how to fix

[Melodee]

hello guys i have been working hours on making this character better but i can't manage to fix it. i am not very good in pixel art and i am trying to improve. i hoped you guys have any advice on how to do this.

i don't like the knees i made and i am not sure about the dress. i do like the hair and face i made a little but feedback is welcome.



a tiny change in the eyes

[Roach]

Here's my advice, start working on smaller pieces to practice the concept of light sources, color ramping, and perspective if you want to improve as an artist. You'd be surprised how fast you will improve working on smaller pieces, then you can apply the concepts you've learned to larger pieces.

As for this piece, I'd recommend appropriating a light source for it. The image is flat, and has no depth. aka looks like it was cookie cut out. Your colors are to bright. Try working on a neutral colored background so you don't end up over saturating your colors.

[Melodee]

does this look better?
or this:

or this:

[eishiya]

The colours on those definitely look better to me than the previous version, those warm purples are really nice! I think the top one has the best skirt, as it makes a nice transition, while the middle one has the best, most 3D-looking hair.


However, none of these new versions address the worst issues:
You're not thinking about lighting. What's your light source? What's the imagined 3D form that the light is hitting, where can it reach (lit parts), and where can it not reach (shadows)? You seem to be placing your darker colours through some logic other than light/shadow.

The anatomy feels very haphazard. Even stylised renditions like chibis can have a sense of structure and form, and without it, they look plain "weird". For example, is that a nose or a cheek? the shadow behind the eye makes it look like the head's about to end right there, rather than under the hair; the hair rising up from her head makes her head look misshapen. Once you understand "realistic" anatomy, you'll have a much easier time stylising it, making even chibis look "right" even though their anatomy is clearly not realistic. There are plenty of resources on anatomy out there, many of them free. Anatomy for pixel art is the same as anatomy for any other medium, so you don't need pixel art-specific resources.

The clothing doesn't make a lot of sense. It could be something real technically, but it doesn't look it, and as a result looks like a mistake. What is the big blue thing, how does it attach? Why does the skirt have a corner on the bottom? What are the white triangles on the skirt?


A nitpick I have is that you have outlines that are lighter than the colours they're containing. This can give an interesting, surreal look, but is generally something you want to avoid.


Another minor issue, not with the pixel art, but with the character design: The choice of blue elements on the dress isn't an effective one, in my opinion. Since everything else is purple, the blue parts stand out and look important... but why are they important? Colours that are used infrequently but are still very easy to notice generally become "accent colours", drawing attention to themselves. You can use this to your advantage by highlighting the important parts of the character, but here it seems you chose the blue without thinking about it. In the earlier draft, it wasn't as noticeable because the blue was so similar to the purple.
Consider making the blue here more of a cool purple. That way you'll still have some interesting colour variation, but it won't stand out as much.

[Melodee]

However, none of these new versions address the worst issues:
You're not thinking about lighting. What's your light source? What's the imagined 3D form that the light is hitting, where can it reach (lit parts), and where can it not reach (shadows)? You seem to be placing your darker colours through some logic other than light/shadow.

For example, is that a nose or a cheek?

The clothing doesn't make a lot of sense. It could be something real technically, but it doesn't look it, and as a result looks like a mistake. What is the big blue thing, how does it attach? Why does the skirt have a corner on the bottom? What are the white triangles on the skirt?


A nitpick I have is that you have outlines that are lighter than the colours they're containing. This can give an interesting, surreal look, but is generally something you want to avoid.


Another minor issue, not with the pixel art, but with the character design: The choice of blue elements on the dress isn't an effective one, in my opinion. Since everything else is purple, the blue parts stand out and look important... but why are they important? Colours that are used infrequently but are still very easy to notice generally become "accent colours", drawing attention to themselves. You can use this to your advantage by highlighting the important parts of the character, but here it seems you chose the blue without thinking about it. In the earlier draft, it wasn't as noticeable because the blue was so similar to the purple.
Consider making the blue here more of a cool purple. That way you'll still have some interesting colour variation, but it won't stand out as much.

OK. i tried to fix the lighting with some help.



it's a nose i hope it makes sense now, also the thing below her skirt is frills but i wasn't sure how to make them because lack of space!!

i also changed the blue to more purple.

