Prince of Bel-Air

[crisnmp]

I'm a beginner to pixel art and I spent the last hour working on this. I reached the point where the face is holding me back and I can't find the right way. So basically I need help making the face look right, any tips or examples will be appreciated

Also I'm looking forward to any C&C on the rest of the head except for the ears which look really bad.

Reference: http://i2.iofferphoto.com/img/item/803/905/26/hdZVuA8ZUljXls5.jpg

WIP:

[balls01]

hey,
well my thoughts on this are what ive been taught what to do very recently and i am for doing it with every piece, dont use lineart to start off, start with lower values and make your way up. i am for this because it does get the job done quicker.

i've also noticed that your colors are very close together (there isnt much contrast, i think its that one) using more contrast will make problems like clashing colors, so on so on. but, without the right contrast you will turn into a me and people dont like me's.

your dithering, your dithering style is very unorganised, yes it does make it smoother, but work on volumes now, and then work on dithering and smoothing, don't get carried away, set yourself a time frame, say like: in one hour im going to post my progress no matter what stage im at.

so summarising: remove lineart, get more contrast, remover dithering at this point.

[Shrike]

Not quite how I would say it/do it.

I would say draw the WHOLE THING, very roughly, without shading, just some colors, then clean it up, shade/highlight, dither etc. etc.,  or at least that's how I work.
And when you dither, use dithering sparingly.  It's not just a way to smooth it, but it makes things look rough.  Just be smart with shadows, and hard shading is fine, after all there's a lot of that in real life!

Toodles!
Shrike

[HughSpectrum]

Dithering is better as an after thought after all of the volumes and main details are in place, and tends to work much better with contrasting shades to create noticable in-between shades.

[crisnmp]

Thanks for the replies.

well my thoughts on this are what ive been taught what to do very recently and i am for doing it with every piece, dont use lineart to start off, start with lower values and make your way up. i am for this because it does get the job done quicker.

I'll try that next time to see how it works out.

i've also noticed that your colors are very close together (there isnt much contrast, i think its that one) using more contrast will make problems like clashing colors, so on so on. but, without the right contrast you will turn into a me and people dont like me's.

Yeah, I'm not good at picking colours but I'll play around and see.

Dithering is better as an after thought after all of the volumes and main details are in place, and tends to work much better with contrasting shades to create noticable in-between shades.

And when you dither, use dithering sparingly.  It's not just a way to smooth it, but it makes things look rough.  Just be smart with shadows, and hard shading is fine, after all there's a lot of that in real life!

Yeah, I still haven't gotten the hang of dithering. Can you post an example of how I should do it for this piece?