AuthorTopic: Trying To Sprite A Qilin (WIP)  (Read 2516 times)

Offline Wallie988

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Trying To Sprite A Qilin (WIP)

on: August 08, 2013, 01:26:43 am
Hello! I'm quite new to pixel art, but I've decided to go ahead and start a Qilin to use for an adoptable site.

Here's what I have so far:



Anyone have any tips? :3
« Last Edit: August 10, 2013, 07:58:03 pm by Wallie988 »

Offline Sharm

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Re: Trying To Sprite A Qilin (WIP)

Reply #1 on: August 08, 2013, 04:43:18 am
Hmm, depends on how good you want this to look.  Right now it's cute but there are a lot of major flaws that won't be easy to fix.  If you're looking for a simple fix, take the shading out, up the contrast and shade following the form of the body and not the outlines.  Worry about the details of the scales until after you've got the volume looking right.  However, if you're looking to make it look really amazing, it's going to take a lot more time and effort.

Step 1: Find references.  If I were doing this myself I'd look up goats, deer, lions, dogs and alligators.  You will want to look at the hair especially, the shapes are looking matted at the moment.

Step 2: Using the references as a guide, go back to the outline and fix the anatomy issues.  There are a lot of things in your image that are combining to make this guy look really flat.  There's no room between the forelegs for a chest for instance.  You'll get a lot more room for that once you put the shoulders up next to the back where they should be, right now it looks as though his legs are only attached at the collarbone (which four legged animals don't have).  If you're having troubles seeing how things attach with the normal references, try looking up skeletons.  I'd also fix where the mane goes, right now you've got an off centered horn and a mane that looks like it starts as an eyebrow.   I'd rethink seriously the decision to do this guy completely in profile, it's less dynamic and in some ways can be harder.

Step 3:  Shade using form and volume.  Use the references.  Don't worry about details at all, in fact I'd leave out the scales for this stage.  Pick colors that have a wide enough range to be noticeably different, you can go back in later and make it super smooth if you really want.  Use hue shifting.  Imply muscles and skeletal structure with your shading.  That's a good point to show what you've got here, before it gets refined and complicated.

Step 4:  Imply detail.  You'll almost never want to draw every single scale, instead you'll want to imply the shape of a scale with shading or partial lines.  When smoothing out shading, there will be many places where you won't want every single shade.  If you try to put them all in it will flatten everything out.

Offline Wallie988

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Re: Trying To Sprite A Qilin (WIP)

Reply #2 on: August 10, 2013, 07:59:40 pm
Hmm, depends on how good you want this to look.  Right now it's cute but there are a lot of major flaws that won't be easy to fix.  If you're looking for a simple fix, take the shading out, up the contrast and shade following the form of the body and not the outlines.  Worry about the details of the scales until after you've got the volume looking right.  However, if you're looking to make it look really amazing, it's going to take a lot more time and effort.

Step 1: Find references.  If I were doing this myself I'd look up goats, deer, lions, dogs and alligators.  You will want to look at the hair especially, the shapes are looking matted at the moment.

Step 2: Using the references as a guide, go back to the outline and fix the anatomy issues.  There are a lot of things in your image that are combining to make this guy look really flat.  There's no room between the forelegs for a chest for instance.  You'll get a lot more room for that once you put the shoulders up next to the back where they should be, right now it looks as though his legs are only attached at the collarbone (which four legged animals don't have).  If you're having troubles seeing how things attach with the normal references, try looking up skeletons.  I'd also fix where the mane goes, right now you've got an off centered horn and a mane that looks like it starts as an eyebrow.   I'd rethink seriously the decision to do this guy completely in profile, it's less dynamic and in some ways can be harder.

Step 3:  Shade using form and volume.  Use the references.  Don't worry about details at all, in fact I'd leave out the scales for this stage.  Pick colors that have a wide enough range to be noticeably different, you can go back in later and make it super smooth if you really want.  Use hue shifting.  Imply muscles and skeletal structure with your shading.  That's a good point to show what you've got here, before it gets refined and complicated.

Step 4:  Imply detail.  You'll almost never want to draw every single scale, instead you'll want to imply the shape of a scale with shading or partial lines.  When smoothing out shading, there will be many places where you won't want every single shade.  If you try to put them all in it will flatten everything out.

K, I'll try some of those with another one, but for now, I'm going to try and focus on the egg: