A Pixelation Selfportrait

[lollige]

I allways wanted to have one ;



Thats where I started with.. no tracings or wathever...

And this is where I am now:


Please Comment, and edits are welcome too as usual!

[Kyle]

This isn't a critique of your pixelwork, but you should shave your eyebrow in two and get rid of that retarded mustache.

[lollige]

This isn't a critique of your sprite, but you should shave your eyebrow in two and get rid of that retarded mustache.

lol ur like the number 1000 saying that..
yeah I should get rid of the mustache.. but the eyebrow.. What man shaves his eyebrow??

[Helm]

Noone. Keep your eyebrows proudly. This isn't critique-your-face, this is Pixelation.

[Sohei]

lollige

>What man shaves his eyebrow??

This one definitely does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Ue12dsfC8  ^_^

[baccaman21]

Don't take this the wrong way but you've got a more elongated face than the portrait suggests. And you're neck is quite narrow. And I have to say a bizarrely symettrical face too.

Generally the head is too wide (in your rendition), you need to streamline those jowls...

speakling of which the way you've shaded your jowls makes it look like you've got whopping lambchops... That you blatantly don't have...

You're lips are too flat at the top, you need to make them more cupids bow like.

I'd be inclined to focus on your features for now rather than try and place your spectacles... do that later once you've got the features sorted...

[ndchristie]

real men obviously use tweezers...

you and I are similar in that we have raised noses.  while it is good to honor oneself, you're accentuating the feature, making your piece look like an overly piggy caricature.

your colors right now in the face are banding and fighting each other.  try to figure a way to have them blend instead of band.  mostly, it has to do with the facct that they are (fairly) uniform in thickness.  you have cheeks!  draw them!

even if you feel a need to wear such scruff, it's too small a detail to worry about pixelling.  if it were even you could suggest it with a gray tone, but it's patchy.

light on the philtrum - why?

[lollige]

I cant pixel here, im on a computer with paint only (I normally pixel in paint, exept this time, I wanted to try working with layers) and I dont have the origional files too.. but tomorrow I have alot of time, so expect a nice update

Every day I still notice im not a native speaker... and the things you wrote contain alot of words I do not exactly know. Could you please correct my mistakes etc.?

Don't take this the wrong way but you've got a more elongated [stretched] face than the portrait suggests. And you're neck is quite narrow. And I have to say a bizarrely symettrical face too.

Generally the head is too wide (in your rendition), you need to streamline those jowls [lower cheeks?]...

speakling of which the way you've shaded your jowls makes it look like you've got whopping lambchops []... That you blatantly absolutely, clearly don't have...

You're lips are too flat at the top, you need to make them more cupids bow like.

I'd be inclined to focus on your features for now rather than try and place your spectacles... do that later once you've got the features sorted...

real men obviously use tweezers...

you and I are similar in that we have raised noses.  while it is good to honor oneself, you're accentuating the feature, making your piece look like an overly piggy caricature.

your colors right now in the face are banding [] and fighting each other.  try to figure a way to have them blend instead of band.  mostly, it has to do with the facct that they are (fairly) uniform in thickness.  you have cheeks!  draw them!

even if you feel a need to wear such scruff [??], it's too small a detail to worry about pixelling.  if it were even you could suggest it with a gray tone, but it's patchy.

light on the philtrum - why?

I made alot of use of interglot.com and dictionary.com, but I think I understand most of it
Corrections/explainations are welcome, youll see an updte tomorrow

[baccaman21]

lol...

Here's the author Chuck Palaniuk sporting some mighty LAMBCHOPS...

(he wrote fight club and choke to name few books)

And someone else you might recognize... with the ultimate in lambchops...


Can you see the connection?

Jowls are indeed your lower cheeks yes.

"I'd be inclined to focus on your features for now rather than try and place your spectacles... do that later once you've got the features sorted... " [/i] = don't put your spectacles on until you've finished drawing you facial features - you will find it easier.

I'll let adarias explain what scruff is and banding are...

Presumably you know what a philtrum is then?

[lollige]

Presumably you know what a philtrum is then?

Dictionary.com had a clear description
I understand the lambchops now
Ill start working on the portrait now! 

Ok one step further! Btw I did not understand the spectacles sentence because I did not use a translator and tought about Spectacular things.. I have to do the spectacular things later XD
Well I kept it now, but I did not focus on it like I did before..
I think this is a huge improvement

[infinity+1]

it kind of looks like steven king. anyone? anyone?

[Sherman Gill]

Spectacles is another word for glasses.

[lollige]

Spectacles is another word for glasses.

yeah I just forgot that when reading the sentence 

EDIT:
small change on mouth and nose..


ahh my jaw is really too round now..

[lollige]

♫You make me smile!♪

[baccaman21]

it's definatly better... but I think you need to be a bit more aware of your chiselled jawline...

squint at the photo image and see where the main blocks of hilight and shadow are and then translate that to the pixel version...

I've had a scribble to illustrate...

yours >>> <<<Mine

I've focused mainly on the right hand side of the face... I've strimmed the jaw a touch, and tried to make the jaw line more angular... (as it is on the foto)  - I've tweaked the eye a touch (I removed the specs cos they were distracting me... and I've added some highlights of what I percieve as light shine on the foto... particularly on the flanks either side of the nose, the forehead, then chin and the upper lip.

feel free to ignore it... but It's easier to illustrate than explain...

enjoy!

[lollige]

Thank you!

I had allready seen the photo shows alot of different highlights I did not draw, but realize it was made in my room with some different light sources and a flash light from the camera..
The eye seems logical to draw it that way, but Snader, on PJ made a great edit showing me the way im using now, and it actually looks way more realistic.. so I probebly keep that..
I think my jaw is wrong, so im going to experiment with what you did there.. also, the middle of my face is way more intresting thanks to the highlights! (I want to make a version with a slightly different lightsource too btw!)
Thanks alot, ill be studying your edit, and probebly you'll see one of me soon too!

[lollige]

Less symetrical, I tried to change lightsource even more but it made it look flat and im lazy to do it better..


I added 2 colors, im not too proud of that but it looks way smoother in 2x zoom... and I want it to be smooth in 2x zoom too
Not much time, ill start with fase 2 this evening probebly.. sadly I cant work on it this weekend.
Greets,
Lollige

I started on fase 2, that is going to give me Green glasses, a red cap and a yellow sweater..
IT SUCKS
please scribble a quick edit!
But I probebly wont work soon on it, I cant work on it this weekend

[sharprm]

Thats a cap? You sure hannibal isn't about to start eating your brain?

[Larwick]

Basically sharprm means that you've misjudged the size the cap needs to be, you're forgetting about your skull and hair which would leave a gap between the head and the cap and therefore mean the cap needs to be bigger.

[lollige]

Basically sharprm means that you've misjudged the size the cap needs to be, you're forgetting about your skull and hair which would leave a gap between the head and the cap and therefore mean the cap needs to be bigger.

I did not forget my skull, but I rushed it soo much, I forgot I enlarged my skull.. I just deleted the hair layer and drawn over my origional lines..  I did forgot hair.. Now that I see it I think its way to blocky, my cap still has to get alot more round but what do you think about the hair under the cap and the lower part of the cap?

Also I made my lips a bit darker.. also in the origional image.
Tell me what you think


EDIT:


EDIT2:
hmm.. those glasses where hard.. I had to change eyebrows, they looked very weird.. but does it still look like me now? and does it matter? after all thisone does not have to look like me...
However its still far from finished..

[Terley]

ok i spent ages writting a pretty detailed crit, but somehow the page refreshed and what I wrote disappeared  so I'll try make it short and sweet.

Im not sure whether you're trying to be cartoony about this, if so I really would focus on exagerating your main features. But I'd really like to see you really experiment with ways to trick the eye into seeing certain details in a such a small space. With your colours I recon you can afford to be a bit more creative to hint shapes and tones etc.. All in all you seem to be very calculated with this, adding the rims of your glasses, the colour of your eyes and focusing solely on the symetrics of the face. Loosen up and dont be afraid to experiment.

well keep it up.

[lollige]

ok i spent ages writting a pretty detailed crit, but somehow the page refreshed and what I wrote disappeared  so I'll try make it short and sweet.

Im not sure whether you're trying to be cartoony about this, if so I really would focus on exagerating your main features. But I'd really like to see you really experiment with ways to trick the eye into seeing certain details in a such a small space. With your colours I recon you can afford to be a bit more creative to hint shapes and tones etc.. All in all you seem to be very calculated with this, adding the rims of your glasses, the colour of your eyes and focusing solely on the symetrics of the face. Loosen up and dont be afraid to experiment.

well keep it up.

