Monk!

[rafaelfe]

Hello people!

I decided to stop lurking around on this great forum and create a character for study and practice.



The head looks really boring to me and the painting in his face is a mess. I suck a lot in shadows and highlights.
It's a wip but I think it is in a good stage to post here. I'd appreciate your comments and critics, please.
Thanks! 

[JJ Naas]

Nice subject.. it's quite huge for a pixel art piece.

My crits: The skin tone looks a bit too yellowish. He seems like he's holding the walking stick rather than leaning on it or using it to balance/support himself.

[Quake]

Good point JJ Naas.

To fix the problem that he said, i think you should make the monks back more bent over and his arm less straight. I'd also make the staff (stick) shorter, so he's holding the head of it. Maybe, a bump on the end..

[Shrike]

the cane looks like a vaulting pole. I'd make it shorter and thicker. Make it look like a tree branch, knarly and dark brown and or grey. With leaves.
Nice work. Monk is sort of chunky. Which is fine, but i think he needs a long white beard.

[Rosse]

Guessing from the colors you use I think you're going for a tibetan monk. Currently it doesn't look enough like such a monk. The problem is primary his clothing. I think you should use references to create a more plausible character (important when you do studies like you mentioned). The colors are similar to a tibetan, but not close enough to be sure. Even when you abstract the reality (e.g. cartoony) you should use correct hues. Use references and try to be more accurate.
One other thing is the pose. It's too stiff. But that's not just a problem of the "line of action" and "gravity / mass", it's the too simplified body of the monk as well. Use a more dynamic pose, bend the monk's knees and back from his burden and daily workload. Use folds to indicate forms underneath the clothes. Use shading to sculpt forms.
The staff the uses shouldn't be bent that much. First, currently he has no weight on it and second it wouldn't make much sense to use such a bent staff. It can has knobs and stuff and small buckles, but the overall form should be straight.
Speaking from a tibetan monk, I don't think would wear a necklace. I'm not sure, but maybe it's this "chain" thing for praying. If I remember correctly, they just wear it on the wrist, but maybe I'm mistaken.

I tried to make a monk sprite. It's a hybrid between real and cartoon. I think you intended to be more cartoony, but most of the thing I mentioned is still correct in that case.(Pose, folds and shadow are nonsense, but I hope it's helpful anyway)


For pixel specific crit. You use way to much colors (I haven't counted yours, but mine use 8 (6 character+1bg+1shadow)). For the beginning use just 2 shades of a hue, a light and a shadow color and try to sculpt the form that way. Another thing is that your antialiasing is not very effective. Your buffer is not visible/dominant enough which makes the form more blury than AA. I can't easily explain how AA works, but just study at good pixelart (Monsoon2D and Panda from this forum have good AA (some say it's overdone, but however )) and try to learn from them.