[WIP] [C+C] My First Largish Character Sprite

[Linaru]

I have never been particularly good at characters and sprites so i decided to have a play around for practise.
i have done tones of texture work and tile sets before but most of my character sprites have been for a very small scale.



this is my first attempt at a larger more proportionate sprite, i am happy with hour the legs came out but i am struggling with the hair and face.
my experience with faces in the past has mostly been two black dots.

[lachrymose]

I'm going to refer you back to this post http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=18457.msg163308#msg163308 which should help a lot.

If you aren't using a pose reference find one. Google search for "Dynamic Poses" or pic a pose from a favorite artist of yours.

Pay special attention to proportion. Your legs are super long, so are your upper arms, the neck is non-existent.

I'd recommend starting from scratch, post a wireframe or silhouette showing the basic form of the character without clothes or hair so we can critique/tweak that, afterwards we can slowly build up the forms until we have a rockin character.

[Linaru]

nether considered using wire-frame for pixel art. i usually draw at such a small scale that its not useful..

here's an attempt



I am not aiming for perfect human shape was trying to give the sprite a style .. particularly i like the legs comming to a point, a bit like the character from 'journey's does.
its a genericish sstanding side scroller pose


Edit:
cleaned up version

[lachrymose]

Nice improvement. However, I think you need to increase your contrast more to show your forms.

[Linaru]

Nice improvement. However, I think you need to increase your contrast more to show your forms.

Played around with the contrast as you suggested and looked at your version for details.
i ended up not using quite so many dark areas as on your version.
it started to look to clustered'?' when i added alot of dark lines, so i went for a softer look

[lachrymose]

You could study this persons work for the style you are aiming for. http://www.izaksmells.com/2013/11/

Or maybe you have since this character is....Very familiar to the one you've posted.


As far your picture goes, the contrast is a bit better. I would square up the shoulders just a bit more.

[Linaru]

You could study this persons work for the style you are aiming for. http://www.izaksmells.com/2013/11/

Or maybe you have since this character is....Very familiar to the one you've posted.
-------[removed image]-------

As far your picture goes, the contrast is a bit better. I would square up the shoulders just a bit more.

the picture you posted there was one of the ones i used as a reference, tough as i was trying to produce a larger scale the body came out a kind of odd shape.
I also referenced some prince of Persia concept art.



Squared up the shoulders and moved the arms and hand details around a little, then roughed out a clothing layer on top.
played around with an alternate version of the outfit too.. sort of half skirt instead of belt ties. she needs something to flow behind her when she runs..

[lachrymose]

Looking way better.

Her shoulders and arms are still a bit wonky though.
A few points to look at.

On her shoulders, that shadow you've drawn really makes it look like her shoulder is sloping downwards, I'd get rid of it.

Generally speaking, elbows start at the bottom of peoples rib cage, hard to find in a stylized character like this, but we can make a fairly good assumption for placement.

Upper arms and lower arms are very close to the same length. What fools people is that they fail to see the wrist and shoulders as separate structures.


I've done a few edits to show you what I mean...I'll leave it up to you to try and fix up her left arm which is reallly long.

[IrresponsibleFreelancer]

This is very minute but i find the breasts of the character are very unnatural and therefore look a bit weird.  They are much to squished into the chest and together.  If the character isnt intended to be super busty then they can be made smaller not by making them smaller spheres but by decreasing the size as before but also decreasing the contrast of the shadows beneath them.

Wasnt sure how to say that maturely 

[Linaru]

Okay so i have altered the shoulders arms and neck shading quite a bit.. i looked at some other more pixel references for poses and completely altered her left arm.
i also adjusted the breasts a bit to try and make her torso a bit more natural as pointed out.



Edit: tweaked post a  bit more... still not happy with the way it looks..