[WIP] First ever sprite - Monster

[robtyketto]

Greetings,

This is my first post and piece of pixel art, a monster sprite which was inspired by the classic acorn electron game, monsters (Screenshot below).


Monsters game is basically a coin-op conversion of the game Space panic.

I thought for practice I would do my version of the sprites and chose to use blue colours rather than red for one set of the monsters and instead of green tiles for the platform I will use a sandy/desert orange colour which I think will compliment the blues.

Below is my Monster sprite, Initially I did add try out dithering and attempting to give the monsters a fluffy feather appearance but in the end decided to submit the version of the monster below which aint pretty but the best from a bad bunch.



Looking forward to hearing advice and tips, especially regarding the shading, outline and anti-alias.
I left off a menacing mouth (though not in the original) as couldn't get the look quite right.

Thanks
Rob

[robtyketto]

I started work on the platform tiles which I wanted to be like the surface of mars.

Why it's nicknamed the 'red planet'  is odd as most google image searches show the surface like an orangey desert colour, maybe from satellite it looks red.



I then did a mock up with the exact same image tiled with a monster sitting on it.



Think I will add a mock background, black with some very simple stars.
I will read up about tiling so it appears seamless.

I chose the colours from a colour wheel as closely as I could to find complimentary colours, does it look ok?

I'm very new to pixel art and unfortunately cannot draw at all so I have to pixel it down straight away.

[Shrub]

  Too much contrast on the tiles. 

[Manupix]

I'm very new to pixel art and unfortunately cannot draw at all so I have to pixel it down straight away.

Nonono.
Drawing and pixelling share the same basics. Practising one is helpful to the other (both ways).
I strongly suggest to start sketching, pencil on paper. Start simple, it's mostly a question of learning to look.
Sketching is more natural and much faster than pixelling, it allows you to try more stuff in a short while.
Just do it everywhere and at all times, it's fun too!

[Shrub]

Yep. Generally, you won't get far in pixel art, if you never draw outside the computer.

[robtyketto]

Remembering I'm a newbie here when you mentioned the contrast of the red mars tile did you mean the colour ramp had colours where the luminous values (my colours were picked by contrasting the luminous value) were too far apart or something else?

I changed the colours for the mars tile and also added a black background with stars, though they look too clustered it's just a simple mockup to see how well all the colours work together.



Off topic I ordered this off amazon and looking forwarding to practising drawing away from my pc
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Book-Drawing-Barrington-Barber/dp/1848375360/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273147983&sr=8-1

[robtyketto]

I've added the main spaceman, he looks a little stiff and after much rework Im not satisfied with him at all.

Await C+C so I can improve him.

Unlike other colour ramps rather than just change the kumnious values I took inspiration from browsing Amiga games screenshots with space men in.



Thinking the drawing and colours don't match so well with the monster.

[HC_Bret_Measor]

I'm very new to pixel art and unfortunately cannot draw at all so I have to pixel it down straight away.

Nonono.
Drawing and pixelling share the same basics. Practising one is helpful to the other (both ways).
I strongly suggest to start sketching, pencil on paper. Start simple, it's mostly a question of learning to look.
Sketching is more natural and much faster than pixelling, it allows you to try more stuff in a short while.
Just do it everywhere and at all times, it's fun too!

I agree 100% to this comment. I use to just focus on laying down the pixels and I did very little when it came to concept art. Nowadays I've taken up my pencil and I take the time to draw the stuff I want to do in pixels out on the paper. I can great 100 images way faster then moving pixels around to make 1 image.

Also I like your bad guy toon... but your rocks are unfortunately an eye sore I'll be watching this.

[robtyketto]

Thanks for all the replies.

Is the general agreemant that the rock need some work? If so what particular is making them so ugly?

I've redrawn my spaceman using the exact same colour palette as the monster, it looks bad but I think an improvement over the last one.
Experimenting with styles of spaceman at the moment so it suits the monster, maybe its looking to serious at the moment.

[bengo]

Robtyketto, we will be unable to help you until you've at least learned the bare fundamentals of art, til you've at least attempted a bit, drawing still life and from life, grabbing some beginner's books on art, etc. Sure we can HELP you, but its like trying to help a child with his/her math homework, if the child doesn't know math, how can we exactly correct their problems and show them what they've done wrong? What the child will end up doing is nodding his head, copy what we've done, without all the knowledge behind it, of course the answer will then be right, but the child will still not know how to get to that point. I am glad to see you attempting though, glad you've ordered a book, just remember art's tough stuff and theres a lot you gotta learn, well not too much especially for just this, but a fair amount.