[WIP] Adult Scootaloo + Cloudy Scene

[jams0988]

And, I just saw your edit, jams -- and I must honestly say that I have to agree with most of it -- For some reason I have a hard time getting myself to discard the bluish colors (they just look so pretty even though they're incorrect), but I'll play around until I satisfy my craving for contrasted, pretty colors and a realistic sunset scene Smiley 

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing what you do next with the piece! =)

[Ai]

The bluish colors aren't inaccurate per se; when I suggested changing in that direction, it was to give an impression of picking up some colors from the sky. Maybe it would be best to use one color to suggest color reflected from clouds, and the next darkest or lightest one to suggest the color of the atmosphere.

If the clouds are properly colored, those two colors should only be a relatively small amount different in hue anyway.

BTW, the 'flowing motion' thing is easier if your paint program supports splines. If you play around with Grafx2, you can access the spline tool via the second icon in the second row of the toolbox.

@ jams0988:
Why would you recommend to learn Graphics Gale when both Grafx2 and ProMotion are available (for free and for cheap, respectively) and are more capable for serious pixel art? 

I do agree that if you can afford one, getting a Wacom tablet is so worth it. I specify Wacom because I've had trouble with other brands in the past, but my Wacom has been rock solid in terms of quality and reliability.

[Ashbad]

Well, no new edits from me yet, I've actually spent the past few days trying to get used to using Grafx2.  At first it seemed a bit overloaded with options, but I'm growing to like the interface.  Thanks for the suggestion, Ai!   In addition, I'm thinking I can probably get a wacom pretty soon -- hopefully within two weeks, since I got a paycheck from my internship yesterday that would cover it many times over (pleasant, unexpected surprise for me!)  I'm thinking of going with either a small or normal sized Wacom Intuos.  Any suggestions on proposed size or product line (like, something by Wacom besides their Intuos sub-brand) of tablets?

Oh, and while it isn't an edit worthy of a post, I dropped it from 34 colors (I had thought it was 32 before, but Grafx2 disagreed with that count) down to 28 with essentially no difference in aesthetics. 

[Ai]

Well, no new edits from me yet, I've actually spent the past few days trying to get used to using Grafx2.  At first it seemed a bit overloaded with options, but I'm growing to like the interface.

That's great I used to feel that way, but now I find there are only a few of those options I don't use.

Also, did you find the .. extremely specific .. contextual help (F1, as always.) One of the things it does is tell you about keyboard shortcuts relating to the given functions (and lets you change them).

  Thanks for the suggestion, Ai!   In addition, I'm thinking I can probably get a wacom pretty soon -- hopefully within two weeks, since I got a paycheck from my internship yesterday that would cover it many times over (pleasant, unexpected surprise for me!)  I'm thinking of going with either a small or normal sized Wacom Intuos.  Any suggestions on proposed size or product line (like, something by Wacom besides their Intuos sub-brand) of tablets?

Intuos sounds like a good bet. It's what I would get if I were buying a tablet. I have only purchased one Wacom myself, a 'medium'* size Graphire3 (a model which has since been superceded.), so I don't feel qualified to comment in detail. The only other thing I can say is,  I understand that the RF Wireless versions are somewhat vulnerable to performance degradation when there is a high degree of background wireless activity (eg from routers, laptops, or phones.), so it's worth considering what your typical situation is going to be when choosing between RF and conventional USB models.

* probably what you call 'normal'. I'm going by the names assigned on the Wacom site.

Oh, and while it isn't an edit worthy of a post, I dropped it from 34 colors (I had thought it was 32 before, but Grafx2 disagreed with that count) down to 28 with essentially no difference in aesthetics. 

Yeah, the auto histogram is pretty handy Have you found 'zap unused colors' in the palette editor? It's good after you've just remapped some colors and have old unused palette indices sitting around.

[Ashbad]

Well, no new edits from me yet, I've actually spent the past few days trying to get used to using Grafx2.  At first it seemed a bit overloaded with options, but I'm growing to like the interface.

That's great I used to feel that way, but now I find there are only a few of those options I don't use.

Also, did you find the .. extremely specific .. contextual help (F1, as always.) One of the things it does is tell you about keyboard shortcuts relating to the given functions (and lets you change them).

  Thanks for the suggestion, Ai!   In addition, I'm thinking I can probably get a wacom pretty soon -- hopefully within two weeks, since I got a paycheck from my internship yesterday that would cover it many times over (pleasant, unexpected surprise for me!)  I'm thinking of going with either a small or normal sized Wacom Intuos.  Any suggestions on proposed size or product line (like, something by Wacom besides their Intuos sub-brand) of tablets?

Intuos sounds like a good bet. It's what I would get if I were buying a tablet. I have only purchased one Wacom myself, a 'medium'* size Graphire3 (a model which has since been superceded.), so I don't feel qualified to comment in detail. The only other thing I can say is,  I understand that the RF Wireless versions are somewhat vulnerable to performance degradation when there is a high degree of background wireless activity (eg from routers, laptops, or phones.), so it's worth considering what your typical situation is going to be when choosing between RF and conventional USB models.

* probably what you call 'normal'. I'm going by the names assigned on the Wacom site.

Oh, and while it isn't an edit worthy of a post, I dropped it from 34 colors (I had thought it was 32 before, but Grafx2 disagreed with that count) down to 28 with essentially no difference in aesthetics. 

Yeah, the auto histogram is pretty handy Have you found 'zap unused colors' in the palette editor? It's good after you've just remapped some colors and have old unused palette indices sitting around.

I like the idea of the RF version, but I think that the USB version would work a lot better with the incredible network noise at my house.  I'm thinking of going by the "Medium" size, small sounds nice, but I generally carry a backpack around to places anyways so transportation wouldn't be an issue that trumps the want for a larger size.  As for zapping unused colors, yep, I have used it and it's quite helpful!  I personally wish there were a few more options to sort the palette by instead of lightnes and hue/lightness (ascending/descending sub-options, sorting by hue alone, saturation, etc. would be helpful), but perhaps I could just extend it with a Lua script (I *am* a computer scientist before an artist, so that should be an easy thing for me) to do that (the fact that you can script in extensions is rather nice, and on its own is a feature I need to play around with.)  I also like the splitscreen zoom you mentioned in an early post -- it's incredibly helpful!  After playing around with GG and this, I think this is definitely a better piece of software in most respects, and definitely when it comes to tons of feaures.

[Ai]

  I personally wish there were a few more options to sort the palette by instead of lightnes and hue/lightness (ascending/descending sub-options, sorting by hue alone, saturation, etc. would be helpful),

The 'ascending/descending' option is unnecessary -- just use 'Invert' or 'X-Invert' afterwards if you want the result to be descending-order.
(I think the typical usage of 'Sort' is not on the entire palette, but on the colors of a specific ramp. Personally I find sorting the entire palette feels orderly and pretty, but unless the palette is fairly small, it mainly just makes the picture harder to edit. YMMV)

but perhaps I could just extend it with a Lua script (I *am* a computer scientist before an artist, so that should be an easy thing for me)

Actually, SuperSort, from Dawnbringer's huge package of Lua extensions (that url should be accessible once PixelJoint forum goes back up..), may do what you want.

It has the option to sort by any of:

* histogram
* brightness (finetuned formula)
* Hue-> Bri->Sat
* Sat->Hue->Bri
* Sat->Bri->Hue
* Bri->Hue->Sat

and the option to automatically remove doubles.

..You may also like the overall package from the point of view of providing a big set of examples how to write plugins.

After playing around with GG and this, I think this is definitely a better piece of software in most respects, and definitely when it comes to tons of feaures.

Oh, you might want to check your 'cursor' setting (under 'skins'). I recently found that switching to 'transparent' made it much easier to see what I was doing.