Please help me learn how to create these kinds of a pixel art

[wanderer123]

I have just begun learning pixel art. I am trying to do these things but am failing. But I can't find any tutorials in how to create this. I hope I am not breaking any rules as I have read the rules and the FAQ. Anyways I want create 2 things:

1) Different styles of hairs for characters like the crazy ones anime(Japanese animations) characters have. Like the Saint Seiya characters.

2) I wanted to create this: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/saintseiya/images/8/8f/Pegasus_Cloth2design.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090801213148 (the armor in shape of a Pegasus on the left) but I can't do it at all. I would try to do it and post it here but I really am terrible at this. It just doesn't work out. How can I learn how to create something like this?

And by the way, there are other armors that I wish to create and can't create any of them.

Please assist!

[kilenc]

there probably won't be any super specific tutorials for pixelling anime style stuff, but ya never know. even if there are, i don't necessarily think you should worry about those. my intuition is that you don't have a lot of art background/experience, and I think that's probably what's pulling you down. many people want to dive right into pixel art, but i think that, like every other form of art, you need some general art experience first. Georges Seurat, whose pointillist style is essentially a painted form of the pixel, didn't just pick up a brush and paint La Grande Jatte--he went to a good art school, experimented with style, did a bunch of other traditional paintings, and then finally, after a ton of rough drafts, produced an iconic art piece.

instead of starting pixelling right away, take Seurat's steps: look at general art tutorials (for hair, robots, etc) that certainly exist, ie go to school; do some drawings of generic stuff from those tutorials, to get a feel for the practice; sketch your concept 5 to 10 times on a piece of paper to get a "feel" for it, or create "rough drafts"; finally, at that point, read some pixel tutorials (there are a bunch), and get started on your pixel art.

i don't know if your piece will go down in history like Seurat, but i do know that if you take the right steps, you'll be satisfied

(and if you do have art experience i apologize, but i think these steps still apply)

[wanderer123]

Yeah I have no art experience. I have been taking a pixel art course at Udemy which says you don't need any former art experience to learn. But it won't teach me those complex shapes. I don't have time nor the money to get a formal art training(ie. go to art school). I just thought since I saw that course that I could just go and learn pixel art and someone told me I don't necessarily need former art experience to learn pixel art. I believe I can improve if I work hard but I also need tutorials on how to make these kinds of art. I have been trying to study by looking at pixel art existence; I was looking into anime hair and the one armor (Shiryu's dragon armor) that I actually have(I've hired a cheap[extremely] pixel artist to work for my pixel art-using game and he made me that armor). I know before I started this training in pixel art at Udemy I have created quite the impressive Disney cartoon characters in pixel art(Goofy, Donald, Mickey etc...) and Spongebob. But since I didn't know anything like shading, it has no shading. My friend commended me in how well my shading look now since I have begun shading my art. I have improved at that area and it looks quite good. What I've learned is that not to focus too much on brightness but on saturation and do brightness if saturation is not enough but don't do too much as it doesn't look good, and do dithering.

[Pusty]

Well it would help if you show us your tries and errors!
You just gave us the referenced but not what you tried so we don't know what you did right or what you did wrong.

[kilenc]

while i agree you don't necessarily need former art experience, as i said (and as you probably realize) it is very helpful. afterall, pixel art is art just like any other form (albeit a different medium), so you need the general art principles down. as pusty said, you've posted no art, so its impossible for us to say how your art might not be stacking up.

however, i stand by assertion that you should learn how to draw anime hair and armor the good old fashioned pen-and-paper way before ever starting on pixel art. a quick google search reveals a myriad of anime-focused tutorials, and i'm sure you can find better than any i could link. after that, move on to character studies, and then try your hand at pixelling your concept.

What I've learned is that not to focus too much on brightness but on saturation and do brightness if saturation is not enough but don't do too much as it doesn't look good, and do dithering.

as far as I can understand, this tells me you don't have a solid grasp on pixel technique; good, depth-providing shading often relies on hue-shifting more so than saturation or brightness, in my experience (a combination of all three, really, is what does the trick). maybe i'm wrong, but either way this tells me you also have to spend a bit more time learning pixel art, too, once you've got the whole real-life drawing thing down.

i encourage you to keep going, tho, and most folks on this forum would be happy to lend a hand.

[rocifier]

I think its better to start with realistic stuff you can copy, and over time eventually develop style or do cartoons once you have a solid visual grasp of reality in your mind to draw from, and the technical fundamentals such value, composition, colour, anatomy to a point where you aren't just going to get super frustrated when you try doing pixel art.

Try starting with this: Get a pencil and paper. Put a lamp next to the apple. Sketch the apple. Post it in general 2D feedback thread and be ready for critique. Try to resist the urge to sketch from a photo. You need to discover the forms in 3D and how they are lit with the lamp. And shade the shadows etc. Every pixel you draw later is related to this exercise. After that you can try a cylinder, sphere, cuboid, cone, and finally an egg. That should keep you practicing form - nearly everything is reality or cartoon can be approximated by those forms, and if you can render them then you can render pretty much anything your heart is set on (doesnt mean there wont be new challenges with form though). Focus on getting them as accurate as you can. You should see yourself start to improve as your observation improves. Remember to draw what you see, not what you THINK you see.

Hope this helps.

[wanderer123]

Hey I have created the legs and the chest but not the rest because it takes too much work and time. I think it looks quite awful. What do you think about it?

[MysteryMeat]

Work and Time are how you make things look better.
I recommend starting with some normal art.
You can do it, just be prepared to sink at least a bit of time each day towards improvement.

[Decroded]

Above comments are definitely best way for u to improve, though u might be able to come up with something decent by pretty much copying from reference and u also might learn a bunch along the way (mainly depends on u).

The most targeted advice i can think to achiece what ur asking quickly is copy from reference and move away from drawing lines and single pixels:
1) get a better reference. Look for one with a good pose, colours and lighting.
This one isn't great but it seems better.

2) paint with large blobs and try to get the proportions and pose looking decent. Dont obsess as it can be fixed later. Better to do several quicker ones than spending too long on one.
Give urself a decent size canvas and dont obsess over making a tiny sprite as that can be harder.
Save ur progress separately before u move on.

3) choose a strong light source (e.g. top left and a little to the front). paint in light and dark using only 2 or 3 colours total. It will look messy that's ok.
Save progress for future reference.

4) start to clean up lines and forms. Dont add too many colours and shades. Add some outlines if necessary but dont just make solid black lines as its ugly.
Save!

Probably best to lost ur progress at this point for feedback.
Best to pose the steps u went through along the way.

[wanderer123]

How about I take this drawing(sketching) course for beginners here on Udemy: how about this drawing course for beginners: https://www.udemy.com/sketching-for-beginners/ ?