AuthorTopic: [WIP] Blonde girl  (Read 12564 times)

Offline TheInquisitor

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #10 on: June 20, 2011, 10:07:09 am
It's a clear improvement, but try not to trace/copy a photo too much. From here on you should pixel without a single obvious reference because otherwise you will no doubt end up with a picture looking exactly like a photo. Let's see some reflective shine in her eyes.

At the moment I'd say her expression is interest and intrigue. Is that what you're going for? Don't think "angelic", which is more of a physical description, think of an emotion she might be conveying.
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Offline piffany

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #11 on: June 20, 2011, 09:50:17 pm
Thanks a bunch for the edit, moket!! I definitely need to tone down the highlights. That link you provided has a lot of good examples. I'll read the details when I have some time :)
--Piffany
Disclaimer: I am still fairly new at pixel art, so please don't be offended by my negative critiques :)

Offline piffany

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #12 on: June 24, 2011, 02:53:13 am
Here's the newest version:



I'm having a lot of trouble working with such a small palette, so I'm using all colours for now. After the shading looks right, then I'll apply the restricted palette. Please let me know what works and what doesn't :)
--Piffany
Disclaimer: I am still fairly new at pixel art, so please don't be offended by my negative critiques :)

Offline Candy Man Criminal

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #13 on: June 24, 2011, 03:39:23 am
the hair has no shine to it now, makes it a bit flatter then it should be

other then that i cant really see anything


also i'd keep this saved aside if i were you, cuz its pretty sweet

Offline r1k

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #14 on: June 24, 2011, 04:06:31 am
looks pretty good now but its pretty much all in midtones right now.  Try adding some  more light to make the form pop a bit more.  Your reference doesnt have any dark shadows so the midtone will work fine as shadows and you can just add in some lights.  Then look for little places where there is a darker shadow such as under the nose, under the lip, under the chin.  Add some hightlights and color into the eyes.  I did a paint over, the colors got a little messed up

pay no mind to the hair though its kind of messed up and wasnt my focus.

Offline pistachio

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #15 on: June 24, 2011, 04:49:38 am
I don't know, the latest version of the piece just seems so... Uncanny to me. Uncanny as in, almost having crossed the uncanny valley. Like a plain photograph of a girl, although this actually did stem from a photoshop collage thing. And it's just so calm, so subtle, and almost boring compared to the last one. Barely anything interesting going on in this picture, other than she's looking up but it's a very small thing. It's pretty much just a girl. The only reason you didn't continue with the last one, it seems, was due to lack of experience. Furthermore this one more resembles a child, while I can't tell what age group you were going for in the last one. Honestly I wish you had the skill to create something of a cross between this version and the old version. Mostly more neck stretching, not to the point where it looks like she's being hanged, but at least a bit more dramatic?

Just something interesting going on in the piece. r1k's edit helps, so more contrast is a step in the right direction, but it needs more. Hmm...

I don't know exactly what it needs so this edit may take a while actually.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2011, 05:48:02 am by pistachio »

Offline r1k

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #16 on: June 24, 2011, 05:14:03 am
I could see this as a detail of a mush larger peice.  What I unintentionaly did to the eyebrows in my edit emphazes a looking upward that I could see giving the peice somewhat of a religious feeling within more context (also emphasized by the youthful innocense of the face) .  The hair right now is reminding me of some kind of middle eastern headress (something like this:
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/57044/57044,1195063433,2/stock-photo-older-middle-eastern-man-with-white-beard-in-arabian-headdress-and-sunglasses-isolated-on-black-6969340.jpg
and I could see this face as part of some large arabesque painting.  But thats probibly WAY beyond the scope of this project.  Those are just my observations, though I look foreward to your interpretation of where to go with this.

