AuthorTopic: Need help with portrait  (Read 2243 times)

Offline Zerath

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Need help with portrait

on: January 31, 2009, 01:04:12 am
Hiya! I'm new here and in pixel art. Or at least new to actually caring how it looks. I'm having huge problems with larger surfaces.
Here's my attempt on my own face. :'(

Don't mind the shirt, hair or EYES yet. I'd like to get that skin in order first.
And here is my sad, sad face.

As you might have noticed, I'm not going the exact realistic way. I'd like to cartoonize this a little.
Comments are welcome, but I'm really after the tips for making good skin and cartoonizing this a little more.
Cheers

Offline balls01

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Re: Need help with portrait

Reply #1 on: January 31, 2009, 02:26:53 am
hey sorry, i know you want the cartoon look, but i am a man/boy of realism, even though i fail at doing so, there are a couple of crits following realistic anatomy you may want to follow:

firstly, the nose looks painted on, i suggest remove those two lines to open up the 'bridge' of the nose more.
your chin doesnt have that much definition to it.

thats all i will crit on without going into the eyes

your choice of color, is your voice of color
BallsArt

Offline donom

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Re: Need help with portrait

Reply #2 on: January 31, 2009, 03:36:35 am
ey.

I think the essence of cartoony looking stuff is that everything is simplified. So IMO you shouldn't use too many colors — I think a lot of cartoons even only use one for skin most of the time. Also, from that, dithering should be avoided because besides creating a third color, it adds a detailed, textured feel to things.

Have you found out about Andrew Loomis's books yet? They help a lot with drawing figures and heads, and many people seem to leap very rapidly to awesome drawing skills from studying them. I haven't had that success and am still struggling with basics, but comparing my drawings from 2 years ago when I started with them and now there's still a lot of difference.

There's a note by ptoing on skin shading: http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=56.msg808#msg808

I did an edit where I tried applying those and balls01's to your picture and exaggerated the shading some:



and then that one edited for less warm and less contrasting colors:



also, it's recommended to present images as PNG or GIF around here I think..