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[Rerg1]

Here is my new one! I like the pallete what you think

[Helm]

I think you should go back to the fundamentals.

[CrumbBread]

I think I want to see you complete a whole figure instead of only doing faces

If you like doing faces, try a big enough portrait to get some good detail in there, and drop the skeleton entirely. But if you are going to draw a skeleton, you might as well flesh it all out. ^_^

I like how you use half-pixels to suggest features...that is something I've never gotten the hang of =)

If you're satisfied where you are, you'll probably not improve =p

[Terley]

definately work bigger, you're gettin no detail into your characters atm.. Try basing your pixel characters on something you've drawn It looks like you're relying on a quickly made structure that isn't necisserily anatomically correct.

sketch some characters out, look at other peoples work, and try work out what exactly they do to get to the 'pixeling stage'..

helms right, it'd be useful goin back to the basics.. I'd suggest trying to sketch out a face and working on it at a reasonable size.. Working on a full body takes some skill, cus you have to make sure it looks natural (as in, not doll-ish).. You need to work on your characters stance, angling, proportions.. Then not only deciding a light source, you have to make it look like your character's actually, a character.. so to speak..

take it one step at a time rergy

[Rerg1]

K I've pretty been good at drawing the shape of a face but I have the problem of finding what stands out.
I sketch EVERYDAY. I do  it in every school book I have as a matter of fact I did a anatomy of a character jumping of a ledge (Gunz related. I should make a topic of how I can improve soon. L8r

[yosh64]

hey

I would most advise you to continue and finnish this to whatever standard. I thinks the more time you spend on it, the more things you will pick up, and also so you have something more to improve on, if this makes any sense???. I would also advise you to make further progress before even posting in future .

From a quick peek, I see right away there to be no defined light source, which makes it look quite flat. I think the torso looks to small to me, and also the head looks to large. I think his head/neck is almost the width of his body? hehe.

cyas

[Rerg1]

Thanks Yosh I never realised the head XD. I migt start from the original Linework. I did use a light source but I think the default skin was maybe a little to light to make the light noticable. .

I think I've had enough comments on anatomy and I thank you all who helped!! But I can see part of my pallete is wrong any tips with that?.

[ptoing]

Ok, this might sound a bit harsh now, but I don't wanna put you down or anything.

You say "I'm pretty good with this, I't pretty good with that..." and so on whereas in fact, you are not. If you wanna improve your artskills you need to work on fundamentals, like Helm has said a few times before. Pixelart is not really a medium suited to better your artskills to a great amount. It can help a bit with few things but not really when you are pretty much starting out.

I mean, you are 12. I was shit at art when I was 12, difference is I did not post my doodles on the Internet, no such thing widely available back then.
I jest kept drawing a lot and eventually got better with time.

So again, my advice would be to practise drawing on paper and not on the computer, draw what you see. Draw your pet, your parents, your friends, your house, places in your town, whatever, draw what you see. And then at some later point if pixelart still tickles your fancy come back to it.

[Andy Tran]

  I like the hue variation in the skin tones. About the palette, it looks kinda dry. If you increase the contrast, it'll be better. Maybe add clothing and finish the rest of the body. I hope that helps.

[yosh64]

hey


I done this edit to try and show you about defining a light source. I also advise you use less colors while learning, I think 3 colors is enough .

cyas

[Rerg1]

Its looks a bit gradient, and I would use abot 5 in a face. or 4 .

Ptoing it did sound harsh but I know what you meen.

But I believe I think because Im 12 I suck at drawing Im actaully pretty good but pixeling is a challenge at times. I never complete anything because I have been crited in dry mean ways. At Pixelopolis you guys are a little dry at times but at the moment its for my best interest and I haven't realised. I will take your advise and I hope I can improve and blow you away with something GREAT . Thanks! Time to start sketching .

[Dusty]

That's because you never really show anything worth critiqueing except a very small head and a sketch body.

And Yosh was right, you really only need 3 shades of skin tone to colour that small of a head, but you denied his critique.

Give them more to critique and they will, and Helm's advice was spot on. You need to know more about anatomy and fundamentals for pixel art than you do for canvas art because there is a lot less room for error.

[CrumbBread]

I never complete anything because I have been crited in dry mean ways.

Don't blame other people for your unfinished work. It's your choice to finish or not -- many of the "dry mean crits" have been *encouraging* you to finish a picture.

I will take your advise and I hope I can improve

You can =) I am pleased that you haven't left in frustration even though the crits sting -- so many people do shut their ears and run away. Bear in mind we're not criticizing you, we're critiquing your art.

