[WIP] Simple character would like some shading advice.

[Dr. Spankenstein]

I've started off with a simple character and I'm trying to shade it correctly.



I'm not very pleased with the look of the head.  What advice would you give to improve it?

[Organ_House]

I'm kind of having a hard time reading just what this character is. It looks like you're pillow shading a bit there. First consider where your light source is, and then shade based on that. Also, if that green thing in the center is an eye, you might have that as a light source (if it's a robot eye. I can't really tell.)

[Dr. Spankenstein]

That bad huh 

The green thing is an eye and it is a robot eye at that.

[Corinthian Baby]

At this resolution, it's going to be very hard to distinguish your figure with details. There's nothing here indicating that it would be a robot without you verbally conveying that to us. We've established that the 2 vertical pixels are an eye but what are the 2 lines beneath the head? Right now they look like 2 lines. Add something that might convey character, ie antenna, mouth, etc, any simple detail that would help show what it is.

[Dr. Spankenstein]

It's a springy robot with the following simple animation.



I added some antennae as suggested and reduced the eye size to allow for more defined shading.



What are your thoughts?