Practicing Pixel Portraits - Trying to Improve

[falz]

-> (rev 1) ->
Portrait I have spent a couple of hours on. I'm still trying to improve. Just wondering what sticks out as something I could improve. I haven't spent much time on her clothes, btw, those are pretty rough at the moment I acknowledge.

For reference, this is the character Alisaie from Final Fantasy XIV.

[falz]

Haven't really done much of this stippling color gradient technique, thought I'd try it out, see how it looks. I'm wondering if I executed it properly/whether it even looks better.

[eliddell]

White background makes the hair and the collar detail hard to make out.  Go to just about anything else if you can.

The ears look like they need more detail—enough to imply the structure visible in the reference.  They're also maybe a little short.

The reference also gives her fuller lips (the pre-revision version might actually be better there), and a rounder, almost childlike facial contour that you don't seem to have quite captured.

Other than that, it's pretty damned good, though.

[falz]

Thanks! Yes, I do think I could have stayed more on-model. I still have a lot of trouble with proportions.

Here is a self-portrait I was messing with for some kind of social media icon. Tried a lower resolution. I think I could stand to go lower, though. Still trying the dot gradient technique, I may be overdoing it here.

[eliddell]

Mmm.  You've got a couple of places there where you've got rogue singleton pixels that you could clean up (a couple kind of on a line with the left corner of the mouth where the dithering broke down a bit in different spots, and another two as a highlight in the hair that really need a third to connect them).

The line where the hair parts to show the ear may be too straight—ears and heads are curved, after all.  And you're right on the edge of maybe having overdone the shading around the left eye and making it look . . . I don't know, like you could use a solid eight hours of sleep, maybe?

Other than that, once again, pretty good.