Green Nina Girl (struggling with legs)[C+C]

[Meruvian]

I have been working on this picture inspired by a cool neo-ninja i saw on deviant art, just for practice. anyway i am really struggling with her legs! this is one of my first pixel art attempts, I'm still a beginner, so some direction in making the legs look less silly (or any critique really) would go a long way

thank you


Here is the original image for reference:

https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=1&oiu=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-af3AYMQVDCA%2FUqqEi4dQEfI%2FAAAAAAAAMUg%2F1d2Twneq1nI%2Fs1920%2Fwarrior-girl-anime-weapon-body-suit-hd-wallpaper-1920x1200.jpg&sp=86290aacabd8aa65dfc17f8ff1624b43

[lachrymose]

She is perfectly proportioned, as of right now, to be a person that suffers from primordial dwarfism condition. But I don't think that is what you are going for.   

It looks like you have a basic understanding of shapes and the human form. But fall short in the area of proportion(How big/small/short/long..etc, things are in relation to each other).

I strongly feel you can figure this out without an actual edit from the users here. So I challenge you to look for a full body female reference image. Once you do, pay very special attention to:

How long the legs are in relation with the body?
How long is the upper portion of her leg, above the knee, compared to the lower portion of her leg, below the knee?

[Meruvian]

Thanks for the response

I hear what you're saying, I have already been trying to figure this out for a week, and I am still sat here trying to figure it out. I understand the proportion is wrong, (which is why I have asked for help), my problem is not that I cannot see that it is wrong, but that I do not know how to fix it. I don't know where to put the pixels in order to achieve the desired effect. so I thought I would ask, to speed up my learning. That's why beginners use forums right?

I am the sort of person that learns from being shown so any correction I can receive would be greatly appreciated, but if you can't then that's fine! I don't want to waste anyone's time 

[Hagane]

I suggest you download a book on human anatomy, such as Loomis Figure Drawing for all it's Worth. It'll help you get a better understanding of proportions and other basic stuff.

As for this sprite, the biggest problem is the lenght of her legs. Ideally legs should be around the same length of the upper body (torso+head), sometimes more, sometimes less depending on what you want to go for, but in this case the legs are much shorter, giving that "dwarf-ish" aspect to your sprite. Particularly in the case of a sexy woman, which is what I believe you are trying to do, legs should be long.

I'll try to do an edit later but that should give you something to work with on the meantime.

[eishiya]

Proportions are something best worked out before you get to pixel-level detail. Sketch or block in the body parts without worrying about making nice, smooth shapes or details like clothing, then add details and clean up afterwards. If you aren't sure what the proportions should be, there are plenty of proportion charts out there.

You dove into details too early, before taking the time to work out her proportions and pose. Also, if the 128x128 size is your working size and not a crop: I highly recommend working on a larger canvas than you need, so you don't find yourself squishing things in. It's easier to crop later than try to fight off the subconscious urge to distort things to fit.

Here are a couple of possibilities, one more realistic, one with anime/supermodel legs:

Like Hagane wrote, I made the crotch-heel distance equal to the head-heel distance. On a realistic person, the "crotch" position is higher, the anime legs have the "crotch" as being at the bottom, where the crotch ends. Note that it's the crotch-heel distance, meaning the distance to the heel of the foot, not of the whole leg. A character wearing high heels will have legs that look longer because of the way the foot is positioned. That's why the guidelines in my sketches don't reach the "floor".

The character's head is rather large, so the longer legs will probably feel more proportionate. The shorter legs would look better on a character with a more realistically-sized head.

Also notice how rough I made the sketch. This is because the goal is to just work out the proportions.

[Meruvian]

I suggest you download a book on human anatomy, such as Loomis Figure Drawing for all it's Worth. It'll help you get a better understanding of proportions and other basic stuff.

As for this sprite, the biggest problem is the lenght of her legs. Ideally legs should be around the same length of the upper body (torso+head), sometimes more, sometimes less depending on what you want to go for, but in this case the legs are much shorter, giving that "dwarf-ish" aspect to your sprite. Particularly in the case of a sexy woman, which is what I believe you are trying to do, legs should be long.

I'll try to do an edit later but that should give you something to work with on the meantime.

Wow man THank You! there was A LOT of helpful stuff there. I have downloaded the book and I am going to increase the length of the legs to the same length as the torso+head, such a good rule to go by

I'll make the changes and upload them for more criticisms but it'll be awesome to see your edit too.

[Meruvian]

Proportions are something best worked out before you get to pixel-level detail. Sketch or block in the body parts without worrying about making nice, smooth shapes or details like clothing, then add details and clean up afterwards. If you aren't sure what the proportions should be, there are plenty of proportion charts out there.

You dove into details too early, before taking the time to work out her proportions and pose. Also, if the 128x128 size is your working size and not a crop: I highly recommend working on a larger canvas than you need, so you don't find yourself squishing things in. It's easier to crop later than try to fight off the subconscious urge to distort things to fit.

Here are a couple of possibilities, one more realistic, one with anime/supermodel legs:

Like Hagane wrote, I made the crotch-heel distance equal to the head-heel distance. On a realistic person, the "crotch" position is higher, the anime legs have the "crotch" as being at the bottom, where the crotch ends. Note that it's the crotch-heel distance, meaning the distance to the heel of the foot, not of the whole leg. A character wearing high heels will have legs that look longer because of the way the foot is positioned. That's why the guidelines in my sketches don't reach the "floor".

The character's head is rather large, so the longer legs will probably feel more proportionate. The shorter legs would look better on a character with a more realistically-sized head.

Also notice how rough I made the sketch. This is because the goal is to just work out the proportions.

That was all so very helpful, I'm really seeing where I went wrong now. The proportion charts will definitely be such a big help so thank you very much for that.

You're quite right about the 128x128 canvas, I just wanted to learn pixel art so I thought the best way to learn was just to start instead of wishing so I'm still making a lot of these beginner errors. I'll be sure to sketch an outline first before doing the details, what you have said there makes a lot of sense! I feel like just starting from scratch based off of what you and Hagane have said.

Thanks Eishiya

[lachrymose]

Quick an dirty, looks like others beat me to the punch though.
I highly recommend Loomis as well. 



I forgot to mention that I just very quickly blocked in the basic size/forms here. I'd go back over a few times to fix the jaggies an apply AA where needed to soften edges and makes curves looks curvier. Steps I skipped for the sake of brevity.

[DracoDragon42]

This might help, but i feel like the other edits were better but whatever.

[Meruvian]

Quick an dirty, looks like others beat me to the punch though.
I highly recommend Loomis as well. 


I forgot to mention that I just very quickly blocked in the basic size/forms here. I'd go back over a few times to fix the jaggies an apply AA where needed to soften edges and makes curves looks curvier. Steps I skipped for the sake of brevity.

lachrymose, I REALLY see what you mean about to dwarfism lol I saw this in comparison to mine and jus burst out laughing, at how silly mine looked lol.

Her figure on yours looks brilliant, I wasn't confident enough to use straight lines on her body, but where you've put them, on the right side of her torso and on her right side it looks so much better.

It really helps to see where I have gone wrong next to yours so I appreciate you showing me!

But why would you AA? To my eyes what you've done looks great.