[WIP] Wolf Sprite, could use critique?

[Mumble785]

I'm still really new to pixel art in general but I've been reading tutorials and stuff because I'm thinking of making a game and am hoping to make my own pixel art for it if I can get the hang of it, and today I tried making one frame of a sprite just to see where I was at and where I should go from here and all that. It's not my first attempt at pixel art but it's the most detailed thing I've tried so far and put this much effort into.

Here's the sprite so far (haven't animated it yet but will eventually):



Like I said I'm really new to all this so I don't really have a preset palette that I used and I'm sure that there's a lot that could be improved, and I'd really appreciate some feedback!! I think the part that was trickiest for me was trying to make the "flatter" areas look more interesting?? (Like the side of the muzzle between the eye and the neck, the torso, and the legs.) I was trying to make it look textured without making it look unnatural and I'm not sure if I did very well at it.

Just in case anybody cares, I did a quick sketch of the character I was trying to make (he's a werewolf) beforehand so that I would kinda have a reference for forms and colors as I worked, and you can look at that here if it makes any difference: https://i.ibb.co/pRFHSD2/werewolf-cyrus-concept.png
It's really quick and sloppy because I knew I wasn't gonna follow the image exactly from the beginning, I just wanted to have an idea of the shapes and features of the character before attempting the pixel art.

Thanks!!

[pyxelbit]

thats really good for someone that is new to pixel art

Keep an eye on your color count, you currently have 29 colors, some of them reeeeaaallly similar - i think this could be easily reduced to at least 20.

i have to say i dont like this style. reminds me of the furry-fanart stuff you see on deviantart for example where almost everything is in a specific style. but i guess thats a matter of taste.

the shapes are really nice tho, and the shading too. the transition between dark and light fur is a bit harsh and not really realisitic i think, looks more like a husky to me.

the forelegs look really thin due to the dark fur and the anatomy seems a bit off when you look at a wolf skeleton

[Mumble785]

Thank you so much for the compliment and the advice, I tried recoloring the sprite with all that in mind.





This is what I ended up with. I didn't change the style really bc I don't personally have much of an issue with that, my art tends to be more on the cartoony side than realistic. For the anatomy I was actually using a mix of wolf and german shephard references so that's probably where some of the doggish-ness comes from (breed standard german shephards have that sloping back that I thought would be nice to use to make the shoulders seem a little bigger and to make it look more attentive?? if that makes any sense, I think weird sometimes lol), so at least on that front I didn't do much either.


What I did change tho:
- Made and forced myself to stick to a much smaller palette, I think the body only has about 7 colors plus however many I used for the eyes, which I think was only 3 or so. Also comes with the perk that the darker and lighter fur isn't as different as it was before, so hopefully that makes the transition less harsh?
- Took the markings down a notch to make it look less like a husky because you were right about that lol, I looked harder at some wolves and tried to go off of that more than I had been before.
- Made the foreleg......wider? at least the shoulder part where you and a friend I asked told me an issue was
- Made the head a little bit smaller so it would be just a Touch more realistic and maybe a little less like a furry (common problem for me lol)
- And didn't go as wild with the texturing. I really went to town on that the first time because I was afraid of it looking too flat if I left too much unbroken color, so I tried to reign that in this time just to see what would happen, I'm not sure if it looks Better or not per say on that front but I don't think it looks worse so that's something at least maybe??


Does it look any better with these changes? Is there anything I should go back on, or does anyone see anything else I should probably try doing to it?

[pyxelbit]

wow nice! from 29 colors to 13 is a huge step
the fur color looks way more like a wolf and less like a husky puppy and the shoulder/leg area is more believable. and i like the simpler texturing more (also easier to animate). and although you didnt change a lot with the style, it looks way better to me (matter of taste obviously) with the smaller head and the changed fur.

[Mumble785]

Thank you so much for the help!!