RPG character [WIP]

[Terley]

I don't understand what's so important about creating this head for you, surely if you're intentions are to better yourself artistically so why not do what has been suggested time and time again and get drawing for yourself, try to understand why things look the way they do. The point isn't to just to settle on an image to be transfered into pixel-art, you want to learn how to punch before you take on Muhammad Ali, so to speak. Learning curves vary, but the only way to better yourself is to start from what you know and the rest will reveal itself to you. No one here would ever advise you to plonk an image of the web to copy, because it's its just bad practice and all in all you aren't achieving anything.

[inarma]

 Uh...I got that sprite because well Adarias told me to like plan out your artwork in a sketch, and to put attitude in your work so, I guess I just found a sketch that I liked and wanted to model my artwork after it, whats so wrong with trying to learn what style you want to draw by looking at your favorite style and trying to draw it? Sorry about all this trouble I'm not very bright when it comes to spiriting and most of this is all new to me. So maybe I should make my own sketch and then draw down my work, that way I'm learning how to draw myself not using what other people have already done?

[NorthWest]

So maybe I should make my own sketch and then draw down my work, that way I'm learning how to draw myself not using what other people have already done?

That's exactly what they're trying to say.

[inarma]

 Ok, lol coulda just come out and said it I would taken that Now I gotta get started on drawing my sprite, I don't think I have a scanner so you guyz might not be able to see my drawing...sorry.

[philjones]

They did say that.  Stop calling everything a sprite.

[Terley]

Well A sprite is termed as a small bitmap image intended to be used in a game, Im guessing that doesn't just mean as in a 'small playable character'. Does that include all characters, monsters/animals, chararacter portraits, objects and tiles?

Ah well we're not helping atall, inarma's here for art advice not an English lesson, call it what you want just keep getting those ideas down.

[philjones]

I'm sorry Terley, that wasn't a very constructive reply.

Inarma, your innapropriate overuse of the word "sprite" to denote anything you or anyone posts makes it incredibly confusing and frustrating for these kind people to help you in your endeavour to create a character portrait.  In the context of this forum, a sprite would be a piece of small pixel art (a character, tile, HUD piece, (perhaps even a portrait, yes) etc.) that is to be placed in a larger piece (ie. a game or mock-up).  Other than the portraits you've made yourself, the references you've been posting have been drawings and 3D renderings, images, pictures, but not sprites by a long shot.  For everyone's sake, please try and use more accurate terms.

As far as drawing your own references, this is not being suggested solely for the purpose of pixelling it, but to improve your art skills as a whole.  While this is indeed a pixel art forum, it is definitely still an art forum.  Helm is recognizing that (as he has in many people) before you do this portrait, or any other pixel piece, you may want to step back and try drawing some of these things on paper, to know what you're looking for, to practice your grasp of forms.  If you simply try to convert someone else's art to pixels, art that they have spent years learning to do, you won't be learning anything yourself, and will end up with a less than satisfactory result.

So, yes, please try drawing for yourself.

[inarma]

 Lol, ok guys don't know what the big fuss is about me using the term sprite, lol I guess I just got into the habit because I use gamemaker and their graphics folder is called sprite so instead of saying graphics now all I can say is sprite, sorry if it was confusing you Anyway in other news I did start to work on drawing my sprite out by hand and it turned out terrible, so I just started like a blank document in the computer and started to kinda draw things out in there and I sorta liked it. I didn't touch it up or do much to it but its a start. I'm sorry about being so stubborn with drawing things its just I cannot draw to save my life and I'm pulling clumps of hair out of my scalp each time I mess up so yea I think I'm gonna stick with pixeling thank you very much Uh, heres the sprite I sorta whipped together. Tell me what you like/dislike.

[Ben2theEdge]

I'm sorry about being so stubborn with drawing things its just I cannot draw to save my life and I'm pulling clumps of hair out of my scalp each time I mess up so yea I think I'm gonna stick with pixeling thank you very much

Inarma, what others are trying to point out is that getting better at drawing is key to improving at pixelling. Pixelling IS drawing, except that you're restricted to a grid. In that sense it's *harder* than regular drawing. Consequently if you discipline yourself in traditional art skills you will find your pixelling skills atronomically increase. If you try to simply pixel something without first learning the fundamentals of art and design, your work will cave in on itself like a house with no foundation. There is no "trick" to what you're trying to do, you have to study and practice, just like a guitar player. And if you're unwilling to do that then you won't be able to find any help in improving your work, because there's not much we can do to help you.

Yes, it is frusterating to develop good draftmanship skills. But it's perfectly doable. Just like musicians, the people who get good at it are the ones who care enough to practice every day and to study the masters. Adarius and Helm are both excellent artists but if you look around a bit you'll find that they are both excellent and disciplined traditional artists as well. I can assure you that any other pixel artist whose work you admire has a similar background. This is a necessary step, and all it takes is determination.

[sharprm]

I'd like to show you how I would approach doing an rpg portrait and why sketching is important.

step 1. Ditch anime. The abstract faces are too hard (at least for me). This is okay because there are RPG's like final fantasy X that are realistic. Look at Wakka's head. Thats what I'd try to make.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Wakkaface.jpg

step 2. Google "japanese boy band". A big thing about 'most' rpgs i think is they have cool hair and are japanese. Get a reference like this:

http://yeinjee.com/asianpop/tag/asian-celebrity/chinese-celebrity/ariel-lin/

step 3. Copy those pictures a few times. If you dont have a reference when you draw it can look retarded (top left). Draw a few until you got something with a correct angle that will look good for an rpg portrait. eg. 2nd from top is looking to the right which is wrong, the one on the bottom is seems boring nomatter what accessories i give him, the one on the right looks okay. Its better to make mistakes at sketching stage because its much quicker than pixelling.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e199/sharprm/sketch2.jpg

step 4. Draw the portrait with black and white only. Keep looking at the sketch because that is your 'map'. This character looks evil. I had to play around with it abit until it looked evil like the sketch.



step 5. color. This is the part where posting on pixelation would be helpful. But until you can come up with competent line work, they can't help you.

If I didn't get a reference, didn't do some preliminary sketches, it would have looked similar to your latest sprite, which has a boring perspective and unrealistic hair. So I hope seeing the steps help you in future. Can I also suggest making a simple game like frogger. Aim for the skies and all that, but face it, you'll never finish a decent rpg. How can you produce something a team of experts worked on for several months (while getting paid)?