[WIP] Practicing outline-style

[Lakelezz]

Dear wayofthepixel-community !

Currently I am practicing an outline-style.

I already completed two pieces making this the third one.

Nonetheless there is something making me stuck on my current piece.
This is Aoba Tsugumi from the manga and anime "Kannagi":



I am using several references, some are quite big therefore a spoiler:

Spoiler

Not the best but one of the only good front views. Though the front view is roughly lined.


The left girl of course.


One very good but not full body and not front perspective reference.

Once you took a look at the third reference you may see the features on her dress. Those lines which are folding the dress back on the bottom and go up to her breasts and then moving strictly into mirrored directions.
Those lines are my current struggle. Please do not mind the current shading on the dress since I stopped adjusting it that much as long as work on the lines is going.
Any ideas how I could solve this problem?

Beside that I am happy for every constructive critique

Thanks for reading!

[lachrymose]

The bigger issue I see is with the anatomy and proportion.
I am by  no means a master but there are a few things that are pretty visually wrong here. Her legs are too short, torso is to long and arms are too short.
Here are some thoughts.


I think what your main problem is, is that by staying in"outline style" you are constraining yourself too much to your line art. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. IF you have solid line art.
Take a step back and continue to work with blobs. Then go back through and outline  your forms after the fact if you really want too.

I like the head though. It looks a lot more refined than everything else.

[Seiseki]

Been trying to practice some anatomy lately, and edits are a good excuse for that. Hopefully this is helpful but there are probably errors.



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lachrymose drew the shape of the body on top of the clothes as a guide which I can recommend since it helps a lot!
I think that his pose works really well. It looks more natural compared to when the elbows are too close to the body which looks really uncomfortable..

[wolfenoctis]

Some thoughts on anatomy and pose:


Your current proportions are closer to a chibi character than an anime character. Anime characters have elongated legs

[Lakelezz]

Wow, I am stunned! Thanks for all of your commitment and feedback 

Lachryrose, yes I suspected her anatomy to be off.
I am thankful for sharing your ideas with me! However I am not sure whether I find your idea too tall compared to the size I was aiming for while doing those pieces. The other two pieces are around 100-120 pixels height.
The idea of using guidelines is good! I should and will do that more often from now on.

Seiseki, I appreciate your commitment as well - it is a bit smaller than Lachryrose's edit which might fit more to what I planned in terms of size - as I said I wanted this to be all a little bit smaller, around the mentioned height of 120 pixels.
On the other side I would accept this height change compromise to keep the head as it is.

Though I am a bit confused what anatomy is right or wrong now - two different attempts of you, haha.
Nonetheless I prefer my arm pose not because of the anatomy but since it seems to be cuter and I do not think it is uncomfortable. Hard to explain - I just tried it on my own before.

Wolfenoctis, I just felt in love with your edit! I agree on your opinion that my current piece looks more chibi-like. On the other side your edit is simply stunning. Sadly I am not sure whether I should try "copying" this. Since orientating will probably just be close to copying it in a stylistic manner.
I am very thankful for you inspiration, though I will see what I can make out of it.

Thanks everyone. I still have to think about this and how I could progress.
I might look at some more poses of other pieces to get more sure about the anatomy.

[Lakelezz]

I made some edits!



In the end I decided to change the size for the sake for this piece!
However I still have some struggle with adding depth to the dress... :/
This is the clean version - my other attempts simply did not work.

[Lakelezz]

I added some dark shades on her right sleeve. Though I am not sure if it looks better without.
Also I tweaked her shoes a bit.
Nonetheless I am still struggling with the depth of the dress, it is like one of the last things I am not happy with.
Any suggestions?

[Kazuya Mochu]

on the references you posted initially, there's almost no shading done on the dress, and the volume is suggested buy seam lines or by the outline occasionally curving around the body shapes.
maybe you could try that and see where that leads. if you feel comfortable understanding how the edge curves work, you could then gradually add shades on the inside of the shape that match the body's volume.

[Lakelezz]

Thanks for your feedback, Kazuya Mochu.

I just found out that one of the references did only load when the user already saw the piece embedded on the original webspace - I fixed this issue in order to see the third reference.

Additionally I tried to add depth of course. This is what I ended up with:

Oldest attempt:


New attempt  using some stronger lines:


Removed the "ugly" lines:


The skirt has been folded on the left and right side. The right side is pretty dark already so there is not that much of detail put in it.
Additionally I tried to add some depth with shades and everything.

Maybe the first attempt was the best.
Oh, and do not mind the blue colour change. Just an experiment.

I am not satisfied at all :/ Though I do not know how to encounter this.

[dpixel]

In something this size probably selective outlining might work out better...or use it other places on the interior of the piece.  For example in your last edits, the legs are outlined but the line between the thighs is pretty light, which kind of throws if off.  Look at your references.  The black lines are throughout the character. 
The edit by wolfenoctis shows selective outlining very well.  The dark outlines are throughout. On the outside, some are dark and some are a bit lighter.  Very cohesive.

I would think black outlines are more used for small detailed sprites to add definition to small details...to make them 'pop' more.  Also more used in video games on sprites to make them stand out from a background, especially a highly detailed background.