Aarg I know how it feels to have your page of crits lost..

Thank you for your comments and the edit!
No, im not trying to do this cartoony. Im allways afraid to experiment..  and I know I shouldnt.. today ill try to, before I continue with the cap etc..
Im not sure if I look like I really look in your edit, but it shows me alot of ways I can use my colors better I think! Also I really like the hair you did, it has way more body than mine..
Ill start working on this again this afternoon (Europe time..)
Greets,
Lollige

[lollige]

Like this?
My hair is still pretty bad btw..
and im at 24 colors allready 

[Dragen]

You need a thicker unibrow.

[Terley]

thats such a profound suggestion Dragen..

All it needs is a little AAing, your doin fine lollige.

[Helm]

Also come on now, black pixels for nosetrills, what are they, portals into the frozen abyss? Single pixels need aa too. Blend by lightening

[rabidbaboy]

it kind of looks like steven king. anyone? anyone?

I see it man.

I was going to comment on the lips looking like they were chewing, but then I realized that they were fixed in the later updates.

[lollige]

I didnt aa the hair too much at first because I tought it did not look good in 2x zoom.. but now that I have done it, it feels great..
I think the only large problem now is the neck, and when im done with that I can continue with fase 2 again

[ndchristie]

well this is a quick edit without reference so it loses likeness and youthliness by the pound, but my only point is that you might be better served with a simpler shading style that doesn't make it look like a jpeg:

[lollige]

well this is a quick edit without reference so it loses likeness and youthliness by the pound, but my only point is that you might be better served with a simpler shading style that doesn't make it look like a jpeg:

Thanks for your edit Adarias!
However, im pretty proud of what I have done untill now, and this makes me feel I have to start over again   

It looks alot better indeed. Maybe ill try some different light sources when im in the cap version... but for now I think I want to keep it like this ..
but ill save the edit, its going to be usefull, im sure about that

[eck]

i think is recomendation is more that you should simplify the shading and intensify the lighting.  try adding some sharper highlights and some deeper shadows.

[Arachne]

You have a skin shade in there that looks too gray, and you're pillow-shading in those parts. The dithering on the face doesn't really work, so I'd get rid of it. And, as eck mentioned, you need highlights on the forehead, nose, chin and cheeks.

As for likeness, your jaw is still too round, your nose is a bit too narrow and the nostrils aren't visible enough. Your lips are also a bit big. I also think your ears need to be bigger. I don't think I got the shape of them right, though.

[lollige]

Thanks for all your comments and edits, but im not sure if I want them.. Im very happy with the result, and ill keep it as it is now, more improvement will can be found in my next pixelart.. Now I can continue with fase 2, the cap thing, and than fase 3, animating.

[Conzeit]

Yes. a reason you might be having so much problems with this piece is that the lighting on the original photo was pretty flat in the first place, so if you were to make a good pixel piece out of it you'd have to use a pretty unique shading to do that, and you're just not that far in your pixel expertise to do that.

Add to that, you dont really have any dominant face feature, your face is pretty well equlibrated and it's hard to make a distinctive picture out of it.

next time, try a more interesting angle and dont use the camera's flash...

[lollige]

Yes. a reason you might be having so much problems with this piece is that the lighting on the original photo was pretty flat in the first place, so if you were to make a good pixel piece out of it you'd have to use a pretty unique shading to do that, and you're just not that far in your pixel expertise to do that.

Add to that, you dont really have any dominant face feature, your face is pretty well equlibrated and it's hard to make a distinctive picture out of it.

next time, try a more interesting angle and dont use the camera's flash...

yeah, it was in a bad moment of the day, so the photo's I took without flash where vague, this photo was the best..

Ok, ill remember all this for my next selfportrait but from now on I DONT want any crits on the face, just on the cap, glasses and the hair, later the sweater too from this image:

[ndchristie]

over aa'ed, jpegesque noise, and no value range.  You say you dont want any more crits on the face, but then you make the other elements have all the same problems.

[lollige]

You say you dont want any more crits on the face, but then you make the other elements have all the same problems.

yup, I do