I'm still obsessed with ponies. C+C

[Dessa]

 
Colored Lineart -------> Shaded ---> Shaded /w gradients-----> Background added.


Source image by a friend of mine.  We codesigned her


I'm considering this complete.  The background on the 4th one is a bit of a mess (This is my first time working with gradients, and the BG proved to be more than I can handle at this point  I'll probably go study that Dithering thread in the resources here after this), but I'm still open to hear what people have to say.  I can't seem to ever consider a project complete, and I might go back to make it better.

16 colors (one transparent).  That pink in the mouth is only used once, but it's right at a focal point.  Considering saturating it more just to make it pop.

Now that I'm about to post it, I see numerous little things I'd change.  Meh.

[robotwo]

Damn ponies >:C ... when is episode 24 comming out?
Anyways , very nice work , although the mouth part does kinda' looks too desaturated 

[Dessa]

I still prefer the lineart version, but I always get more positive feedback when I shade.  Maybe for viewers it crosses from "I could do that, if I spent the time" to "Wow, I'm not that good with pixels" which isn't meant to sound like a boast, because I look around here and I don't feel all that great with pixels, but I've also seen what the average non-pixel-person (or maybe the average one-man-game-maker) produces with pixels too and it's rarely pretty.

[HughSpectrum]

IMO the dithering doesn't look so great.  The sprite isn't benefiting much from it.  Since you added colors anyway, just use the extra colors to add contrast and depth.

[Greger]

Yeah the dithering doesn't add anything, it only makes it look rugged and rough. Especially the background on the last picture is ruined by your overextensive dithering.

[heyy13]

As an ex obsessive compulsive ditherer. I see some of my own habbits in you.

Dithering works as texture, blending for low colour count (relativly large) projects or where the contrast between shades is relativly low. Also when you dither a dither (eg light blue to medium blue) should not meet a differant dither (medium blue to dark blue) without a reasonable ammount of pure colour in the middle or it doesn't serve to blend at all, just create texture and in this case make it grainy.

The whole point of dithering is to give you access to colours you don't have in your pallet, but don't forget to use the ones you do have!  You have the colours here to do it without or with minimal dithering. :]

[Gemini166]

I'm not quite sure what that pony mark(or whatever it's called) is supposed to be. Just a silver smiley face? It would make sense for it to be a cloud(with a silver lining, of course) to coincide with the saying it gets it's name from.

[Dessa]

IMO the dithering doesn't look so great.  The sprite isn't benefiting much from it.  Since you added colors anyway, just use the extra colors to add contrast and depth.

I didn't add colors, but it's not like I have a limit or anything.

Yeah, the dithering in the one with the background, pretty bad, yeah.  You will get no argument.  On #3?  I feel like it looks decent, but more colors would look better.

In the mane, the dithering is more akin to texture, and in the tail especially, I'm pretty happy with the effect.

[Tenshi]

@Gemini - Often the Cutie mark doesn't directly translate into the name. So with this one, I can see it being more that she has a radiant smile, which could tie into her outlook, hence "Silver Lining."

@Dessa - I'm definitely more a fan of the solid one (#2), I think it's more in keeping with the style. The third one is really nice but I get the feeling that if so much color were observed from her body, there would be more evidence of a light source elsewhere. I could be wrong.

[Dessa]

@Gemini - Often the Cutie mark doesn't directly translate into the name. So with this one, I can see it being more that she has a radiant smile, which could tie into her outlook, hence "Silver Lining."

@Dessa - I'm definitely more a fan of the solid one (#2), I think it's more in keeping with the style. The third one is really nice but I get the feeling that if so much color were observed from her body, there would be more evidence of a light source elsewhere. I could be wrong.

WHat do you mean?  Like there's too much green under there?

As for her Cutie Mark, when I made Silver Lining, she was 23 pixels tall and just a head.  She's a smiley pony.  When my friend brian drew her full-sized, a lot of it was up to him to create, including the cutie mark.  It's certainly a boon, being simple enough to at least TRY to get it to make sense tiny, although that didn't quite work here (When I add colors, I'll probably go back and see if I can't make it pop by making it a lighter grey, but I'm not terribly stressed if it's a little hard to read).  The problem with Silver Lining is that she's awfully low-contrast.  It makes a lot of things really tough.  This is a large part of why I put her in the middle of a sunny field with the sun behind and above her.  Everything looks a little washed out with that much light.