My first attempts at pixelling - Atari ST style!

[StickHead]

Hi folks! I'm a huge Atari ST fan and I've been working on some pixel art recently, and would appreciate some comments/criticisms, and suggestions for improvements if you can spare the time. I have been using an ST program called Degas Elite which is over 20 years old now! Bare in mind the STs limitations: 16 colours from a choice of 512.



This is based on a character drawn by Chris Bachalo and my first serious attempt at pixelling. Unfortunately I can't find the piccie I used as reference and have now lost all confidence in tackling the hair. So I moved on to this:



This one is based upon a black and white photo of a bald girl. I have elongated the features so it is less feminine and a little more alien! Not sure where to go with the background, but I am concentrating on the shading first. This one features my first grapple with 'ambient lighting'  and a dithering technique inspired by Exocet's pixel art (Atari ST artist).

Any comments on how to improve or further develop these pieces or stop me from making the same mistakes on future attempts will be gratefully recieved!
Thanks in advance,
StickHead

[turfsurfer]

I'm not familiar with the Atari ST so i cant comment as far as that goes, but i love the shading style in the second face, thats a really creative way of doing your dithering. Something about the angle of the nose and the comparative sizes of the eyes seems off, but other than that it looks good to my (admittedly inexperienced) eyes. Perhaps some funky dark bar scene in the background?

[Hugo]

first portrait : maybe you should add hightlights on the glass. and less light under the left cheek.
second portrait : more details on the right cheek and the lips, because it look like empty compared with areas fills with the "funky" dither. and the shading on the brow look like strange (zigzag)...
take a look here : "exo7-Profil.gif" http://membres.lycos.fr/abrobecker/STart/exo7/exo7.html

[StickHead]

Very small update: Zig-zag shadow gone, right cheek developed... better?



Thanks for the feedback guys!

[ptoing]

Hiya, nice to see someone make stuff for old computers. 9bit stuff can be quite challenging colourwise I find.
I think you have a nice start.

Made a small edit on some stuff.



As you can see i removed the outlines and added aa on the right side, including the eyebrow. I also added some black there. It does not hurt to use your colours to the fullest.
Plus a small edit on the nose to make to give it a bit more contrast. Also changed the colours a bit for more punch and it makes it look a bit more volumentric with a higher contrast range.

[StickHead]

Harsh outline removed, darker blue added around eye and nose for contrast, and some AA (not as smooth as ptoing's, but decent enough!). Love the new colours ptoing, thank you very much

[Hugo]

with so much yellow you lost the monochromatic style ST.
and it's look like if the figure is over-light, wich is opposed to the "funky dither-texture" ; this yellow make too much visible the "circle-patterns" in your dither. add more pattern to create less contrast.and now, the lips needs highlights.