[nude] Figure

[32]

Been a while since I posted anything for critique. Inspired by Friend's thread. Could take it further by myself but figured I'd post now before I got too committed to any pixels. My main issues are with the too man-ish face and the forward shoulder, might erase it and try again. Colours are 5 steps per channel. No reference

Edit: Just a bit of light fiddling on the face before bed, original here

[dpixel]

I'm no expert, but I find the best way to change gender in a face is the jaw. 
quick face edit:

[Night]

That red you have there is an extremely aggressive colour compared to the rest, and therefore would probably need to be used the least in order to create a balanced picture.
There are several ways in which I imagine using colours such as this in a picture:
-areas where the colour is that (the ponytail thing)
-emphasis on the strongest point of light. (shoulder)
-emphasis where it's warmer. (cheek)

You should also acknowledge using the red near to other warm or reddish colours (which in this case would also include the grey, since it is found in a mostly blue palette - it gives it the illusion that the grey is warm) to create a smoother transition between the colours.

Women usually tend to have softer features than men; that goes both for the body and face (joints smaller, bones softer, etc.) So keep that in mind.

[32]

-snip-

Very good point, I'll definitely be softening the jaw up. I have a thing for strong jaws on women so that's always a bit of an uphill battle for me haha.

-snip-

I don't intend to go completely representational with the colours on this, trying to do something a bit... arty. I know I want to use the red and I want to use it a lot, just not exactly sure how right now, probably not as it is, definitely something I'll be playing with as I develop it.

Awesome edit  Thank you so much. I'll be having a very close look at it. I was already toying with the softness a bit last night, the arm is in particular too defined for sure, I like where you took it, the emaciated look is nice. The pose is closer to what I was originally thinking gesture wise as well. Fresh eyes today and you've given me some good ideas, I'll have to have a think about what exactly I want to do with the piece and actually push it in some direction rather than mostly mindless doodling

Edit:


Mostly just noodling with the pixels now, probably won't make any major changes on her without outside input. Gonna start toying with a background. Thanks again for the edit Night, was a huge help, your clusters are really lovely, started using the colours off the block on her skin like you did, looks really nice.

[Ryumaru]

Some thoughts on the face and back leg:



The shapes in the hair are really, really nice. 

[32]

Biggest change is the back leg, decided it was too short and thin. I like the change to the nose Ryu but I'm not so sure about the chin, neither solution is really ideal but I think I'll stick with mine just to save the banding.



Thinking something like this for the background, just gotta decide what to do with the block. 16 colours already, content to leave it there, don't really feel like going into much more detail on the background anyway. Gotta stop looking at this for today, totally blind to the mistakes and blinded literally from looking at all those saturated colours

[DatMuffinMan]

I don't know much about anatomy, but in that position, wouldn't most people lean on the leg that's up (back leg) for more comfort? Especially when sulking around like that. It would probably be tricky to have the body and leg overlap like that without losing readability, might make the pose look more natural though.

Really love how this has improved so far, keep it up! Do you use references like posemaniacs for stuff like this, or do you just know anatomy well enough to draw from memory/imagination?

Super sloppy edit (and now the neck is too long and it looks messed up but hopefully you see what I mean ) -

[Night]

Huge progress, good job!

I really quite failed with realising that the rear leg is behind the front one, it makes much more sense now.
I like how you decided to use the red for the background, only issue I have so far is with the darkest red being a bit too dark, I'd suggest to tune it down a little to be slightly closer to the second darkest red.
Oh also, with the foot, I'd suggested to remove that bump that is implied there, it should go transition smoothly from the top of the foot to the lower limb.

[32]

When I was posing for this I did find that kind of pose most comfortable for sure. I would probably go further and have her like completely hugging it. Problem is you lose the negative space around her breast, I think the piece looks kinda dull without it, already had to compromise on the leg anatomy for it I think I would to choose a better angle if I was going to really push the pose like that. For now I'm relatively happy with the gesture, I don't want her to look TOO sulky, more contemplative.

Thanks It would probably be a lot easier to use reference but I didn't really want to dig one up. At the moment I'm at the point where I know anatomy well enough that I can place stuff generally correctly and then I have enough observational experience to tell if anything looks really off. Anything that I'm having a lot of trouble with I've just been looking in the mirror (and at Night's edit) for reference.

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Thanks Night haha yes while I was editing it I noticed what you must've seen as the foot, I like what you did with it anyway though and it helped me realise that it looked like her back leg was leaning outwards. I agree on the dark red and I've tried every possible colour in the colourspace but unfortunately that's the best one. Good call on the foot, I've got my anatomy a bit jumbled there, the thing I'm thinking of should be flipped and lower, I'll mess with it.

[AlcopopStar]

Lovely work, always nice to see more of a fine arts angle with pixelart.



I played around with making a the face more readable, also got rid of / balanced out some slightly redundant colours.

I didn't look at it much but the back of the neck & back could use a little work as well, hard to pin down exactly why, might be a bit too rounded for a figure this thin. 

The legs and foot are really tightly pixeled, I like the unusual colours as well. Great progress on this.