AuthorTopic: Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)  (Read 2735 times)

Offline DTE462

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Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)

on: February 05, 2018, 02:21:15 am


Also hair is hard. And lighting is also hard but that's unrelated to pixel art. The main problem is I cannot get her blouse to look right. Folds of clothing never work out (except that generic one I use for everything on her sleeve). And looking at references doesn't seem to help.

I suppose more contrast would help in general. I'm not sure about the outline either. I guess I just need a general critique but I especially need help with clothing. Thanks for any advice anyone has.

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)

Reply #1 on: February 05, 2018, 08:46:14 am
There is a massive gap between where her ribcage ends and where her arm should realistically be, it's like a foot of missing rib cage there. Granted though I'm a bit baked out of my skull from a solid 8 days of retail work so I might want to call in somebody for a second opinion on this.

On here, I recommend you get the skull shape down first then draw lines for where the hair will go, including where the hair parts. You can then use this to sort of Hazard a guess as to how the hair will interact with each other. a good way to think of it is working in chunks, you can see this technique being used a lot in anime but it's essentially an abstract way of representing how hair tends to Clump together into thicker strands.

Another thing that can help is to find a picture of the hairstyle you want to draw on Google Images, or if that isn't feasible, try to look at how close a hairstyle you can approximate.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline Hoogo

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Re: Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)

Reply #2 on: February 05, 2018, 08:59:43 am
In regard to what has already said before concerning clothing here is a great page with many tutorials on clothes and folds. It isn't specific to pixel art but I hope that can help.
-> http://www.drawinghowtodraw.com/drawing-lessons/drawing-faces-lessons/howtodraw-clothingwrinkles-tutorials.html

I would also add a couple of things.
  • Concerning proportions, her neck is nearly as wide as her hips, you might want to give her wider hips.
  • Shading: you could shade her top under her breasts with the colour you used for the collar (maybe her skirt/trousers too since they are covered by her coat?). Also the shading on her neck seems strange to me, it looks like she has an Adam's apple. The shirt goes low too, so you could maybe add a beginning of cleavage to fill the flat surface.

Hope that can help in any ways!  :)
« Last Edit: February 05, 2018, 09:20:08 am by Hoogo »

Offline DTE462

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Re: Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)

Reply #3 on: February 07, 2018, 05:40:27 am


Much better. Thanks for the feedback. The clothing links helped. I don't LOVE the hair but ... I think it's passable.

I wanted to add a glare on her glasses, but every time I added some transparent lines it just read as a mess. Maybe it's fine without them.

I am also not sure about the peach around the eyes. If I think about it too long it doesn't make sense, but it definitely looks worse without it.

Offline Hoogo

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Re: Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)

Reply #4 on: February 07, 2018, 08:43:05 am
Much better. Thanks for the feedback. The clothing links helped. I don't LOVE the hair but ... I think it's passable.

I wanted to add a glare on her glasses, but every time I added some transparent lines it just read as a mess. Maybe it's fine without them.

I am also not sure about the peach around the eyes. If I think about it too long it doesn't make sense, but it definitely looks worse without it.

Hey! I edited your drawing a little and changed a couple of things
  • Added contrast between colours in her hair
  • Made your darker skin colours lighter and used them for shading the face, neck and chest
  • Tweaked the shading and folds on the shirt and the skirt
  • Changed the pure white of the belt buckle and gave it a little saturation
  • Gave the glasses a slight blue tone
  • Tweaked the mouth

Here is your picture edited:


I hope this can help in any way  :)

Offline DTE462

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Re: Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)

Reply #5 on: February 07, 2018, 10:56:53 pm
Nice! Brilliant solution for the glasses too. Thanks!

Offline Hoogo

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Re: Portrait of a plucky scientist (clothes are hard)

Reply #6 on: February 08, 2018, 07:50:28 am
Nice! Brilliant solution for the glasses too. Thanks!

You're very welcome. Glad to be of any help!  :)