[eishiya]

The lighting in the top one's much better, but it still feels inconsistent. The top one also has the best colours yet, in my opinion.

I made in edit, though I worry I didn't interpret everything in your image correctly. I hope this and my wall of text helps!


The first thing I did was decide where to put the light source - looking at the existing shadows on the face, I decided top right, slightly from the front would be good.

Since the light is in the upper right, that's where the highlights on each object go. The brightest part of the hair is in the upper right, the folds on the skirt are brightest on those surfaces facing the upper right, etc. Conversely, the lower left areas of each object are in shadow, because the light doesn't get there - the bulk of the object gets in the way!

In addition, some of the shadows are cast shadows - shadows cast by other parts onto surfaces that would otherwise be lit. For example, the tops of her legs are in shadow because the skirt blocks the light. The tops of her arms are in shadow because the blue shoulder-thing blocks the light. The little irregularity in the shadow on the shoulder-thing is the shadow cast by her hair. More subtly, the shadow in the middle of her torso is a combination of her chest's form shadow (parts of the chest face away from the light) and the shadow cast by her chest. Originally, the shoulder-thing cast a big shadow on her chest, but it looks to me like it should rest right against her skin, so it wouldn't cast much of a shadow on the chest, hence her chest being mostly in light in my edit.

I redrew the face to have clearer features - a nose, a mouth, more realistic eye placement - the original eye was lower than the nose! I reduced the pile of hair in front of her forehead and gave her more volume in the back of her head, which I think made for a good compromise between looking believable and being chibi. I tweaked her hands a little to give a better impression of fingers and thumbs. As with everything else in this edit, these changes are not necessarily "better" than your own style, but perhaps seeing the same thing in another style might give you some ideas for your own style.
With the hair, I wasn't sure what the reddish colour was meant for, so I drew it as a red streak in her hair.

Probably the most complex change is to the skirt. I wasn't sure what you were going for, so I interpreted the light streaks as highlights from folds/ruffles. I decided to play that up by making the skirt ruffles. I changed its outline to suit (just a wavy line, really), then added highlights to the right part and shadows to the left part of each wave. The highlights get smaller towards the left as there is less light there, since that part of the skirt is facing more away from the light. On the furthest left wave, the one that's right up against the left edge of the skirt, there's no proper highlight at all, just a break in the darkest shadow.

You'll notice that the bottom of the skirt, despite being wavy, has a sort of arc or bowl shape. That's because the skirt is essentially a cone that we're seeing from slightly above:


You were right that the white/blue frills are tough in that space. In these instances, it's better to sacrifice some detail for a clearer shape. I drew them by making another wavy line, but with smaller waves, and repeating basically the same light/shadow process as with the skirt, except the skirt also casts a shadow onto the frills, so the highlights are just along the very bottom.

Lastly, I changed some of the colours. I made the middle skin colour a little more saturated because it looked a bit dull for a skin colour to me, and I made the blues more purpley, so that they don't stand out as much. I changed the two greys on the eye into purples from elsewhere in the image, because it looks nice and there didn't seem to be any reason to have two whole new colours for such a small area.


If I didn't explain something well or if you're not sure why I made certain changes, feel free to ask!

[Melodee]

wow you really made good edits on the dress and hair. tho idk the shape of the face i don't really like XDD i am going to try it myself soon, however i am a bit tired of pixelating and failing so i was planning to take a break.

[Melodee]

hello. i have tried the dress first. but i don't think my version looks so good..

[eishiya]

It's an improvement! Try to think about the 3D form of the dress, and how the light interacts with it. What parts are illuminated, and what parts are not?

Try starting with a plain cone without folds and shading that. Then, the folds are basically more little cones on the surface of the big cone. Maybe that'll help you think in 3D more easily.
If you've never done shading exercises with simple forms like cones and cubes before, I recommend it! It's a great way to train yourself to think in 3D, which is an important skill for drawing.

[Melodee]

hello there again, i have been trying the 3D thing of the skirt (seeing it as a cone) with another of my characters. it's my first pixel art which i have been trying to improve today. i will also show how it looked before. it took me quite long, i have been trying to do it several ways but i couldn't manage to get it right still.. i have spend like 6 hours on only experimenting with the skirt.



what do u think??

edit: cone exercise

tried the cone with the skirt now: