[WIP] Dragon

[lachrymose]

Hello all, kinda new here, so hello again.

I'm working on dragon boss game sprite, and as a fairly new spriter i'd like some feedback from ya'll.
Anything you point out will do, thanks for any input!

[Johasu]

Your colors are really hard to pick apart with the eye.
It's blurring the details.
Try to add some contrast.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Indian_Gharial_Crocodile_Digon3.JPG
If you look at the scales on a large reptile like a crocodile you will see a full range of color from bright highlight to darker shadows.
You can't hope to get that much detail in a small sprite but you can make each color you use definable with the eye so that your shapes are readable.

[lachrymose]

Thanks for the advice, I scaled up the image a bit and tried add a bit more color and noise to match the random patterns from the croc pic.

[Pix3M]

Watch out, the human eye is more sensitive to higher values. Dark colors contrasts very poorly with other dark colors.

May also be worth looking at this site: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

I could make a color edit to make details more visible, but that would only be concerned with how it appears on my screen and there is that possibility that your screen is very different.

[lachrymose]

Hmm, so brighten it up more?

[Manupix]

I see a wrong workflow here. Pixeling and fully detailing body parts one after another instead of progressively working on the whole piece is a sure path to failure. There are 2 ways to start a piece: either draw the whole line art (as apparently you started doing from your first post) and make sure it's good before you begin shading and coloring; or block out very rough color patches and refine them progressively (or combinations of these). Don't even think of dithering at this point!

Also I don't think working on such a large canvas is recommended. Pixel art being about control of individual pixels, the more there are, the harder it is (and soon hopelessly so). 100x100px is 10,000 pixels and that's already a huge lot; 500x500 is 250,000! No way anyone except the most experienced pixelers can tackle this.
Sure, you won't be able to show every individual scale, but that's not the point. Pixel art is all about suggesting.

Dragons happen to be quite ambitious to draw and pixel. I'd suggest to study how others did it, and seriously consider the 'simpler' option of a small, cartoonish, scale-less dragon such as these cuties: 1, 2.

Next, think about colors and light.
You already have 48 colors (!) there, most of which are indistinguishable and cover a few pixels. Try to build a consistent palette and stick to it (although it's fine to tweak it). Anywhere between 8 and 32 colors should be a goal, according to the style you're looking for. Consider using existing palettes such as Arne's or Dawnbringer's.

Shading: define a light source! Presently there is none. Using references is good for this, BUT you must make sure you understand the light in the ref. Johasu's link isn't an easy one as it has at least 4 distinct sources: direct sunlight but not everywhere; diffuse (blue) light from the sky in the general direction of the sun; dimmer diffuse blue light from the opposite side; diffuse greenish reflections from the ground. Try to see how each of these affect the image. Of course in your piece you'll create a much more simple light: one direct source is enough for now.

At this point you should probably experiment with simple small tests of these various issues, and start again on this piece when you have a better grasp of them to pick a direction and stick to it. Reading some good tutos might help too

[Ashbad]

I think the most important thing you need to do is stop thinking about the dragon as a 2D drawing and think of it as a 2D drawing of a 3D object.  While you have a lot of colors and attempts at shading, it looks flat, like a paper dragon rather than an actual dragon. 

You might want to keep the general look/design the same but you should consider re-imagining the actual stance, proportions, etc. and this time think of it in a 3-dimensional sense.  Some things that might help:

http://sashas.deviantart.com/art/The-Perspective-Tutorial-94166651  <- just quickly googled for a perspective tutorial skimmed this and it looks good

If you have rudimentary 3D design skills already then maybe model a very basic dragon out of primitive shapes (cubes, pyramids, spheres, prisms, etc.) to get an idea of how the volumes would look in 3D space, and go from there.  If not then just play around with drawing different objects around you by hand with pencil/paper from different angles to learn how 3D objects would look in a 2D projection.  Then try to figure out what type of shapes a dragon could be made up from (maybe start with a box for the head, a bent cylinder for the neck, and then try a more complex version where the head it made up from a thin box with a triangular jaw and triangular nose ridges/beak and bent cones for the horns, etc.) and once you get an idea of what this basic skeleton would look like together in 3D space, you can better figure out how to draw the actual dragon.

As for colors, it's best to pick colors that have decent contrast (most of the time at least, there's obviously exceptions) because with the dragon for example it's hard to make out a lot of features because everything is dark and very close in brightness in relation with each other, other than the neck part.

Hope this is helpful feedback!

[lachrymose]

Dragons happen to be quite ambitious to draw and pixel. I'd suggest to study how others did it, and seriously consider the 'simpler' option of a small, cartoonish, scale-less dragon such as these cuties: 1, 2.

I was actually expecting this to be the first advice i'd get. I don't deny that it is probably the best as well.

But as i'm a bit of a masochist, I had to continue along my current path with some adjustments.

I looked at the tutorials and tried to add a light source, which is directly to the viewing side of the character(think your head is the sun)
I tired to limit my use of colors but add a greater amount if distinction between them. I think 8 different colors? I also changed some of the proportions and am working a lot more with the line art.
Right now it looks too much like a dinosaur to me, so some of that might change, overall though I think it is an improvement. So thanks for all the input, more is always welcome

[Manupix]

Much improved! 

This is a difficult light source you've picked, and likely a boring one. It's also at risk to bring you too close to the dreaded pillowshading, as already apparent on the neck.
A classic and easier light source would be from the upper left corner (facing the dragon).

I just found this graphic tuto for photographers; you can see how yours (left) isn't so appealing. It's also why flash photography is usually ugly.

[eve]

A longer mouth would make it less dinosaur-ish, I think.