[WIP] My first WIP (and first post)

[five]

hello everybody!

let me start by saying that it is a pleasure to now be a part of this fine forum  ...

pixel artistry is always something that i have admired but never truly tried my hand at other than the occasional buddy icon or icon for my website...

i have now decided to give it a serious go...

so here is it, my first serious pixel art piece, "the blinking office worker"...

(all office workers have green skin and red eyes in case you never noticed)

so there it is, nothing fancy...

let, me know whatcha' think, how i can improve it etc, any and all comments (positive or negative) will be very much appreciated  ...

keep in mind it is supposed to be pretty stylized and certainly not realistic (he's green and seemingly has no arms, nose, or ears) although i'm willing to try taking it into a more realistic direction...

i'm going to go back and try to anti-alias those jagged outlines (something i've never attempted before), also i think the head shading and the body shading look too different from one another (my dithering needs work), the other thing i noticed after the fact was that the eyes blink horizontal while the head/face is turned so they should go diagonally...

anywho...

i have a long way to go before i will be satisfied with my pixeling skills, and i'm going to try and stick with it for the long haul...

thank you very much , i look forward to your comments

EDIT:

i thought it might be more interesting if i added a fancy (maybe tacky) gold frame type thing...

here is the outline of the frame (animation left out for now)...

frame colouring coming up next...

EDIT2:

here is my new update...

15 colours + transparency and i aim to keep it that way  ...

next comes more shadows and highlights on the frame...

i personally like how it's coming along, but that's just me  ...

[tocky]

I couldn't have spotted this as a 16 colour image if you hadn't said so. You're hardly using most of those colours.


(can you see this image? I'm using ensilitis's image host to get around the web restrictions here - but it's not showing up for me on this machine.)

Try to lay out highlights and shadows before you start dithering, make sure they're obvious, and make sure there's a consistent light source (the hilights in the eyes and cast shadows in yours are incosistent with the shading). The point of shading is basically to keep your stuff from looking flat. So you have to treat it like a 3d object and figure out where the light would hit it, basically.

pick slightly warmer (redder/yellower) colour for hilights and slightly cooler (bluer/greener) colours for shadows.

[bengo]

My edit, hopefully I didn't go too far from a certain style you wanted, I just added a nose an other features to add more shading to it(Also animooted, tried to make him look like he was fighting to stay awake). Say no to more colors, try to conserve the best you can, also listen to Tocky, he gave good advice. Good line work!

[five]

old and busted (16 colours)new  hotness (8 colours)

so there are two new versions, i think the newest one is starting to look more 3d (and he gained a few pounds )...

thank you very much tocky and bengoshia  ...

tocky: the comment about using colours better and the reminder about shadows being cool and highlights being warm helped A LOT (how easily i forget art class teachings)...

bengo: i like your edit, it's a little creepier than i'm going with this for this, but i do like some of the facial features that you brought out, i might try something like that... also thanks on the line work compliment  ...

so still think this piece can be improved, although i am pretty happy with it in it's current state...

let me know whatcha think guys, and thanks again  ...

[Opacus]

Mainly I think you should concentrate on getting the basic shading right instead of doing dithering for now. You need to master the basics before you move on to more advanced techniques suchs as dithering .
Also ditch the hue shifting for now. You will need to learn how light sources work a bit, as right now I'm not seeing much of a light source. This guy really misses alot of volume.

Study it a bit, watch the basic shading. Do not copy it, just study it and try to adapt some stuff to your own sprite. It's not perfect, the edit. But I'm lazy + don't have time.

[sharprm]

Try using the "new hotness" but use the shadow and darker outline color from the "old and busted".  I thought the hue shifing was nice. Give him a calculator and tax form.

[tocky]

This is the edit I tried to post earlier. The computers at school block out all useful image hosting sites as 'porn'. grumble, grumble.

[five]

ok, thanks for the tips Opacus, here are my attempts to do as you described...

sharprm: i think it would be hard to hold a calculator and tax form with no arms  ...

tocky: thanks for posting that image, i kinda tried to do what you did the the under-eye highlights...

let me know how yall think this looks so far and what it needs, thanks everyone for the help so far 

[Shadoron]

I really like the last one a lot, but the glow on his forehead looks a lil off... I really like how the left eye looks with the shading it really makes the image look 3d...



Not the best, but you catch my drift, right?

[Solitaire]

Uh, what? No offence Shadoron but, that shading looks horrible. You're using far too many hues. I'd suggest to go with what Tocky said, and shade it in that manner. It makes it look more..realistic.