Offline EyeCraft

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #17 on: June 24, 2011, 05:39:39 am
I'm having a lot of trouble working with such a small palette, so I'm using all colours for now. After the shading looks right, then I'll apply the restricted palette. Please let me know what works and what doesn't :)

I would actually recommend going in the opposite direction. If you are struggling to define the form, cut back all your tones to just 2, shadow and direct light. Then you can slowly add mid-tones to round the form out/add ambient light. This method avoids creating very low contrast images, or ones with uncertain shading, which is a problem with your current version. r1k has illustrated a great correction with his edit, notice the addition of direct light. Just define a point in space to be the light source and figure out which surfaces will be directly hit by that source.  :)

Offline piffany

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #18 on: June 24, 2011, 05:58:00 am
Latest version:


Obviously there are many changes. I hope she doesn't look too much like a bimbo with the platinum blonde hair and the lip gloss. I thought the lighter colours might emphasize the angelic/religious theme.

@r1k: I heeded to your advice and added more highlights. Maybe not enough; in your version, the skin glows much better. I missed the eyebrow thing until I reread your post, so it's not in the current version.
@EyeCraft: I have tried that approach but every time I end up with ugly colour banding. Any advice on how to not do that?

If anyone can help with the neck/collarbone, it would be very much appreciated!
--Piffany
Disclaimer: I am still fairly new at pixel art, so please don't be offended by my negative critiques :)

Offline r1k

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Re: [WIP] Blonde girl

Reply #19 on: June 24, 2011, 06:23:57 am
the problem is that youve lightened everything rather than just certain parts.  Think of it like this: you have a light region and a dark region.  The contrast between these two regions is greater than the contrast within them.  So for example within the light region you have various middle tones and highlights.  The middle tones are probably pretty close in tonal value and may differ also by subtle hue changes.  Within the dark range you have various ranges of shadows and reflected light.  All of these subtle differences within each group is subtle, but the contrast between the two groups is more obvious.  This isnt a rule that needs to be followed 100% of the time.  You can have the figure in low lighting, with very subtle tonal changes but this is alot more difficult, so for now you probably want to focus on a more direct lighting which is what I am explaining.

The new version suffers a little bit from looking too much like a barbie doll, I think because the skin tones are too monochromatic, which makes it look a bit like plastic.  Just looking at my hand I can see every color of the rainbow, albeit Im refering to color tendencies rather than the actual color (ie, a yellow or red could have a green or blue tendency in relation to the colors around it) and these colors are very subtle.  But my point is that you can use color to add more life to the skin tones.  For example, a reddish blush in her cheeks.  With a good reference and an acute eye you can decern many subtle colors in skin tones.  Generally these subtle shifts in color are left out of pixel art because of the limited use of color, but you are doing a digital painting right now and color conservation isnt an issue.  Well, I think its a good thing to notice in any case.

TO what extent you apply these color tendencies is up to you.  For example there could be a greenish tendency and you can exagerate in and actually make it green.  This will make your picture more expressionistic in the end.  Or you can be more true to the real color; it might actually be a brownish yellow.  Like the red blush in the cheeks: it could be very subtle, or it could be very red, but it needs to make sense in the context of the rest of the picture.  If you make the blush really red and everything else really subtle itll look wierd and out of place.  But if everything else is exagerated, it will actually make sense in the context of the image, even though it isnt actually realistic.

Youll also want to add a few high lights and darkest darks, but these should be used very conservatively.  If you make all the lights as light as the highlight, the highlight loses its impact.  If the highlights are only in a few places they serve their purpose.  The same is true for the darkest darks which you would add in just a few areas and will make the form pop out more.  For example, you could add a darker line under that strand of hair going behind her head (which you could perhapes turn into a braided thing, just an idea) to make it pop out more.  

I think your problem before was that you add in the lights but start adding them everywhere, then they lose their impact, like I explained above.  So you just need to accept that you can use more contrast and it will be okay.  Dont be afraid to go with alot of contrast, maybe you need to do that to get out of your comfort zone.  Then you can tone the contrast done to the level you want.

edit: I should say though, its coming along nicely.