Back on here after a rather long haitus

[LarkoftheRiver]

I had no time for much. ;-; But now I'm back for a bit, this place seriously helped a ton.

If you don't know me, I'm Sarah. Or you can call me Lark, if you like. Honestly whatever works. Well, this isn't the introduction forum so I'm gonna be brief here. I've been doing art for about six years (I'm 16, going into my junior year!) and also play flute and have dabbled a bit in trumpet.

Before I go on about my goals and such, let me post my work. ^^

All of these are completed commission work, so I'm not really looking for critique on individual ones, I'm looking for suggestions on how to move forward.
Last time I frequented here I just posted and used commissions as my learning, but I've decided that doing that is not the way to go. I would like someone or a few people to pitch me suggestions and exercises for my work.
I recently got into Flight Rising and I've been taking more commissions through that (with in-game currency) rather than DA points (too young for Paypal), and it's sparked a ton of interest so that's why I'm returning here.

I don't really want to cover anatomy per say, I want to cover pixeling technique. At least, I don't want to learn anatomy through pixel art. I would like to work on texturing, light sources, environments/blending subject and background, and pixel backgrounds.

Some non-pixel work to show you guys as well. (hidden for size)
Spoiler

(oldest to newest, so hopefully you can see a bit of improvement there.)
(holy fish sticks those are huge how do you resize them without going into an image editor I'm dumb ok)

anyway, as you can probably see I really like animals which is something I really hate about my work. I want to draw more people but human anatomy annoys me to no end. So any help with that or tips based on what you see up there would be amazing. Specifically faces, designs, etc. Also clothing. I hate drawing clothing, and designing it, and everything else to do with it.

[Decroded]

welcome back

most of these seem like pretty decent sketches with a few niggling issues such as rear legs on this guy look odd:


 and both ears seem a bit out of wack on this guy for example left ear should probably point forwards more?


more importantly some issues with these in general:
- lack of strong light source and shadow makes everything look flat and boring
- colour choices seem unrefined and need balancing. contrast is too low in some places and too high in others. developing ur sprites against a 50% grey background makes this easier.
- pixel level is quite rough and definitely needs clean-up and refinement.
- there's too much crusty single pixel noise for example on the dragon, and pointless dithering such as the one outlined in red (which also has pretty obvious banding issue)
- the small wolf on the right of the dragon is an example of cleaner pixel work and nice simple clusters (though it could be pushed further to look more advanced)
- all the animations are too static and 2 frame animations generally look pretty poor (unless specifically going for some style)
- try some selective outlines. the blue dragon for example is begging for it.

well I'm not in a position to do edits right now but there's a bit to digest.
I hope u stick around so we can see some development 

[Joe]

Hey Sarah. You said

I want to draw more people but human anatomy annoys me to no end.

Clearly, animals are your comfort zone. You wouldn't be posting for critique unless you wanted to grow as an artist—the first thing I would say is get out of your comfort zone. It doesn't matter what it is, it's holding you back. There are many things you need to learn, that you can only learn by facing the things you instinctively don't want to do. Is anatomy the problem? Just get a basic idea. Are proportions? Find a system that works, and practice it. Do you have trouble drawing what you see? Draw more. Draw every day. The gains from drawing easily translate to pixel art—to any medium.

It's going to take a lot of work. I am not suggesting you learn that this weekend, only a starting point. Just remember to take it step by step, it overwhelms you when you try to learn it all at once. I know, it's happened to me more than once.

Decroded said there's "too much crusty single pixel noise". I wanted to second that because in addition to the lack of contrast that's probably the greatest detractor from your pixel tech. I am guilty of doing it when I was younger, my mindset was nature has roughness and variation... but it doesn't quite work that way with pixels. Further aggravating the fact is I don't see any anti-aliasing going on, and I don't think it's a stylistic choice of yours.

For specific exercises, you could benefit from reworking the static pieces with the critique points Decroded mentioned—more contrast, a clear light source, removing unnecessary noise—as well as adding some anti-aliasing in. Push the contrast beyond what you're comfortable with, then after awhile when you get used to that new level, you'll have a more balanced view of just how much contrast a piece actually needs, and you can dial back as you wish. Since you have time, my other recommendation would be to draw every day, which you are doing already, right? 

5, 10 years from now, it's going to be the things you didn't want to do that pushed your growth. Far beyond any specific critiques, just internalize the fact that your comfort zone is the enemy of your progress.

[LarkoftheRiver]

@Decroded
Thank you!
I've been trying to get better with the dithering/noise on them and I think one of my main issues is that I have no clue when too much becomes too much, you know? Like I don't want to not do it, because it helps blend and makes the pixel look better. But with the smaller one, where I thought it looked fine, you said it was too much. Is there something specific I can do with figuring this out, or is it mainly just eyeballing it and going from there?
Also, probably a silly question, but what's banding?selective outlining? I haven't heard the terms before.
I'm trying to expand a bit on my animations (although I do enjoy the style of the two framed ones), such as doing tail wags or wing beats (I have one up there. Kept the background I use as a canvas color so you can see it better), and even expanding the little bounces (which are really popular apparently).
I've always had problems with colors and palettes in pixel art so that's something I've been wanting to work on here.

