(wip) Standing character C+C

[Mike]

Can anyone offer me some C+C on this character?  I'm not too sure about a few things but I can't quite put my finger on them.

Also I was wondering what everyone uses to make a palette?  I just start up Graphics Gale and use the 24 bit color option.  Is there a better way of getting started on a sprite?  I have such a hard time matching colors.




(edited 10 minutes after the first(not sure which looks better)

[Shrike]

these are pretty good, but you have made a few common errors:
1 it really doesn't read well. i think the Christmas colors blend into each other, like the eyes and the hair, and it looks unintentionally busy.

2 why is the hat so saturated, but the rest is so dark? it's a little dark, maybe use more colors. not more contrast, more light shades.

3 the elbow looks like a noodle.  give it a little more form. at this size, you don't really need to know to much anatomy, so don't worry.


i always use 24 bit. are you changing the colors the GG palette comes with?

[Mike]

nope, but I honestly suck with choosing colors.  That is why it came out with red and green lol...those are in no way my final color choices.  As for the hat being a different saturation, I started drawing this on a laptop which has a super high backlight which changes how it displays colors.  And when I went to edit it on my computer I could only tell that the hat was too bright. (honestly I think I am becoming color ignorant)

I was working on that pose for a few hours, I just could not get it right and I still don't think it is right.

Oh and I made the helmet red because every other color looks freaking stupid.  I originally wanted this character to have an earth feel to him, but I suck and picking colors so much that I can't tell the difference between maroon and brown.  This is why I was wondering how all the pro's pick out their colors.

I want his pants to be khaki colored, and his jacket brown and his helmet a dusty kind of brown, and his hair...well I hadn't decided that yet, but anything that contrasted well with those other colors.  Can someone please help me and/or give me tips/hints on how I can achieve my goal?

Oh I should mention that the way I pick darker colors is by sliding down the color to the blacker side.  Is that the way to do it?  Cause honestly I don't know.

**Quick color edit**



I was having a bit of trouble shading the jacket.

[Helm]

Oh I should mention that the way I pick darker colors is by sliding down the color to the blacker side.  Is that the way to do it?  Cause honestly I don't know.

That's the way many a newcomer have done it but no, it's not a very good way if you want colors to look alive. Take a photograph of an object you'd consider pretty much single color, like a red beach ball. Under normal light, no flash. Scan it and put it in photoshop, and colorpick its various hues (posterize it at 6-7 levels if you want this to be easier). Check the exact locations of the HSL sliders. Make your empyrical observations and formulate the right questions according to those observations, and then the answers to those questions are a lifetime of battling with color theory. Just know why you're doing it and what it means.







Look at this ramp for example. It's pretty high contrast, because that's how shiny plastic responds to lighting, but check the subtle hue shift from deep blue to sea blue, and that muted one at the contour of the shape. This is a pretty tame example. Do this with a human face and be amazed at how many hues there are on one!

[Mike]

After taking a break trying to figure out colors I decided to give it another shot.  Here is what I came up with so far.  I have 2 version, one outlined, and one kinda sel-outed.  The little squares kinda represent the palette I used but the second ver. has more colors than that.