AuthorTopic: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!  (Read 12068 times)

Offline Capta1n_Henry

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HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

on: April 18, 2016, 03:47:08 am


Please tell me what I can do to better myself.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2016, 04:10:09 am by PixelPiledriver »

Offline Glak

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #1 on: April 18, 2016, 04:32:10 am
First, stop pillow shading.  Here's a simple tutorial that I found for you:

Offline Skaz

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #2 on: April 18, 2016, 01:09:55 pm
Search for tutorials, there is plenty of good tuts for pixel art. This site has some really good ones: http://2dwillneverdie.com/tutorial/

Practice, a lot. And draw, because it would be a mistake to believe that pixel art and drawing are tow different things. Get good a drawing, practice a lot, don't hesitate to imitate some stuff you like, you will lean a lot by imitation. Pixel art is pretty good material to de-construct, it's made a few pixels, try to understand why some sprites a so good.

And practice. A lot!

Keep up!

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #3 on: April 20, 2016, 07:31:03 am


And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Capta1n_Henry

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #4 on: April 20, 2016, 01:21:23 pm

Offline Gil

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #5 on: April 20, 2016, 02:01:36 pm
Can we see some of your pencil drawings? I think you mainly have problem with representing volumes. Everything looks like cardboard cutout.

Offline Capta1n_Henry

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #6 on: April 20, 2016, 02:19:22 pm
Can we see some of your pencil drawings? I think you mainly have problem with representing volumes. Everything looks like cardboard cutout.
I didn't draw it on paper I just kinda... did it

Offline Ai

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #7 on: April 20, 2016, 02:26:31 pm
Well, it's possible to work out stuff like perspective, volume, and lighting[1] in pixel art.. but, pencil and paper is much quicker to work with (and more fluid, if you are working with a mouse rather than graphics tablet). That's important because you will make a lot of mistakes and most likely need to repeatedly redraw a thing while you are learning how it really works.

[1] PixelPileDriver's edit mainly focused on improving those elements, IMO.
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline Gil

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #8 on: April 20, 2016, 09:20:32 pm
I wasn't asking about this piece. I was asking to see a few pages from your sketch book, so I can gauge your drawing skill better. Pixel art is too rigid to show artist's intent, so I usually ask for some sketch book sketches to confirm suspicions I have about technique and skill and such. It's also a good way to find out which exercises can help you get where you want to be. At your level of skill, most of your practice should probably be done on paper anyway, only jumping to pixel art to make the final pieces you want to create.

For example, you might want to play around with volumes and sketch a few dozen sketches trying to figure that out. Then you can study mechanical parts you like with that knowledge of volume. In the end you put it together by doing a few silhouettes of robots until you get comfortable, and then do a couple full robots to get the hang of how they work. After all that, you open your pixel tool, and pixel a robot.

I'm a pretty decent artist, but if you were to ask me to draw a robot off the top of my head, I probably wouldn't fare much better than you at first. I'd want to at least do a few pages of sketching and trying out things before attempting.

Does that make sense?
« Last Edit: April 20, 2016, 09:22:50 pm by Gil »

Offline Capta1n_Henry

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #9 on: April 21, 2016, 01:19:09 am
I wasn't asking about this piece. I was asking to see a few pages from your sketch book, so I can gauge your drawing skill better. Pixel art is too rigid to show artist's intent, so I usually ask for some sketch book sketches to confirm suspicions I have about technique and skill and such. It's also a good way to find out which exercises can help you get where you want to be. At your level of skill, most of your practice should probably be done on paper anyway, only jumping to pixel art to make the final pieces you want to create.

For example, you might want to play around with volumes and sketch a few dozen sketches trying to figure that out. Then you can study mechanical parts you like with that knowledge of volume. In the end you put it together by doing a few silhouettes of robots until you get comfortable, and then do a couple full robots to get the hang of how they work. After all that, you open your pixel tool, and pixel a robot.

I'm a pretty decent artist, but if you were to ask me to draw a robot off the top of my head, I probably wouldn't fare much better than you at first. I'd want to at least do a few pages of sketching and trying out things before attempting.

Does that make sense?

Huh, I never thought of that. I've just jumped straight into it without a clue what to do. Thanks man.

Offline Gil

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #10 on: April 21, 2016, 01:46:18 am
Huh, I never thought of that. I've just jumped straight into it without a clue what to do. Thanks man.
That's what we're here for :). Glad to be of help.

The craft part of art can be daunting to get your head around, so finding ways to split it up in manageable tasks and practicing those is the only way to get ahead. There's tons of resources for exercises to try, but you can usually figure them out yourself too, by dividing the problem logically. This helps getting your own insights.

Offline Decroded

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #11 on: April 21, 2016, 09:37:18 am
Another tip is don't draw things straight on like that.
If u can, usually it's better to see things at a bit of an angle as that makes it much more 3d instead of looking like a cardboard cut-out.
Try drawing the same robot from a few perspectives and each time it will probably get better.
U can also use this as an opportunity make changes that improve the desig  rather than limiting urself to an idea that wasn't first conceived in 3d.

Personally i like to block in a bunch of silhouettes, pick one i find interesting, then block in the light and dark to give form before proceeding any further.

Here's the early stages of a sprite to show what i mean.
This later went on to have fixes, colour and animation but not before i felt it was ready.

Offline Capta1n_Henry

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #12 on: April 21, 2016, 01:11:17 pm




This edit made me kind of sad because this is basically the look I wanted my character to have but, I realize now what I can do for my other stuff. Thanks guys for replying.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2016, 02:16:01 pm by Capta1n_Henry »

Offline tsej

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #13 on: April 21, 2016, 05:29:33 pm




This edit made me kind of sad because this is basically the look I wanted my character to have but, I realize now what I can do for my other stuff. Thanks guys for replying.

Hey man, no need to be sad. Try to paint your character again. What's wrong with it? You're learning.
Redo your character. Look at PPD's edit and repaint it. It wasn't done to just be looked at! Study it. See how he did things. Try to imitate it, then experiment with it. Play with the colors, shapes, angles! And remember you can always ask for help here, but you need to put in the work and effort. Have a good day!  :)
Correct me if I'm wrong

Offline Capta1n_Henry

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #14 on: April 21, 2016, 07:51:12 pm
Wait, it's ok to justhe take an edit and use it for yourself?

Offline tsej

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #15 on: April 21, 2016, 08:02:37 pm
Wait, it's ok to justhe take an edit and use it for yourself?

No, you cannot use it "as-is" somewhere else and claim you did it.

BUT you can use the edit as a reference and try to study it and imitate it to learn. Try it out, it's fun.

How I see it, edits help me see what I did wrong, where I fell short, how other people do things, how they use colors, etc. LEARN from them. Try to redo your piece by trying to imitate the edit, but don't trace over it and copy-paste. Try something new along with it, add a new weapon, a new armor piece, anything!


Correct me if I'm wrong

Offline Capta1n_Henry

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Re: HELP NEEDED! How do I better myself?!

Reply #16 on: April 21, 2016, 10:49:34 pm
Ahhh, ok that makes so much more sense. Thanks