@Joe
ah yes, the comfort zone. Yep, words I've heard before. It really makes me nervous to do it, because I'm a bit of a perfectionist with my work; if it doesn't look right at first then I scrap it or lose faith. I'll try though! ^^

Hm, I haven't heard that before when I was researching some texturing techniques; I'm going to keep that in mind as I move forward. I've never quite liked AA in pixels before, unless I did it wrong when I was doing it (probably). Any specific tips for that/how does that work?

So, with contrast and color, more is better in pixeling (I'm assuming because of the smaller space)?

I'm about to start on a little warm up, and I'll try to put most of this into it. For ease, I think I'll just do a white wolf. The anatomy is easy for me and I won't have to worry about adding markings or anything so I can really focus on the light source.

[edit]
And here he is!
I tried to add more contrast and I feel that it went nicely, though my light source was still.. weird? I feel like I pillow-shaded too much.

[Pusty]

Well I am new to pixel art in general so I'm not sure if I should say something at all but I think
the light source is really more clear now. (Although I am not sure if thats a good light position)

The only thing I would criticize is the fact that a few pixels look out of place (for example the neck)
but I'm not sure either.

(I wish I could draw animals like that xD)
// Everything said here may be wrong

[LarkoftheRiver]

@Pusty
Hey, that's all right! I've actually found that critiquing art is another way to improve; pointing out things other artists have done wrong calls attention to the mistakes for not only the artist but for yourself, and you can make note of it and not make the same mistake in your own art!
At least, that's how I see it.

But yeah, welcome to pixel art! I've been doing it myself for about two years now, actually. ^^ off an on, ya know?

I do see the neck now. I'm off to go fix when I can (after dinner, I think.)

[Atnas]

I've always been intensely curious why people throw giant watermarks on their artwork. Are you afraid people are going to steal it? Even professional artists don't do this - people whose work would have the most value when being stolen.

As you are someone who does this, why? On the flip side, my grandfather is in his 90s and during his active years as an artist he made a point of not even signing his artwork and considered it pretentious. To each their own, but I do love hearing perspectives on this topic.

I recommend you accept all forms of critique including anatomy. Pixel art is the same as drawing, the vectors behind the lines and contours are all the same. Anyway, welcome back!

[StarRaven]

@Lark These really look like sketches. You seem to know what you're doing in terms of drawing and digital art, but your handle on the basics of pixel art seem to be a little shaky! You should read up on some beginner tutorials like the ones here. It doesn't look like you're really micromanaging pixels right now, rather like you're just scribbling with the pen tool. Out of your art here, I think this guy looks the best:

(It looks great!)

@Atnas I can answer this so I hope you don't mind if I do! The pixel art community is a little different, since it's pretty small, but there is actually a really huge problem with art theft (specifically, people who repost art -- they save it and then upload it somewhere else later without sourcing it) in the digital art community right now! And actually yes, even professional artists do it. Unless the art is officially tied to something well-known or the artist is well-known and easily identifiable, most artists will at least put their name or website on it.

When your grandfather was actively making art, he probably wasn't so reliant on people seeing his art and coming to him to pay him. He probably just made the art and sold it. In the digital world, that's not how things work. Nowadays, art can be shared effortlessly and without cost, and we have to make that work for us as best we can.

[LarkoftheRiver]

@Atnas basically what StarRaven said on the watermarking thing. I've had people take my work, go so far as to remove my signature on it, repost it on their site without credit back to myself. When you watermark it, people are less likely to repost it or use it without permission, and if they do repost it you still have credit.
About anatomy learning, I think I didn't make my wording clear. I'd like help with it, but I don't want to learn it with pixel art; I'd rather do digital/traditional art and then translate what I learned over to pixels after. Its easier for me.

@StarRaven uhh yep guilty as charged.
I've been trying to get better about scribbling, sometimes I am, sometimes I don't. Eep.
I shall have a look, and work a bit more tonight hopefully.

(edit)
Worked on my wolf a tad more.
Tried to remove some of the one pixel noise without taking out texture? Not sure.

[StarRaven]

If you have trouble with it, try using a bigger brush for most stuff! Only use a single-pixel brush to move around specific pixels. Another suggestion is to only use a graphics tablet for big stuff and move to a mouse to go in and push single pixels. (I know I'm way less likely to scribble with a mouse.)

Another suggestion is to start a new piece and start with as few colors as possible, only adding one when you need to refine details. Especially when it's small, you can do a lot with just two colors for the fur, for example.

Also, remember you probably don't need too much texture on such small pieces! Just a hint of it here and there goes a long way.

Anyway, that's all ideas that helped em out. Good luck!