well, I'm not one to blow my own horn, but since you are studying the way I made them, a few things :
First, what I think is important when studying another piece of art by anyone is not to look and say, i like that, let's make something that looks like that, but rather something more along the lines of :
this artwork is in some way appealing to me. why was it made in this way? What is the thought* behind the placement of everything, and how is that justified by the overall goal? Why does this goal appeal** to me, and what other context might someone find this same attraction?
In your first go, you saw that I used brown and red outlines, and mimicked that, but only in pretense, and like a language student rattling off a list of correct vocabulary terms, it is what was there but it is not likely to be understood.
First things first, when you have identified a technique or element that you would like to understand and apply elsewhere:
Why was it used : Often this is very hard to guess, so I will give you the answer. Red is a very strong, warm color, so I used it in the outlines to make the characters rise in front of the background tiles. You will notice that for their dark universal colors, the tiles tend towards blues to make them fall back just enough, further enhancing the pop of the characters without sacrificing much "lushness" of color in the tiles.
Are there limitations on it's application : YES! The red is strictly kept to interior lines because red light bleeds like warm beef. Exterior lines, the silhouette of the sprite, is done in black, which is a color killer as well as a sharp contrast in value to bright colors in a way that red is not. The black acts as a buffer to separate character from tile. The same goes for the medium brown occasionally used on the extreme points of the black outlines as well as a shade internally - it softens while reducing saturation.
How can I apply this in my artwork? Since for the moment you are pursuing a replication of sorts, I can only assume that the best way to use this is to follow my example, but there are many other places where red outlines can be used for any number of reasons.
What might I do to counteract this? Use like you did, a color farther away than your outline. What is the point of an outline on a sphere if it becomes a crest rather than gently curving away from the viewer? contours that are closer than the colors they contain are crests and therefor sharp. You made pants sharp!
I can say more on the subject but i want this bit to sink in, I find that essay-style posts don't always make their points because people tend not to try reading them.
*(or lack of thought, but lack of thought is a conscious decision because the artist must say to himself, "I am going to make a random shape!" thereby bestowing upon that shape a purpose: to be without purpose. Think that's tricky, try studying Buddhism or Socrates. Only by rejecting what you desire will you truly attain it!)
**(or not appeal, as disgust is often accompanied by an admiration similar to that created by attraction)
Ben - there are some elements, such as the hand, left foot, and parts of the face that are the same shapes, but neither am I bothered by this nor do I consider it an edit; merely a piece which imitates another. I agree of course that direct imitation is not the way to go, that study followed by application is the only way to learn from any source, but that has been said. We all know that my stuff is around for viewing, and we all know that he is using it as his source material.
