nuts 22!

[erikklan]

oh my, well this is for some friend!

[skw]

wait. . . 235 colors?  what the heck is that?  and it's still .png?  what kind of image compression is THAT!?

I like it anyway, it's quite a stylish piece.  there are ways, though, to tweak the palette up a little, since the washed out colors.  and you should really rethink the concept of black outlines.  also, the lower part of her hmm, jumper? looks a bit confusing.  do you have any references for the girl's face?

[wah_wah_69]

wait. . . 235 colors?  what the heck is that?  and it's still .png?  what kind of image compression is THAT!?

I case you didn't mean it as sarcasm, the png standard defines indexed modes with a palette of 256 colours or less,yes, it doesn't make much sense to not use a palette with the size of a power of two, but it's still a png compliant image.

4.3.3 Indexing

If the number of distinct pixel values is 256 or less, and the RGB sample depths are not greater than 8, and the alpha channel is absent or exactly 8 bits deep or every pixel is either fully transparent or fully opaque, then an alternative representation called indexed-colour may be more efficient for encoding. Each pixel is replaced by an index into a palette. The palette is a list of entries each containing three 8-bit samples (red, green, blue). If an alpha channel is present, there is also a parallel table of 8-bit alpha samples.

http://www.w3.org/TR/PNG/#4Concepts.Indexing

[Helm]

The flat colors are subtle gradients, hence the color count. I'm very interested in your process for making this, could you go in some detal? I love the finished piece, ambitious pose that's carried through, some emotion, wonderful. The pixel art technique, besides the odd gradients, is ok. Once we've hopefully helped you remove the gradients and seen that the piece doesn't suffer much for it, we can then see about nitpicks and minor alterations.

[skw]

no, that wasn't sarcasm, man!  I was only shocked that instead of seeing some 16 colors after applying color count (since I wanted to show you how would I optimize the palette), I had them 235!  I know what the .png standard is.

what software you were doing it in?  have you done all those subtle gradients by hand?  I mean, without using any gradient fill tool?  in case you have not, this is considered a dirty method by the pixel art purists.

please, tell us more about the piece itself!

[ptoing]

2603 unique colours actually. So I would say the gradients are indeed done with some gradient fill tool.
While it does work from a graphical point of view, it is not entirely pixelart. I agree that it does look quite nice, tho I think the hair looks a bit noodley and I would like to see the reference used.

[erikklan]

well i didnt expected so many comments 
first, yes I use a picture for reference, I just had to complete her head because it was cut.
I did all the lines, "surfaces" and shadows by hand with Pixen, but then I took the picture to photoshop and applied the gradients just for fun!
I noticed that the colors seems a little weird when I see the picture on a browser, I wonder why is this.

[erikklan]

and here's the reference 

[Peach]

I agree with johnnyspade: you can lower down the palette to 16 colors if you want.
The problem with gradients has already been pointed out, that's what I will remove first to lower down the palette.

[erikklan]

hey, thanks! but actually I dont need the picture with a smaller palette, this was more an experiment than a real pixel art, but your comments are more than welcome!