[WIP] Touhou-ish sprite

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My friend wanted a sprite of this made-up character for a Touhou-like game he's making.  I'm quite a noob when it comes to pixel art; I think this is like my fourth or fifth tiny little thing.  Anyway, I was hoping I could get some feedback so I can improve it some:



The more specific you could be, the better.  Thanks!

Current:

[StarRaven]

It's pillow-shaded. Don't shade in gradiations of a bunch of colors like that, it makes the shading blurry and indistinct. When you're shading, just make big areas of color (think like in cell-shaded anime.) After that, you can add more colors, but start with just a few.

There are some really good Touhou pixel art videos on YouTube if you want to get a look at how someone works while doing pixel art in the style you want.
(Here's one.)

The sprite is pretty cute, otherwise. I think the shading is your biggest problem right now. Keep working at it! Hope I've helped~

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I think the shading is your biggest problem right now.

I totally agree.  Thanks for the feedback.  I think I'm gonna revamp the shading and start with a different light source position.

E: How many shades (per color) do you suggest?

[StarRaven]

For a sprite like that, I'd say start with three (a midtone, a shade color, and the outline color) and add as you need them (like a highlight color, for instance.) If you want to do some anti-aliasing, you can add colors in between.

While choosing colors, keep in mind that you don't have to keep them on the same hue. You can get much more dynamic colors by moving toward blue/purple (as well as reducing the saturation) as your colors get darker.

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Okay, I tried a different tack with the shading:

I also reshaped the skirt of the dress some and reduced the number of colors.

[StarRaven]

Already looking much better! What's that she's holding in her hand?

Personally I think she could use a little bit of outline, to set her apart from the background. For some of the lighter parts where you haven't shaded you, just sing the shadow color to shade might work. The shape of the face looks like it needs to be smoothed out a bit at one point, too.

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It's a rock.

E: Here's a version with a bit of an outline:

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Wondering if anyone has any more suggestions for this one or if I'm ready to let it stand and move on to new stuff.

[Proton]

The hair needs a bit more work and the face could be defined a bit more.
But it's pretty good.

[Tails_155]

Of course I find a talkhausian on here and I find, first and foremost, a touhou sprite

I'd say that the color shift between the hair and face seems abrupt to me... and the hair looks like a solid mass, but I am not completely certain on how to assist with that when it's anime-esque.