my atempt at getting better - pikachu pixel art

[SlimEddie]

Hey guys, so I really really love draving with pixels it is just that I need to get better.
I would really love to hear some tips, critique and so on thanks!

[Squiggly_P]

I did an edit:

yours -> mine



Step one was to reduce the colors. Yours had over 100 colors. Mine has eight. Seven for Pikachu and one background color. I'd suggest using a pixelling program like aesprite, graphics gale, proMotion or something similar. These have indexed color palettes which allow you to keep control over how many colors you're using.

After I reduced the colors I went in and redefined the lighting using the light source from the left and slightly above. Your image also seemed to have light coming from the bottom, so I got rid of that. Having really well-defined shadow shapes will make your images feel nice and solid.

From there I just went in and used the available colors to redraw the outlines and do a wee bit of AA here and there. With a few more colors you could smooth out all the little jaggies and such. I didn't want to redraw your entire shape or anything, so the outline is more or less the same, but I made some alterations to the ears and butt area and cleaned up a few issues with irregular outlines. I like 'em to be nice and smooth if at all possible.

The biggest change is probably the mouth shape, which I redrew to make him a little more happy, and I gave him some eyebrow ridges.

Lighting is probably the biggest factor in the edit, as well as contrast. Don't be afraid of your shadow shapes. I could have pushed the contrast more, in fact. Shadows define form, and if there's no contrast to the light and the shadows the image won't feel solid.

Keep pushin those pixels, man. Practice, practice and more practice.

[SlimEddie]

I did an edit:

yours -> mine



Step one was to reduce the colors. Yours had over 100 colors. Mine has eight. Seven for Pikachu and one background color. I'd suggest using a pixelling program like aesprite, graphics gale, proMotion or something similar. These have indexed color palettes which allow you to keep control over how many colors you're using.

After I reduced the colors I went in and redefined the lighting using the light source from the left and slightly above. Your image also seemed to have light coming from the bottom, so I got rid of that. Having really well-defined shadow shapes will make your images feel nice and solid.

From there I just went in and used the available colors to redraw the outlines and do a wee bit of AA here and there. With a few more colors you could smooth out all the little jaggies and such. I didn't want to redraw your entire shape or anything, so the outline is more or less the same, but I made some alterations to the ears and butt area and cleaned up a few issues with irregular outlines. I like 'em to be nice and smooth if at all possible.

The biggest change is probably the mouth shape, which I redrew to make him a little more happy, and I gave him some eyebrow ridges.

Lighting is probably the biggest factor in the edit, as well as contrast. Don't be afraid of your shadow shapes. I could have pushed the contrast more, in fact. Shadows define form, and if there's no contrast to the light and the shadows the image won't feel solid.

Keep pushin those pixels, man. Practice, practice and more practice.

Heey! dyam from further away your pikachu looks sooo sooo amazing, I am always afraid of making shadows too dark, what is the proper way of choosing shadows? I seem to have a hard time choosing the right colors - I just poke the rgb palet for like two minutes and I am still not satisfied...

The mouth and the colors looks a freaking mazing!

I had a lot of trouble trying to make it have 5 fingers like in the picture but then I just gave up, I love your aproach on the paws!

I am also loving the colors that you use - the main question would be how do you choose colors? I tried finding tutorials or things of that kind but kind of failed..

All in all huge thanks! you shed some light and that advice was much needed! Thanks!

[Squiggly_P]

I will be honest about colors: I have no idea how to pick them. I just kinda do. I'm protanopic (red/green colorblind), so I tend to pay more attention to lighting and contrast. The colors I used in this are mostly just the result of the color reduction, although I played with them a bit. The 'black' color in mine is actually a really dark blue, which is something I picked up a long time ago.

Really, I just try to stick to a few values for whatever I'm painting. That's a 'ramp'. There are a couple in this to pay attention to, as illustrated in this little edit:



The dark background of the ramps is the darkest color in the image. Like I said, they're mainly the result of the color reduction that I did with a couple of tweaks to separate them a bit. But once you figure out the ramps (and the colors they share, which is important), you can screw around with some color experiments or tweak them to set a tone or whatever.

Quick edits:



Just a little pushing around of colors. Like I said, I'm mildly colorblind, so I don't generally let colors worry me a lot. Once you start recognizing where your ramps are, you will find yourself trying out all kinds of crazy color combinations. Pretty sure there's a post on here somewhere from eons ago that went into color theory and had a lot of good ideas on how to pick colors. Probably written by Ptoing or Helm or maybe Arne.

[SlimEddie]

@Squiggly_P thanks for all of your advice! gonna probably try painting some other pokemon to try out your advice - I'll try to post them here later, thanks!!