Pixel Joint Forum: (4th) Pixel Portrait

Message

   It's done!  I'd happily refer to This Link to view it 

So uh... yeah. The title in short does say what I'm working on right now. My fourth Pixel Portrait:

Reference:

It's a picture of a few years ago of a close friend of mine. She talked me into making another pixel, and you might have seen it between the new pixel art lately (animated avatar for 'Sweet Fox). At the same time I decided to make a portrait of her  Since the picture is a few years old, I also used other references to look at differences in her face (although her face didn't change
much in these few years time).

Anyhow, she gave me this picture, which is very nice in my opinion, but also a challenge to make with the hair blowing in the wind. I decided to at least try it out and set myself a goal to make it look better than my previous pixel portrait:

The piece is far from finished, I know... But at this stage, do you have comments on what I'm doing? 

Edit 1:

Here's some progress I made. I knew there was something wrong with the haircut, and I decided to move parts of the hair around a bit. I still need to improve some things on the overall shape of the haircut, but I think it's better now:

New                                                              Old

Edit 2:
The past few weeks I haven't had time to work on the portrait. The progress over the time is visible though; I finished making the haircut 'fuller,' edited a few of the hair locks (including one of them I already coloured - I found it too straight and it didn't fit the rest). Here is the result of all these seemingly small yet (imo) important edits:

New                                                             Old

Edit 3:

Time for another update:

New                                                              Old

I pretty much finished on filling up the hair I think 
The biggest change to that would be the lock at the cheekline. Other
changes have also been made to accent the curly hair style. I also
edited the colours at the eye and eyebrow. It turned out that I
overlooked one colour in the palette and hadn't used it to make things
look smoothly. Now it does though, right? 

Bump and update (#4):

New                                                            Old

Obvious change of course is the skin tone 
I tried many, many colour combinations, and this worked best so far
(although I don't know if I'm satisfied with it just yet). I also redid
the colouring of pretty much the whole face, making the contrast higher
by using the colours I already had in the palette but hadn't used yet
for bigger surfaces. This results in higher contrast without seeing the
dithering (even more) clearly.

Now I've redone the skin, I'm
going to revise the way I filled up the hair. It looks differently
styled from the skin. It also needs a change in palette, slightly more
red maybe, less saturation for sure... 

Update 5:

New                                                                    Old

The changes I've made are pretty diverse. A little dithering at the
chin, changing the colour of the lips from the skin (still not
completely satisfied with the colours yet, somehow), added more depth
to the hair, made the hair slightly more red and the colours have less
saturation. I also cleaned the palette and piece of unused colours, the
total with background according to Irfanview is currently 32 colours. I
could have done with one or two colours less in the hair, but I'm
pretty satisfied with that colour count at the moment 

Anyway, here's update #6:

New                                                                  Old

Minor changes at the shadow at her mouth. Changed the shadow at the
throat a bit, too, because of the bigger edit I made; The jacket. It's
based on a leather jacket she wears nowadays - I really like it, and it
looks good with her hair, so I thought it would be nice to use it for
the pixel. I still need to change it somewhat, and I will adress the
colours themselves again (not only the skin, but also the hair). I also
have to start thinking about a background. Any thoughts?

Update #7:

New                                                                  Old

I tried out what Artisan mentioned, and made the skin tones a little
purple-like in the shadow colours. While I had my doubts on how it
would turn out regarding keeping the skin pale, it turned out way
better than my expectations! Thanks Artisan! 

I also started work on the Anti-Aliasing of the piece, currently only
the lines inside the portrait are AA'd. I will have to pick a
background and background colour(s) first before I continue with the
AA-process.

Update 8:

I looked at many background colours. Soft Purple, which looked pretty
good, but only with darker colours, which became too dark to be
realistic with the light source. I then tried soft and warm orange and
red colours, but this just didn't seem right with the high amount of
colours that already have this hue. After that I went for the option in
between; Soft pink/red and purple-like red. I think it compliments the
piece the best of the options I've tried

The background consists of a tree line below and a lighter sky which
turns brighter and brighter the more you go to the left upper corner of
the piece. It's not done yet, I just wanted to show you this and ask
for opinions 

Update 9:

New                                                                  Old

As you see I finished off the background. After that I AA'd all
outlines (I did this before starting the edits on the points that
Snader mentioned), and I quite like the result that I got from doing
that 

After this I changed the teeth, made the eye bigger and started on
recolouring the hair. Especially on the top I have some more things to
change, and I will add some more locks to fill it in a bit more.