Truly I believe that your greatest problem is that when you start a piece, you want to get it over with fast so you can show it off. That's why I have been telling you to finish a piece *completely*, and consider each part of it carefully (don't rush the skeleton to get to the coloring, you'll end up with bad anatomy...don't rush the coloring to get to the shading, you'll end up with bad colors and shapes...etc). There really isn't any aspect that you can gloss over, especially when you're learning (at least this has been my experience -- I still haven't gotten to the point where I can dash off something that looks decent without thinking about it...but that might just be because I'm a poor artist, and a picky one).

[Terley]

hope this helps rerg, click on the image to zoom in..


(bad legs  )

may not be the best example, as im still quite new to workin small but I think it'd help you if you work on the general structure of the character first and use all the colours to your advantage, what you're doing atm is planning out a wireframe character to help you judge the anatomy and drawing a part of the body one by one, I actually think it helps to be constantly changing everything, zooming in and out on every pixel placement to judge what you need to do to it.

oh and avoid using outlined characters at that size because it limits the detail you can add, unless your making a sprite that is.

http://www.cvrpg.com/Images/sprites/Sprites-Link.gif

well erm, hope I kinda helped..

[Andy Tran]

 Just 3 colors for skin tones are enough. Dusty is correct with that. Make well contrasted sprites with hue variation. Yellowish for lighter shades and blueish for darker shades. That'll help him out.

[Rerg1]

Thanks Ter!

I dont really know what hue is and well saturation and stuff I use paint and I have no clue how to do that on PhotoShop.

[ndchristie]

i think that you really need to cahnge your wireframe.  heres the one that ive come up with a while ago for my own use; or something similar (i change it all the time but this is the basic construction), and its not the most accurate but its much more servicible than what you are using



the most important thing here is the  four diamonds (badly drawn in mine, they should be roughly equal, highlighted on the right).  if its unclear, heres the locations written out:

1st diamond top point: inside the mouth, right where the throat begins
1st diamond top sides can be used to form the trapezius, which does stuff like hold up the head

1st diamond middle points: hollow where the pectorals meet the deltiod, just under the collarbone.  poke yourself to find exactly where it is on you, youll know when you find it (its a wicked pressure point)
2nd diamond top point: the pit where the collarbones meet. dont poke around to find it you can gag
the 3 points here connect to create the shoulder line in the central figure.  this line is _incredibly_ important

2nd diamond middle points: nipples.
1st diamond bottom point: lower part of the sternum, just above the solar plexus.

3rd diamond middle points: ribs terminate
2nd diamond bottom point: belly button.  in real life, this is actually a couple inches too high, the belly button fits best in the center of the smaller diamond just below this point

4th diamond central points: that point on your pelvis that sticks out on hot girls and boys
3rd diamond bottom point: this point had really little or no value, middle of last pair of abs
these points connect to crreate the pelvis line, equal in imporatnce to the shoulder line to balance.

4th diamond bottom point: the most important point for obvious reasons


hope this helps a little, ideally you should develope your own way of working, but you also need to come up with something that works, and your current setup lacks quite a lot for good positioning and anatomy

PS: terly you cut the arms short on your edit.  not to pick on you but this is a common mistake.  hands should fall in the middle of the upper leg, not starting at the belt line like yours are here

[Rerg1]

Wow thanks Adrias. I did a quick paint doodle before studing using same colours .

[Terley]

PS: terly you cut the arms short on your edit.  not to pick on you but this is a common mistake.  hands should fall in the middle of the upper leg, not starting at the belt line like yours are here

yeah well I knew it was wrong  ,  I built the character on the proportions he'd marked out..

I tried to make the point that he doesn't have to use an outline, I wasn't planning on ripping into his character, just wanted to illustrate my point with what he had achieved. 

I'll leave the anatomy tips to those who can illustrate it well, words can only go so far.

thanks for the tip anyway. 

[ndchristie]

PS: terly you cut the arms short on your edit.  not to pick on you but this is a common mistake.  hands should fall in the middle of the upper leg, not starting at the belt line like yours are here

yeah well I knew it was wrong  ,  I built the character on the proportions he'd marked out..

actually, not quite, lol, his arm is longer in the wireframe, about 3 pixels when all is said and done.  i dont actually care that much, but it is worth pointing out that he got the length of the right arm almost perfect.  his left arm is a bit shorter, but not by as much as yours.  just something to watch out for when editing; theres no need to create more mistakes in a piece than are already there