[C+C] Johan

[ryuuzaki]

Looks pretty stiff, and the shading is not quite right, how can I improve it?

[Pusty]

Hair is not yellow enough!
Other than that: I love it!

[IrresponsibleFreelancer]

What i see in it is that the outline of the character especially on the hair is very odd.  The outline on the hair is almost lighter than the hair itself.

Another problem is with the clothes.  There is an odd complete absence of folds on the clothes.  Heres a good link for the different kinds of folds found in clothes: http://www.mightyartdemos.com/mightyartdemos-bradley.html.  The way that you shaded the clothes is also a little bizarre.  There are parts where the clothes are shaded to round, whereas ther should be some sharp edges or lines not just rounded parts.  Just look up reference and it should be easy to identify the different points of shadow and folds in a suit.

There are also some small problems with the anatomy and lighting but youre off to a very good start.  Just look up some reference to see that proportions of the human body and you should be fine.   

(PS the feet are a bit big)

[Seiseki]

I'm pretty sure his hair is blonde..

[heyguy]

The hair is looking green on my screen.

Anyway, I also agree with you ryuuzaki in that the pose is looking stiff. It sort of looks like he's leaning back a little. I googled "power stance suit" and found this cool pic of Loki in a suit. It doesn't look that dissimilar to your pose.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/16/4b/b4/164bb4c4f441f27a00c96f4723b6c600.jpg

Loki is in a more interesting and dynamic pose. Also take a look at the folds in his suit. A lot of cool folds at the bottom of the pants leg, forearm and crotch area. Your character would definitely have similar wrinkles in the forearm the way he's currently posed. Probably only some light folds somewhere on the leg since the pants don't seems to reach the characters shoes. Also, you're missing the crease where the arm sleeve meets the jacket.

lol, so I'm about to get weird on you guys. There's a certain way a suit should look and fit on a man. Generally, the average human is 7 and 1/2 heads tall. Your character is 5 and 1/2 heads tall. If you're trying to go for something realistic, I'd recommend reworking your anatomy. Your character seems to lack a neck. If you want to keep it more stylized, I think you should make changes to the suit. Right now, since your anatomy is kind of off, it looks like you've got a short jacket or long pants that are also short. Or a mix of both. Here's how a nicely tailored suit should look on a man.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/09/25/good-fitted-suit-visual/

[yrizoud]

The "7-heads and half" has to be taken with a grain of salt because it doesn't account for hair, clothes, and assumes a horizontal angle of view.
But keep in mind that larger head/body ratio hints at a teen or child character (or SD style), and this can be contrary to what you try to represent.

About the pose, you can study how comics (or manga) draw characters in suits. These mediums tend to be extremely dynamic, it's easier to 'get' the extreme movements that they show, and apply a much more subtle thing in your drawings.
Another reference is the "Contrapposto" pose : It's very worthy to study and practice, because the resulting characters are less symmetric, much more interesting to draw and look at.
(There's lots of nude statues if you google image for it, here's a clothed example with a tutorial video : http://www.universityoffashion.com/lessons/male-contrapposto-pose/   )

[ryuuzaki]

Update

[Pusty]

I think it's way better but the left foot looks odd to me
Also with these eyebrows he looks way to evil/angry

[Decroded]

arms r too short

[ryuuzaki]

Update: head, shading, left hand, right shoe, abit longer hands.

Does the left hand look better here or on the previous version?

[Decroded]

overall he looks a bit unbalanced leaning back to our left.
try moving left foot more left a bit.
head shape can use some adjustment give a bit more chin looks like his head angled down a bit chin tucked in which doesn't match relaxed pose.
sleeve bunches in like elastic doesn't match style of jacket.
shoulders could relax lower a little.
several shading issues like collar doesnt need nasty dark outline - try jusy making collar pieces brighter than nearby jacket with single pixel highlight to separate it from the shadow underneath.
drapery wrinkles should be redone can't think how to explain with words...

[Joe]

Good progress, but right now it lacks clarity.

   

You've set a general light source (top left), try to see where it extends and everything it affects.
Try to use a full range of contrast. I've included full black in there.
This is a great example of a white background skewing your values. From now on, don't work on a white background! It does you absolutely no good. Stick to neutrals.
The hair has 5 shades, all within a very small value range. The entire head suffers from low contrast, making it very hard to see anything.
You have darker values. Use them. Shade the face according to the light source. Check your anatomy.
Another tip, blonde hair is light and thin, so would be unlikely to create a shadow at the hairline.
I didn't touch the pants but they need reworking, it's a lot of noise in what looks like a lack of understanding of the form. Study from your reference how it works.

[ryuuzaki]

Update

What do you mean by defualt background?
I draw in paint and the defualt background here is white.

[Joe]

Ok if you're going to pixel for any significant amount of time, you need to drop Paint. It serves little purpose other than a toy.
Get GraphicsGale, it's free and you can save/load PNGs and set the default background color properly.

[Gil]

Pixeling on a white background tricks your eyes into making bad choices. When I first went to art college, the first thing my teacher told me was to stop sketching on white paper. I ended up sketching with rust-colored pencils on a yellowish paper. When you start adding color, the problem becomes worse, as staring at the white will skew your vision towards bad colors, that tend to be recognizable to people who know the effect it has. There's few medium values, everything tends to be either very dark or very light (for example, the washed out face or the lack of highlights on the pants, as you wouldn't be able to make those out on a white background anyway). Then there's the computer screen, which worsens the problem even more. The problem is less when pixeling on a black background than a white, because a screen is a light source, making the white brighter than black. This also happens with paper, but in a lesser degree (like when you try to read on a sunny day and the paper is too bright, hurting your eyes).

So, what's the perfect background color? Well, the easiest one is medium gray, as that doesn't contain any bias. On a computer screen, however, there's already a slight bias towards brightness, as I discussed, so maybe a slightly darker than medium gray is better. There's also a bias towards coldness. Our eyes enjoy warm colors more than cold colors, so gray feels a little too cold/clinical. So, a lot of people use a slightly brownish, dark medium gray.

[yrizoud]

For game sprites, the very best background is an actual game background (scenery mockup). If you need a single color, choose one that has the same lightness and saturation as a typical piece of scenery in the game.

[Gil]

For game sprites, the very best background is an actual game background (scenery mockup). If you need a single color, choose one that has the same lightness and saturation as a typical piece of scenery in the game.

You can also take a game background from any game you like that inspires you and your game and blur it and use that as a background. This all requires a program that can handle layers of course.

[Reo]

Quick edit I did.
Had I not read the title I wouldn't have recognized the character even though I have read the manga.
I think what you're missing most is Johan's ''feminine shapes''( not referring to curves here ). A thin face with a pointy chin. His body is also referenced as being thin enough for him to be confused with a young girl, currently yours looks a bit stocky.
I suggest sticking to the style of the manga/anime as much as possible, quite flat /cel-shading, minimal AA even. Simplify everything, Shading, body shapes, into a more angular direction to mimic the anime.
Nailing the haircut also goes a long way. I don't think the blue eyes are relevant at this size, if so a more muted, darker blue. It's not easy to convey his sense of cold apathy at this scale.

I echo previous comments about about lack of contrast and I didn't touch that in my edit.
Best of luck    

[ryuuzaki]

@Reo
Yes I agree with you on the "sense of cold apathy" I tried to capture it somehow but failed.
Black eyes and no white dots + some correct shading of yours seem to do the trick:


Can someone show me how to do proper contrast as a example on this sprite?

[Pusty]

lol I realy love the progress you made!
But ,for me atleast, it's hard to read the nose

[PixelPiledriver]

As stated above, the white backdrop is blowing out your perception of colors.
It's also making parts of the image annoying to look at, without much compositional gain, especially the top of his head.
This is a result of the low contrast between his hair and the canvas color.

Here's a bunch of random thoughts.
Don't have time to touch every pixel or tweak colors/contrast.
However it may give you some thoughts.