I'm sorry that I left this thread hanging
. I could at least have told y'all that I've had problems making time for pixel arting. I've also been indecisive about where to go with the pants, considering there's been so many good, but differing suggestions about that. I guess it boils down to wether I want to emphasize or de-emphasize the roundness of the belly, which Bissle so accurately pointed out in his post.
For now, I've settled with shading that would suggest some roundness, though without making Mario look as obese as the rightmost of Bissles edits (which were great, btw!). I have also done a lot of other small changes, like changing colours to make it brighter and add more contrast between light and shadow. I've taken some additional hints from ptoings edits too, like giving the gloves and boots more shape and defintion. Also, there's a pleasant, cloudy background now.
Actually, I've been struggling with what to put in the background, too. The humour in the piece is derived from placing the melancholy, tired Mario in his usual, cheery and colourful environment. I think contrasting moods like that are funny. But the crux is I'm having a hard time figuring out what to put in the background in order to deliver that. A pleasant, bright and lightly clouded day is fine, I guess, but it's a bit boring as well. I need something more, but it can't become too cluttered. ptoings backgrounds are good in that way, but he's using other colours and I don't want to copy him too closely
.
Anyway, when experimenting to find another background that could work with the colours I have, I created this mess
!
Obviously it's not a very good image: the colourfullness of the background is overpowering, and makes Mario blend into it somewhat. Also, it's sloppily made. I just hastily scribbled those waves (it's supposed to be the sea in sunset, in case you can't tell) with my mouse cursor, spending about 2 min on it total. But still, I think it's very funny with such a dramatic, fantastic vista for a background, coupled with our depressed Mario. Maybe I could make it work if I mixed it up composition-wise (like, pulling the sea down a bit, leaving more room for the sky) and spent some time on actually making it pretty. However, I don't think I'm going to pursue this direction anyway, because it's thematically unfitting, meaning it's obviously not in Marios usual environment of the Mushroom Kingdom.
UNLESS the scene is taking place in the world of Super Mario Sunshine. Should I add F.L.U.D.D
!? If anything, it could make Mario look even more pathetic.
Anyway, thank you all for your help and inspiration so far! Keep the brainstorm going!