New Here

[Seefour]

Hey there, I am new here, I am a game designer with a background in programming and music. I just picked up pixel art recently, because I refuse to allow my games to have "programmer art."   
I've been browsing the art here, and I must say some of it is really impressive.


Meet Agnus.

Any tips or criticism would be highly appreciated.

[Pusty]

Well here a few things I noticed:
  1. you should use a gray background (or the background your game actually uses) because you can choose colors easier that way.
  2. the dithering on the shield looks kinda weird as it doesn't match with a normal shields shading.
  3. The position itself looks too stiff (or at least I think so)
  4. The line you made with the darkest skin color looks kinda weird. (the dark blue line on the back as well)
  5. I can't really tell what gender this person is lol
  6. Has this person only 1 foot?

Hope this helps I would love to see a enhanced version of this

[Seefour]

Hey there, thanks for the reply.  Anything helps, and I appreciate the time spent sharing your thoughts.

I am having a lot of trouble getting that "side-scroller" perspective, though i am learning to kind of think of the character in 3d, and rotate it, if that makes sense.
Would there be a way I could hint at the other foot? If she were standing with her feet together, and you were looking in profile, maybe you would not see it? I dunno

[Seefour]

http://imgur.com/f0CMHPU (for some reason the img tags won't work. 
Not the same sprite, but the same concept, took some of putsy's advice into account in the making.
I think the perspective is a little better.

[sonicspin]

you gotta rightclick the img, copy it's address and then img tags will work with it
regarding the sprite
the character is interesting! alhough a it's current state, i doubt that that will be enough to grab atenttion
the sword could use some shine (give it shades and highlights) and the shield some detail , it seems wooden, so search for wood and add details accordingly
would edit but currently no mouse

[Pusty]

Looks way better now!
But ,for a player sprite, this looks way to boring. You need contrast with your colors! Also a nice texture (and not just plain shading) wouldn't hurt either.

[Glak]

I think that you would greatly benefit for working smaller.  You might want to try working at 16 pixels wide by 32 pixels high.  Then you'd only have 512 pixels to get right.  If you're working on an chin, for example, you could actually try out every possible chin and get the one that looks right for its face.

Also the sex is unclear.  If it is supposed to be female add some breasts, otherwise add a beard.

[lachrymose]

Size of the canvas matters far less than general drawing ability. Even if you intend to draw cartoon characters you need to tighten up your general drawing skill. Which can only be done by practice.
Which is possible via pixel art, but far easier and practical to pick up paper and pencil and start doodling away.

As far as your sprite goes. I'm really not sure what direction you are trying to take it. But work on the silhouette. As it stands now it is very straight very boring. Try to make thing a bit more dynamic.

Quick sketch:


Here is a much much smaller swordsman I did awhile ago

[Seefour]

oh hey, thanks everyone for the critique.

this sprite will probably not end up in a game, that being said, I will work on her some and try to make her a little more interesting (and gender specific)
I've been coming across a lot of tutorials that say beginners should first work with smaller canvases, so there is that.  I think i got what I wanted out of this sprite though, which was to get any 2d perspective to "work"





 

[Seefour]

An updated version of Agnus.