[WIP] Hellsing - Alucard

[BadMrBox]

Alucard - 13 colors
Made in Graphicgale
This is something I have been working on for an hour or two and I'm somewhat happy with it. What I'm not happy with is the hat band (or what it is called) and I need some help with it.

Any C&C is more than welcome

[crab2selout.png]

This isn't pixel art. Ref?

[havocplague]

Yes, it is pixelart. It's somewhat rough on the outlines, and I'm not overly enthused by the use of black for shadows. I know that it's a mangastyle, but if you look at the "masters", they will tell you shadows are really never black. But as a starting piece, it's certainly going in the right direction. it's going to be hell to finish though, because of the size, unless you go with a simple shading technique.

[Akira]

Well, no, currently its not pixel art.
my c&c is to start smaller.
or if you really want to stick with this piece clean up the lines, maybe use different thicknesses to show volume if you're going to go with an outlined approach. from there move on to shading, you have quite a few references on shading from the anime. pay close attention to posters, figurines, fanart, images that are meant to be still rather than screen captures from the anime itself. anime (and most manga) tends to be over simplified because the artists have to draw large amounts of images. you are only drawing one image so you have no excuse not to detail the image well.

[Ryan Cordel]

Yes, it is pixelart. It's somewhat rough on the outlines, and I'm not overly enthused by the use of black for shadows. I know that it's a mangastyle, but if you look at the "masters", they will tell you shadows are really never black.

Ofcourse, shadows are only the sections of areas on an object where the light does not reach/reflect, and the color of the shadow is dependant on the atmosphere. Say the sky is blue, shadows are blue (and on white objects too). On the grass, they're blackish. Now if it sunset, the shadow would be less stronger, but it would have a red/purple like color.

Just from what I know.

[Larwick]

Just to note, with this artistic cell-shading black shadows are fine. 

[Panda]

The whole thing hasn't been treated as pixelart. It feels more like a traced picture which got filled with a paintbucket, and then got simple shadows.
But leaving that aside, I don't think the hat band thing is the part that has more problems.
Cel-shaded? Alright, but what's up with all that zigzag stuff? I mean, I googled up for Alucard, and indeed the original has something like that, but in yours it isn't working to show volume, they look like they are there just because. The light sources on your picture feel rather random, and the color choices aren't the best, not to mention that you are not using them wisely so far. (That dark red could be used to smooth out the black for example.)
Overall it could use more AA if you are going for that flat coloring, looks really jaggy.
If you are working that big, you should put all the effort needed so it doesn't look half assed.

[BadMrBox]

What are you meaning crab? Not pixelart? What are you basing that on? Me, my mouse and graphicsgale thinks otherwise. I wouldn't have posted something here that I haven't pixeled...
@Panda
The colors are the same as Alucard has in the anime so I cant really be blamed for that .
The zigzags is kinda a pain in the 'you know where' to get good. I had started to smooth the black with the darkred but decided against it as I will have to redo the ziggies. I agree with you on the lightsources and will do something about that.

[Zee]

As it's been said, it could really do well with some AA & general cleaning up. One thing you could do, if you're tracing an image is to flip it upside down initially, and draw what you see, so you don't draw what you think should be there and only draw what IS that.

  good start though.

[AdamAtomic]

The colors are the same as Alucard has in the anime so I cant really be blamed for that .

Did you pixel this?  If you did, then you can SO be blamed for the colors.  Pixel art is NOT the same medium as cel+digital animation for television, so there is no reason for you to use what you perceive to be identical values.  So, I'm blaming you right now!  The colors are crap.  Pick better ones, and use the ones you have picked better.