[WIP] Mermaid peice

[Jafhar]

Hello I'm new to Way of the Pixel, as well as being pretty new to any pixel art outside of small scale spriting, pretty sure this is the place to post this.



Just looking for general CC and any would be much appreciated, however I think I made the colours too bland when I gave them that 'underwater look', and I have absolutely no idea how to make the red part of her look scaly, some help with dithering would be amazing, never done it successfully before.

Oh, and hands are really f***ing hard.

[Manupix]

Looks like a good start 

Anatomy might be tuned a bit (pun intended). Although that's not necessarily an issue, the lower body is pretty long compared to the human half, I don't know if it's biology, perspective or both. Her right arm looks more like a tentacle, I guess you just roughed it out so far or else it might be a deliberate choice too.

I don't understand the body shading very well, as it seems that her body has color variations that override shading? That might complicate things, esp in the human parts. Bright tail fins read as transparent: that would be nice.
No idea what the dark things on boobs and pelvis are.

Colors do look a little bland, widening the hue range would help. Here is a nice underwater palette if you need inspiration!

Dithering and texturing and scales: look at how others did it. Bear in mind that it's about suggesting rather than showing: you can't possibly draw each individual scale and it would be pretty boring if you did. A good rule of thumb about dithering: the less there is, the better!
Here's one nice mermaid with careful dither-texturing that evokes sparkly scales just the right amount.
Alternatively, look at this incredibly wet and leathery dolphin skin without the slightest amount of dithering.
More examples.

[Jafhar]

Is this a step in the right direction as far as dithering/texturing goes?
I'm aware I need to add a brighter shade but I was kind of struggling because it was clashing with the cream colour constantly.



The red part of her is intended to be scaly, and the cream coloured bit is meant to be closer to human/dolphin skin.
Also fixed up the arm a tiny bit, still needs some work.
The red (Now black) bit on her chest was a kind of bra-plate, and the red bits around where her thighs would be are also fins, taken a bit more directly from shark anatomy.

Thanks for taking the time to respond c:

[Johasu]

I think the biggest readability issue is that straight away the fin that runs the length of her tail appears to be counter-shading (the tendency in animals to have a lighter belly than back because of overhead lighting [camouflage]).
You also have the lighter color from your upper body on the back of the tail which is against natural counter-shading AND her hip area clearly indicates that you are using darker colors on the back and lighter colors on the front which is natural. All of this gives her a spirally-twisty appearance.
It is only upon closer inspection that those fins appear as actual fins. And really only then because of the well defined caudal fin.
Could resolve this with a bit more detail to the fins to make them read more as what they are.  Perhaps some light spine-work within or juncture to body shading?  But your lighting is a bit confusing to the eye.

[Manupix]

What Johasu says. You definitely have to solve these body color vs shading issues, and even more important, work on the body shape and pose. Look for refs and refs and refs! Understand options and pick one.
For instance, it seems you are going for a more eel- or snake-like lower body than the classic fishy mermaid: if so, make it dynamic, muscular, twisty. Example.

Texturing will only come later, although it's of course ok to test it, but be aware any detail work you're doing now will likely be lost when you change some major option later.
This first try at texturing isn't very mermaidish, rather raspy and dry.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Yo jaf!

I feel like just shading the different colored parts would get rid of this problem. You can have multiple "spreads" of colors using the same palette to show different colorations. Check the comments in this picture for a better definition: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/20646.htm .