Help me making a better character portrait 64*64px

[leveler50]

 
Earlier we had 32*32 character portraits but we decided to go with larger resolution. Using the same methods in 64*64 size doesn't give the same results. I found this more difficult to do. I've been battling with this one character for some time now. First it had hair but I didn't like it so much. Now it's some kind of energy stone she has on her head. Does it look stupid? Help me to make it better? Every idea is welcome.


Thx.


Edit (going back to the hair model):

 

[ErekT]

What kind of eyes are you going for? Is the face all human or a cat-human hybrid? I think it'd be easier to get the facial structure and rough shading in first and then add details like facial paint, stripes and the like after.

[leveler50]

 
Well, I've tried a bunch of different kind of eyes but it's been really difficult to find something which suits the character. The face is pretty much a mixture of human and some kind of blue spirit creature. The body is a cat in a human form.

Now this new version has her eyes closed with a lot of makeup. I'm not sure if it works. But I think it could be better than the older one?

[ErekT]

Try a different angle. The head tilt down and to the side is very tricky for a 64x64 portrait imo. There are probably other angles that conveys what you want just as well?

[leveler50]

Your comment about the eyes made me make the eyes closed. I really like that one. I'm not sure if it's correct to say this, but I like this newer version of the character a lot. Head tilt down and to the side gives the picture a lot of emotion. Or do you think it could be better?

[Zia]

I feel like your colours aren't particularly cohesive. Have you tried building a palette from your colours, so you can make sure each colour relates to those around it in some way? Those blues are REALLY far away from the oranges - if you desaturated them to match in that regard, you might have better results.

[ErekT]

It's a definite improvement Much more readable and the hair works a lot better too. And I agree, it's a good angle for communicating a certain mood.

Thing is, when it comes to pixel art some angles are much harder to work with than others. That's just the nature of working with a limited resolution. The lower the resolution, the less wiggle room you have. That's why I suggested to experiment with different angles, because the one you have there is pretty difficult to get right at 64x64 res imo.

[leveler50]

I could try a different angle but first I want to see whether this angle works. Because I like this angle and I'm not that good with changing angles. This art is based on a digital concept painting (that is done by other artist) of our games main character. She got that position right and I drew based on her painting.

I've never created my own palette but I have used restricted NES palette of 64 colours. Should try to create my own palette some one day.

I lowered the contrast of the blues as you said. I also made another version without the red paint because two of my friends thought this character was scary and didn't look like kind and good. I still don't know whether the character looks kind enough. :-)

 

[Zia]

I tried my hand at an edit. You can also go the route of upping all the saturation, which is what I tried to do here to show another option. I also viewed her as being rather cat-like, and tried to emphasize that. I made her neck a bit more delicate and feminine, along with some highlights along the clavicles. Not totally sure it's the style you're going for, but it might give you a few ideas.



I also feel like you have a lot of oranges bumping around that could be simplified into a smaller palette. I didn't really focus on that here, but there are several hues which are quite similar.

[leveler50]

Good points. I totally forgot the neck. Good shading on the head turqoise areas. All in all I like more the character with hair, so this is what I'm working on now:

 
I made her neck thinner, left stripes lighter and the blue area on the face almost the same greener hue as in your picture. I also lowered the saturation a bit and lightened up the picture a bit.