Three New Pieces [updated Jan 30]

[Potatoes]

Black and white picture of some random guy (no reference, 7 colors)
[EDIT]MODIFICATION:


I think this one is 13-15 colors, self portrait

Don't know how many colors, never checked.  No reference, just a sketch that went too far

[cryssy]

Hey, I usually stay away from CC as I am not very good at it but here are a few things I wish to suggest to you to explore more fully.

Your "black and white" image is more like a stone statue minus the stone textures. The lighting and depth is there but not enough. I can see you sort of understand basic proportions which can take anyone a while to get which is really good but you need to tweak more. Most of the hair lacks dimension, more like it is plastic hair. I would suggestion looking at hair references and to notice how though hair is individual strands it usually falls in groups which makes it easier to manage when pixeling.

An anatomy issue I would like to put forth is these two heads are quite round. Try squaring up some of the features to give it a more humanly realistic look.

Don't be afraid to shade large chunks of the image with dark colors. It gives great illusions of depth.

Ok before I sound anymore stupid since I don't know what I am talking about I want to say good work and keep practicing.

[Potatoes]

You obviously don't realize that what you said actually is useful.  I don't fully understand how to do everything you said, but for the most part, it was great C/c, I've never gotten better, believe it or not, haha.

[Fizz]

My crits on the last piece-

The saturation on the bird is way too high. 100% for each shade, which means you have to rely on hues and luminosity for shading.  It's not a very good practice. See this thread for choosing good colors.
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=922.0

Also, the darker shade of blue needs to be darker to be effective.  I think your trying to get a feathery texture with the slight dithering with that shade too?  I recommend you get rid of that dithering and put some AA in it's place or put subtle feathers on the bird.  The fence needs to be AAed too and the AA on the moon is not correctly done.  Don't try and blend the moon with it's glow using darker colors than both of them.  This tutorial should help too.

http://www.spriteart.com/tutorials/01_AA.html

[Potatoes]

My crits on the last piece-

The saturation on the bird is way too high. 100% for each shade, which means you have to rely on hues and luminosity for shading.  It's not a very good practice. See this thread for choosing good colors.
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=922.0

Also, the darker shade of blue needs to be darker to be effective.  I think your trying to get a feathery texture with the slight dithering with that shade too?  I recommend you get rid of that dithering and put some AA in it's place or put subtle feathers on the bird.  The fence needs to be AAed too and the AA on the moon is not correctly done.  Don't try and blend the moon with it's glow using darker colors than both of them.  This tutorial should help too.

http://www.spriteart.com/tutorials/01_AA.html

Thank you!  I've been wanting some help on choosing colors!!  And I've already read the SpriteArt AA tut, I'll keep trying, I know it's not the best AA in the world. Thanks for the help!

[Potatoes]

A modification after the crits.  Don't know if it's much better. 

I'm still hungry, how bout some more C/c?