Unnamed character

[IvanX]

Well she's not unnamed, I just can't for the life of me remember it.
She's an old character from this thread



The green thing protruding from her back is some sort of sentient monster arm, the elbow being the "face" of it.
Obviously I haven't even touched it yet, I'm actually considering removing the arm altogether, but we'll see.
Anyways, C+C away Pixelation!

[Tourist]

This is a nice character, although she could use some trousers.  Here is what I see:

Lack of construction.  The figure is rather flat, rather than built from 3d forms.  No light source is defined, some shadows contradict each other.

Face and hair

This is ... not good.  The back of the hair/braid/thing lines up vertical, but the head is tilted to the side.  The large chunk of hair in the front does not appear to attached to a skull - no sense of construction here.  The chunk also covers the eyebrows, which some hairstyles do, but eyebrows are useful to help convey expression. 

The strands of hair in the front must be stapled to her face because they ignore gravity.  But if you move them out of the way, the problems with the face emerge.  Eyes are very wide, which implies a wide face, but the ears are stuck on right next to the eyes.  The nose ... isn't really a nose, and the mouth is tiny.

The lines of the jaw are asymmetric, which would suggest the head is turned slightly (in addition to being tilted) but the features are mostly centered.  It's a tough angle to try and pixel at, so you could probably get away with it once you fix the structural problems.

Torso

Mostly ok.  I don't get the placement of the wrinkles.  It looks like they were placed just to break up the space rather than define the form.  The ones in the center of the chest make it hard to see the heart symbol.

Arms, thighs

Hands are a little small, I think.  Arms might be a little short too.  I don't know where the shadows on the arms are coming from (particularly the shoulder on our right).  The legs are flat, but I assume this is just unfinished.

Colors

I think you could spread the values more. A few dark colors to balance out the mid and light tones.

An edit. 

Some things are working, some things are not (goofed up the purple colors), some things are experimental (both warm and cold shadows).  I used a reference for the t-shirt, for the placement and drape of the folds. 



Tourist

[Seiseki]

Love the expression, overall it's very charming.
Tourist, your edit kinda destroys the charm the original had, even though it's technically better when it comes to shading of the t-shirt among other things, but it's lost the original appeal and cuteness.

[IvanX]

Many thanks Tourist, your edit and review provided me heaps of help, and thanks in general Seiseki. 
I certainly think I'm heading in he right direction with this.


Of course I'm going to try and keep the original charm it had before.

[pistachio]

Can't help but agree with Seiseki. While it did add to the overall three-dimensionality of the character, I don't think the author intentioned her face as realistic. Like the suggested palette, though.

Hope this edit addresses some of the problems without destroying too much charm. Protruding arm-monster was a bit of a rush job that was further cleaned up. I now envision it as more bony and decaying (think zombies). Also to note, in both yours and mine it's seemingly protruding from her shoulder. Unusual, no? Seems like you're not going to bother with it anymore though.



A few other things: The purple ramp is really saturated compared to the other ramps. Thighs are flat, yes, among other things. The arm protruding from her back is probably the most obvious example of this. They're also perhaps a tad-bit disproportionate for someone her age (16 - 20?).

EDIT: Latest version may have strengthened my point.. But that's probably just me. She now appears crosseyed, for one. Her lips seem to make this silly expression almost deliberate. The shading has improved by a bit, but the legs are still flat and symmetrical, with very dark shadows creeping into illogical, heavily lit places and pretty much forcing attention there. (Maybe illogical in a good way then...) I actually liked the older shirt design better as well, especially around the neck-to-shoulder area. It seemed to suggest the presence of gravity through folds and a rather asymmetric design. I like.

[Tourist]

Mea culpa.  My edit goofed the face and made her ugly.  Mouth too wide, brows too heavy, no expression.

On the newest version:
I like that she has a nose, and that the features line up along the center line of the head much better.

The face is lit from the upper left, the body is lit from the upper right.  The hair should cast a bit of shadow on the face.

I really think if you started with a simplified skull shape, then plotted an eye line and center line, the result would be better.  Even if you stick with a cute cartoon style, creating a simple underlying form will really help.  Plotting curved reference lines with only a few pixels is tough, so it doesn't have to be precise.

Here's how Disney does it: http://www.freewebs.com/max9075/howtodraw.html  It has how-to-draw steps for W.I.T.C.H. comic characters.  I don't recommend following this exactly because the final result looks very Disney, but I mean to show that even for non-realistic faces, there is an underlying structure.  (Also, they lack noses)

Tourist

[IvanX]

Ok, here's where I'm at.


I've played with the face a bit to give her less of that goofy look previously mentioned, also started the back arm, and as you can tell, I'm still very unsure of what to do to it design wise since my old sketches here really undetailed, so how that bird-like skull stays on, is beyond me. (Probably back to the drawing board with this one)
I also toyed around with the colors and added a pair of shorts because, as pistachio pointed out, it really draws "attention" without them.