Lion Man (WIP)

[Sherman Gill]

My favorite way of making pixel art is to take about half a portrait, and then expand it many many times.



I apparently hit a button other than Save when I tried to update with this a hour ago:

[soldat]

the line between the hair and the face could be darker and the hair browner 

it has some style man

[Sherman Gill]

Rough outlines of his body (Climbing a stone tower thingy):

[Darien]

This resembles neither a lion nor a man.

The shading gives no impression of any facial features to speak of, and seems to be arbitrarily decided when to change to the next darkest shade.  I suggest you rethink the structure of this character, giving him more features than the basic eyes and mouth, such as cheekbones, nose, etc... and reshade to put some real form into him.

[Sherman Gill]

Haven't you learned? My creatures don't look anything like what I name them after.

I will try and give his face some more form, but I like the shape of it now.

[Sherman Gill]

Pardon the double post.
Zerb!
I would like some help with the anatomy on this:

[Panda]

Haven't you learned? My creatures don't look anything like what I name them after.

That's not something to be proud of though.


The main problem for me about your pictures is the clash between smooth and clean areas against jaggy and sketched like areas.
I guess personal preference but I would stick to one or the other.
Also parts of your picture look flat (head mainly) while the rest looks volumed (legs etc). Again you dont take volume for the face into account  -You completely ignore eye sockets, and eyebrow muscles, cheeks etc on the right side of the face - and loses the consistency.

The arms have totally random muscles, and the chest area is off angle wise.
You should also use references for your anatomy instead of making it up.
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=2428.msg29958#msg29958
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=2313.msg28120#msg28120
These two posts have good references for anatomy, so I suggest you take a look.

The shading on the body again is totally random, have in mind some kind of lightsource before coloring.
The AA around the hair doesnt work at all since the orange you use is too saturated, and on the face, while it kinda does the job, it mostly blurs the line rather than smoothing.

You have improved a bit overall, but you keep making the same mistakes in your pictures.
While the way you pixel doesn't matter to me at all, maybe it's time for you to take your time and expand your artistic knowledge (as in color theory, anatomy and lighting).
Of course I'm not forcing you, feel free to stay in your comfort zone.

And please edit your post next time, instead of double posting and shamelessly bumping your thread.

[Sherman Gill]

Worked on a lot of little stuff:


Panda:
I don't really know what to do with the head to make it look any better. I seem to be blind to the flaws.
I actually used a reference for the arms, so I'm honestly surprised that that would look so wrong to you. I tried to get it closer to the photo I was looking at, though.
As for lightsource, I'm afraid I don't see the problem (Beyond the rather odd knee), It's from an upper left source.

And on the 'comfort zone', I'm actually trying to move out of that, it's a common problem I have to not stray from it. Which is actually why I'm attempting realistic anatomy, as before this I've only used my personal-gibberish structures.


I appreciate your help  .

[Panda]

The lightsource isnt as clear on the face due to the lack of highlights.
On the arm it looks rather random. Flesh (unless covered with oil or something) wouldn't be affected like that by light. The light would rather contour the muscles smoothly unlike in plastic.
I would suggest you stand in front of a mirror having a lightsource placed similarly to the one on the picture you are working on. Then you'll see what parts of your face and body are shadowed or highlighted (and in what way).

As for the arms, I must say I fail to see close resemblance to anatomically correct arms.
Not sure if this is the best reference, but only the left arm (on your picture) remotely looks like it.
Try not to draw/pixel what you think you see, but what you see.

The AA on the hair still doesnt work properly, as the lightest color you are using on it is too saturated

It's moving into a nice direction though.

[Sherman Gill]

Farther along:



Does the arm look better ?

[Jad]

In my humble opinion (I read that like onion :>) bumping your thread when you have made a relevant update is nothing wrong to do. Since you're making something productive, I fail to see why it is shameless and bad to bring it to the community's attention. :\

So anyways, I went and updated yours with something I tend to do with people's pictures when I edit;

JAD DEFINEZ BAZIK ZHAPEZ pt 2.



My raping of your picture has effectively erased all detail there ever was so at least you won't look at it and go "Aaw, how am I going to better than that." like I do when people edit my pictures. But anyways, I made the arms the same thickness, lowered the head as to make him look more 'Ferocious' and fuxxered around with his hair. Also, I tried him to look Lion-ish :3

I also tried to make his body parts into basic 3D-shapes that would actually trick the viewer into being rotatable (does this word exist? ) I made his torso kind of hulking forward (I really don't even know what hulking is, damnit.) and so on. I kind of see and understand the way you are thinking when you're drawing and it's very 2D and abstract in a way. In a very "It really doesn't have to look like something"-way, and I respect that. But this is my take on it.

Oh, and to make it all more confusing, some "explanation" COUGH COUGH.



The arms are quite easy to see anyway so I concentrated on the legs and torso. I sincerely hope that this helps you more than it confuses you.

Good luck!

PA-CHING!

EDIT: Answer to Panda (omgz, i am stating a good example also.)

I didn't know. I just figured he posted the other one much later. Well, then I see what you mean. I still think it's no big deal, though, but that's just me :]

[Panda]

In my humble opinion (I read that like onion :>) bumping your thread when you have made a relevant update is nothing wrong to do. Since you're making something productive, I fail to see why it is shameless and bad to bring it to the community's attention. :\

I.) Pixelation Rules

Keep in mind common sense:
Don't double-post. Do not spam. Do not excessively swear. Don't overuse smileys (even though they're new and we all love them) Do not run with scissors.

While I kind of agree with you, I dont think there is a need to double post while said thread was still on the 5 threads at the top, and the last post was done about 1 hr before.
Pretty much defeats the purpose of the edit button.


Looking forwards to what Sherman Gill comes up with after your edits.

[Sherman Gill]

Oh, I forgot to post here.
Most recent is on PixelJoint, if you missed it:
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/16055.htm

[Ryona]

Your Lion Man looks so weird, yet so cool! lol. I like it!

And the final product is awesomely superb.

Oh, and I really love that rock you made. Totally rocks.

[Pawige]

Gill, I'd suggest taking another look at Jad's edit there, he had a lot of good advice in that post, especially on the shape of the body. As it is now your lion man really has very little form and it's really symmetrical, he looks like something somebody made out of silly putty. I would definitely ditch your habit of starting with a small section and working out blindly. You'll almost always get a much better result if you sketch it out first and then apply whatever techniques you desire.