Self Pixel

[OneLongWord]

Hello, I have been registered to this site since 2007 and I have 8 posts. Needless to say, I am not the most active members these beautiful forums have seen, for this I apologise.
I'm usually just a lurker, in all honesty.
I however do attempt to pixel on a somewhat semi-regular basis, alas I'm not very good. (I'm sure if I'd been more active over the years, I may have improved)

Here's what I've got; (original and 400x)


Hopefully you guys wont hate me too much, I stand here in front of you today with a new piece; a self portrait pixel and hope that you could give me some guidance. Criticism and Tips are very welcome.

-EDIT-
I realised that criticizing a portrait may be difficult without a source of some sort. So you lucky people, here's my face; http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/525118_10151813327880298_1453889436_n.jpg

-EDITx2-
I think I've managed to make some progress.

[Ashbad]

While you have a distinct and interesting style going on there, you could use less colors -- a LOT less colors.  On that first image, you had something like 28+, when you could drop to 9 and have it actually look a lot cleaner.  The anatomy is weird (for example, the legs), yes, but I can tell it's an intended part of your style.  And I like it, too.

[OneLongWord]

Thanks Ashbad.
I am well aware that my colour count is through the roof and have tried to cut down on the latest edit.
I must say that colour and palette choice is something I am really bad at and hope to learn from by being here.

I'd like to say that the strange anatomy is my style but I'm not entirely sure, I guess it is slightly purposeful, The head is large and the legs are thin, but I do like it like that.
I guess I'm just gonna keep throwing stuff out there and see what happens.

Not sure what to do about my over use of colour issue though. Hmm...

[PixelPiledriver]

Cool sprite.
Here's some thoughts:

[OneLongWord]

Thanks PixelPiledriver, That edit has me so baffled. I've been sitting here studying it for the last 10 minutes at least.
It's completely thrown me, I'm so confused at how it's so simple when zoomed it, but details when zoomed out. Totally blown my mind, I really like it zoomed out, but hate it zoomed it.
I like to view my things at 400%. Probably quite unconventionally I use it more of an art form as apposed to an functional, in-game type sprite. (not to say that sprites aren't art, at all)

thank you for showing me how to effectively use less colours though, that is helpful.
Gosh, I don't know where to start now. ha.

[PixelPiledriver]

I'm so confused at how it's so simple when zoomed it, but details when zoomed out.

At large sizes pixels appear more segmented from each other.
At smaller sizes pixels blend together more.

This is caused by Closure, a combination of vision and mental perception.
Closure happens when you look at something, your mind perceives implied forms, details, etc that are not actually there.

If you look at an image of some people you know, far from the camera, you will still be able to recognize them.


But the details of the person are implied.
Your mind fills in the gaps that are not actually present.


This is just one example, Closure can be thought of and used in many different ways creatively.
It also happens in real life of course, not just art.

I reduced the colors to 16 before doing any drawing.
Here's some stuff I thought about:

Gosh, I don't know where to start now.

I didn't intend to be confusing by posting no text.
Try some stuff and see what you come up with.

[Friend]

PPD's edit is amazing as usual, but perhaps you might want to up le contrast?