from the depths of my disturbed imagination, comes the Axopus. Originally a drawing I scanned, then turned to pixels, here is my lineart:
 
updated july 20th: got darker skin tone in on head, and i realize how wrong it is. so please, gimme some much needed cc!


CC please


and also, i'm going to keep the canvas the same size until the piece is done, so that i can make the WIP animation run smooth.


Edited by altagu - 20 July 2009 at 7:48pm

thanks, i've made the edit, check first post

from the beginning i was planning on making this my biggest pixel art challenge ever.

thanks for the suggestion, but i'm sticking with this.

update, first post!

update first post! i've found some of my base colours, im hating the skin colour and am trying to find a better one.

Well too bad it sucks and probably wont be allowed into the gallery.
Not unless you shrink it down.

Regardless what you want I can tell you, you are not going to learn by trying to go "biggest pixel art ever" you learn pixel art from the small stuff man.

SHRINK IT DOWN.
Or this piece will never be finished.

*sigh*

You don't realize that the reason it needs to be shrunk is not because of a lack of skill. A lot of newbies to any form of art seem to think "To make a big picture, I need to make this really big." That's not true. Such a large canvas needs lots and lots of detail. Putting a giant squid there to fill the canvas is not the thing to do.

Shrink the squid. Put it in a scene that fills the canvas. Don't fill the canvas with the oversized squid.

alright, well, you've all made your point. how much should i shrink this by to you suggest?

edit: and also, before you go off calling me a noob, i was already a regular here for about a few months over a year under the name of silent sniper (if anybody actually happen to remember, i'll admit, i was a stubborn jackass then) before taking about a 6 month hiatus from this place.


Edited by altagu - 10 July 2009 at 11:52am

Please do ban that old account, I created a new account as my forum membership was suspended on silent sniper

edit: well, here it is shrunk 50% (i started shading before i shrunk it), is it good size now or smaller/larger?



Edited by altagu - 10 July 2009 at 3:06pm

now use that highlight shade, clean up the lines, and shade the hatchets

umm, got the darkened shade in on the head area, and I know the shading is pretty wrong, and yes, lots of cc needed please!!

He means all that unused white space. Though I still think the piece itself is too large given the amount of detail, and shaping it up will be much more difficult the larger it is. you shrank it down, why's it larger with this newest update?



water/slobber/etc not effected by the shadows, eyes different sizes, lack of definition of form. though i didn't bother fixing it, the concentration of tentacles is way off, they should be evenly dispersed (and not on a single plane). you're not using your shadow enough throughout the piece (you have many shades, but in some areas use only a few, despite the need for darker shadows or brighter highlights). hue shifting would help the piece, and some colors are too saturated. black outlines (teeth) are used inconsistently. bottom teeth should be at least partially visible. some areas (right side of head) have thick lines (almost like outlining), not sure why these exist. nose shape is wonky, use references (in fact, google human faces and octopus/squid).
The general character design bothers me a bit, i feel as if the face is too prominent and large, and as a result it looks not like a strange creature but a head that has sprouted tentacles (themselves arranged in an unnatural fashion)




Edited by ThereIsNoCure - 21 July 2009 at 4:19pm

the tentacle that holds the axe is twists around it 5 times but it's way too thin where it's holding the axe, also, part of what makes octopi and cephalopods in general so disturbing, is thatthey seem like shapeless masses of tentacle to us, which make them hard for us to read (we like to be able to read animals intentions, thats why we generally dislike animals that have a very outlandish physique, like snakes and spiders) you made your axopus very readable by showing every tentacle seperatly.

did a quick edit:


and finally, from one guy who's been told he uses oo large canvasses to another: let's show them some serious pixeling! finish this! and when the time comes that we are called to the heavens we shall face our forefathers and tell tem: fcuk what you did in WWII, we had epic wins on the internet! we were pixelkings and our powerlevel was over 9000! and they shall stand proud because of our accomplishments.