[WIP] I need help with my mage

[dman]

Hi, I'm kind of new at pixel art and i need help with my mage for my RPG any tips?

[ScaryPotato]

Hi dman, welcome to the site!

I think the simplistic style you have could be really charming, but right now it feels pretty flat with the shading and colours. It would look good as-is if the game took place in a misty or foggy environment, but otherwise could use a little more contrast to help define things a bit.

I did a quick little example here:

Basically all I did was change the highlights to something a little more saturated and towards the yellow end of things, and played with some variety in the skin. Hope it helps!

[dman]

Thanks so much ScaryPotato i did what you said and added more contrast

Any tips on the environment? I want it to be sorta dark like its night and with glowing plants everywhere like on james camerons avatar.

[ScaryPotato]

Weird, the links to your images aren't showing up for me anymore. If you're thinking of having a glowy environment, the thing to think about then would be the colour given off by whatever it is that's glowing. If the rest of the environment is fairly dark, your highlights should reflect the glowy stuff. Would be kind of cool to have little fireflies or something lighting areas up!

[dman]

Idk why the links stopped working but here is the link to the mage again

and here is the environment again. My partner wants it isometric so i did my best and we're adding the plants in later with glow effects
so i dont really need to draw those yet its just the tiles im concerned about

Thanks again for all the tips and help ScaryPotato

[jams0988]

He's not really reading as a mage right now to me. He looks like he's wearing a hoody more than a cloak. Kind of reminds me of Kenny from Southpark, the way it's tightly wrapped around his head.

[ScaryPotato]

I sort of figured your mage was a young cartoony kid, so the style doesn't bother me too much, but jams0988 has a point.


Messed around with the shapes a little to see how a big floppy hood would look...it's okay, definitely less Kenny-ish!



With the tiles, depending on how much variety you're going after, you may want to do some transition types, perhaps an uneven line between grass and sand or something. Also, if each tile represents one unit of movement then the lines separating each is fine, otherwise, I'd try to make them blend together seamlessly. A little variety in the water wouldn't hurt either, right now all three look the same to me. I'd like to see how this progresses!

[dman]

The mage does look better like that ScaryPotato but i totally redesigned it im going for more of a square look now and its not gonna be isometric ill post up a pic of the new art for some tips soon and also i will make the new tiles have better transitions between eachother and blend more smoothly. Thanks again ScaryPotato and thanks jams0988 im gonna make him look more like a mage and less like Kenny lol