WIP humble begging for some advice

[Illsnidig]

Those of you who may be hanging out at dA probably has seen all those pixel IDs. I liked the idea so I thought I give it a try
(for those who don`t know what it is and like to know, just visit deviantart.com and search for "pixel id" or something).

Anyhow, this is the "main sprite" which is supposed to look like me (if you remove the fox ears and tail) and I think I did pretty
Good for a beginner until I encountered some problems, which I would like some help on.

*The tail I think is the biggest problem. I have no clue what so ever how to make it look good, right now it doesn`t even blend into the picture very well
  and that kind of shading is wrong right? I left it like that because my mind just went blank, I don`t know what to do!

*I don`t think the hair is as good as it could be, even tho I think it might be ok the way it is now advice on how to improve it is welcome.

*The last big issue, which I know can be hard to help with. He looks to young, even though I think it is partly because of my personal style I would like him to look
  A bit more like 21 and not like 12. Tried to make his legs longer, shoulders wider, even tried changing the outline of the face but he still looks like a kid.


Of course I greatly appreciate all advices I can get, and on a side note I’m thinking about removing those "fox racing logos from the cloth".

 
                                                                     UPDATE1
 

[baccaman21]

*The last big issue, which I know can be hard to help with. He looks to young, even though I think it is partly because of my personal style I would like him to look
  A bit more like 21 and not like 12. Tried to make his legs longer, shoulders wider, even tried changing the outline of the face but he still looks like a kid.

Firstly I have to ask... do you ride?

Secondly... the reason why you look so young is the proportions of the head to the rest of the body... which is (as many others will happily point out) is suffering from severe animangaitus - a common disease that many artists appear to suffer from... such is the way of things.

May I suggest you adapt your 'personal style' to something more... well... personal... and not what everyone else does? What happened to individualism?

I don't know... perhaps thats a bit harsh... but one tends to bore of Manga stuff after a while...

Try shrinking the head to fit the body more in keeping with correct proportions for an adult... and try and render the face less Akira and more Illsnidig...

Also, the pallettes really rough, you need to try and make it less contrasting... and learn to anti alias.

On a postive note... the pose is kinda ok and the lines are pretty good...

it's just that animangaitus you need to take some pills for I think...

[Illsnidig]

Ride what?

Anyhow, I tried to improve the picture a bit. It is obvious you’re not a big fan of Japanese cartoons? I am, so that`s probably
why my style got bent in that direction, although I try to develop a more realistic manga style.
There is a lot of manga styles which I do have a problem with, and unfortunly the shape of the face of my sprite reminds me
of those, that’s why I wanted tips on how to change this.


I have some mayor problems with the head, not making it look like it`s a manga teacup face. Biggest problem is that the face
tilts to the right. Drawing a more "detailed" outline when it is that small and in that angle is really hard, I have spend a couple
of hours bending and twisting the face to no good. I guess I could "untilt" the face but I think that would make the picture
as a whole look less interesting.

I also changed:

*The tail, I think it`s better but probably could get even better.
*Left leg is a bit longer, I think it was to short before.
*Changed the highlights in the hair, I don’t really know if this is better or not.
*Tried to make the palette less rough. I don`t think I’m to good at this, for now I`ve drawn an outline with a softer colour on the cloths
  shadows to make it less sharp.
*Made the irritating teacup face smaller to fit the body, but in doing this I think the torso seems "of".
*Fixed a lot of small stuff which I can`t remember, but I changed it.


Thank you for helping.

[baccaman21]

not a fan of anime? me... lol... on the contrary... I was the first in line when AKIRA was released in the UK back in the late 80's - I used to subscribe to Manga Mania and I have countless Gundam T-Shirts that I wear religiously...

If you insist on copying a style then I suggest you buy one of the many zillion 'how to draw manga books' that are so prolific in comic shops...

I'm sure helm could bore you to tears with his reasons for why manga, as a style to adopt, is so, well... passe...

I've been there and done that and I'm not gonna lecture you on the why's and wherefore's of trying to adapt to a particlar style as it is so subjective.

As for riding... FOX... ...it's more than a pretty logo used on 'extreme sports' clothing - it's brand that's associated with Suspension... of the Motorcross or Mountain bike variety - which is something I'm quite keen on... I just thought that seeing that you had their logo on your pants you may have been into it... not to worry. (perhaps I've got my wires x'd?)

Back to the piece.

I can see what you've tried to do with that outline on your hilights, but this isn't how to do it. You need to 'anti-alias' - which is a method of softening a jagged line by interpolating it with a medial tone that merges the two color areas together... I can see by what you've done is that you've sort of grasped it but it's not a case of outlining it as this then creates another layer of color that in itself would require anti-aliasing... plus the medial color you've chosen doesn't go far enough to bridge the tones... it's still too dark.

Here... like this...

[Lackey]

Someone with a better grasp of head anatomy might want to come and correct me on this, but I think the face seems skewed and lopsided because it doesn't follow a particular centerline.

I've just drawn a generic head over here to illustrate.  The mouth and eyes seem especially odd.  I wasn't able to quite grasp what angle you were going for (mine is probably looking more down than you want).  I think the brow ridges are too prominent.  Even if it is something you would actually see if you raised your eyebrows, I wouldn't include them based on the level of detail present elsewhere like the abstracted anime nose.  Lastly one eye is considerably larger than the other which is alarming.  A few pixels can make a very big difference here.

I focus my critique on the head here because I think it's really important.  Especially if this is a portrait.

[Illsnidig]

baccaman21

Oh I kind of knew about fox, but in my case my favourite cloth just happen to have that logo, or I should say HAD since I wore them until my mom threw them out and told me to buy something new 

I`m well aware I don`t have a very unique style yet but I’m young so there is still time to find my niche. And about those how to draw books, unfortunly I have o couple of them in my bookcase already but basically I don`t use them, all you ever would learn from them is how to do manga styled pantsu shots and fan service.



Anyhow back to the piece! Thanks for explaining about the anti alias, I think it will take some time to get the hang of it but I’ll give it a try. It looks like a lot of work thought, might take a while until next update.

Lackey

I appreciate your critic as well; in fact I was working last night with trying to fix the head again. I know that you can`t do as much details in a sprite in this size as you could with paper and pen (which I am used to). But if the heads angle is slightly downwards and tilts a little to the left, wouldn’t that make one eye seem smaller because it is father away? Um, that’s what I thought anyway. I will try to redraw the head from scratch again, is it ok if I use your outlines for reference? It may help me break the pattern in which I am stuck.

[Lackey]

But if the heads angle is slightly downwards and tilts a little to the left, wouldn’t that make one eye seem smaller because it is father away? Um, that’s what I thought anyway

Possibly, but the effect here is too pronounced.  I think at this scale a single pixel may be too much, I'm not sure.  And feel free to use my outlines for reference.