those curious, no- it wasn't a cheap decolor and touch up from a photo.

 

[Stefano]

I know you've considered it done, but since you posted it just today, I'll just fire away nevertheless.

Firstly, can we see the photographic reference you've used, so we can offer proper critiques?
I think her neck is a bit wide, but that could be just your interpretation of the light. Also on her neck, there're 2 lighter spots that seem out of place.

Another thing: your dither is making way too noisy transitions, for that much skin colours.
Maybe these things are contributing to the issue:

1. On the top circle, a colour darker than colour 1 is touching colour 2, creating cleared borders between pixels.
2. The transition between colour 1 and 2 could be less drastic. On the other hand, the contrast between colour 2 and the darker tone is quite bland. Lightening colour 2 could be the solution.
3. Try to study more dithering patterns, so you'll have enough tools to make transitions smoothly when things get rough. For instance:


Anyway, I hope your friend enjoys her gift!

[Kreator1990]

Thank you Stefano!

I did show her, and she was very impressed. I revisted it a bit later and redone the mouth, retouched the eyes and fixed up some of the issues on the neck. In my own opinion it's a bit better now, I'm thinking about starting something else soon, perhaps a bit smaller because unfortunately the size of this piece felt rather hectic thus I rushed a bit, such as the dithering, which you've pointed out it could require some work.