Edited by Varock Shade - 24 December 2009 at 1:37pm

Author	Message
Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Topic: (4th) Pixel Portrait - Finished! Posted: 15 October 2009 at 11:58am
	It's done! I'd happily refer to This Link to view it So uh... yeah. The title in short does say what I'm working on right now. My fourth Pixel Portrait: Reference: It's a picture of a few years ago of a close friend of mine. She talked me into making another pixel, and you might have seen it between the new pixel art lately (animated avatar for 'Sweet Fox). At the same time I decided to make a portrait of her Since the picture is a few years old, I also used other references to look at differences in her face (although her face didn't change much in these few years time). Anyhow, she gave me this picture, which is very nice in my opinion, but also a challenge to make with the hair blowing in the wind. I decided to at least try it out and set myself a goal to make it look better than my previous pixel portrait: The piece is far from finished, I know... But at this stage, do you have comments on what I'm doing? Edit 1: Here's some progress I made. I knew there was something wrong with the haircut, and I decided to move parts of the hair around a bit. I still need to improve some things on the overall shape of the haircut, but I think it's better now: New Old Edit 2: The past few weeks I haven't had time to work on the portrait. The progress over the time is visible though; I finished making the haircut 'fuller,' edited a few of the hair locks (including one of them I already coloured - I found it too straight and it didn't fit the rest). Here is the result of all these seemingly small yet (imo) important edits: New Old Edit 3: Time for another update: New Old I pretty much finished on filling up the hair I think The biggest change to that would be the lock at the cheekline. Other changes have also been made to accent the curly hair style. I also edited the colours at the eye and eyebrow. It turned out that I overlooked one colour in the palette and hadn't used it to make things look smoothly. Now it does though, right? Bump and update (#4): New Old Obvious change of course is the skin tone I tried many, many colour combinations, and this worked best so far (although I don't know if I'm satisfied with it just yet). I also redid the colouring of pretty much the whole face, making the contrast higher by using the colours I already had in the palette but hadn't used yet for bigger surfaces. This results in higher contrast without seeing the dithering (even more) clearly. Now I've redone the skin, I'm going to revise the way I filled up the hair. It looks differently styled from the skin. It also needs a change in palette, slightly more red maybe, less saturation for sure... Update 5: New Old The changes I've made are pretty diverse. A little dithering at the chin, changing the colour of the lips from the skin (still not completely satisfied with the colours yet, somehow), added more depth to the hair, made the hair slightly more red and the colours have less saturation. I also cleaned the palette and piece of unused colours, the total with background according to Irfanview is currently 32 colours. I could have done with one or two colours less in the hair, but I'm pretty satisfied with that colour count at the moment Anyway, here's update #6: New Old Minor changes at the shadow at her mouth. Changed the shadow at the throat a bit, too, because of the bigger edit I made; The jacket. It's based on a leather jacket she wears nowadays - I really like it, and it looks good with her hair, so I thought it would be nice to use it for the pixel. I still need to change it somewhat, and I will adress the colours themselves again (not only the skin, but also the hair). I also have to start thinking about a background. Any thoughts? Update #7: New Old I tried out what Artisan mentioned, and made the skin tones a little purple-like in the shadow colours. While I had my doubts on how it would turn out regarding keeping the skin pale, it turned out way better than my expectations! Thanks Artisan! I also started work on the Anti-Aliasing of the piece, currently only the lines inside the portrait are AA'd. I will have to pick a background and background colour(s) first before I continue with the AA-process. Update 8: I looked at many background colours. Soft Purple, which looked pretty good, but only with darker colours, which became too dark to be realistic with the light source. I then tried soft and warm orange and red colours, but this just didn't seem right with the high amount of colours that already have this hue. After that I went for the option in between; Soft pink/red and purple-like red. I think it compliments the piece the best of the options I've tried The background consists of a tree line below and a lighter sky which turns brighter and brighter the more you go to the left upper corner of the piece. It's not done yet, I just wanted to show you this and ask for opinions Update 9: New Old As you see I finished off the background. After that I AA'd all outlines (I did this before starting the edits on the points that Snader mentioned), and I quite like the result that I got from doing that After this I changed the teeth, made the eye bigger and started on recolouring the hair. Especially on the top I have some more things to change, and I will add some more locks to fill it in a bit more. Edited by Varock Shade - 24 December 2009 at 1:37pm
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Elk Commander Joined: 12 May 2024 Online Status: Offline Posts: 483	Posted: 15 October 2009 at 1:05pm
	Pretty neat but also many colors...
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 15 October 2009 at 1:22pm
	Yeah I know - 31 is a bit much at the moment, some colours will not be needed in the end, and though I will try to decrease the colour count, I think it may increase. Unlike the previous portrait I want this to be in full-colour, and the AA and clothes have yet to be added I hope to keep it under 32 colours
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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skamocore Admiral Joined: 07 April 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3866	Posted: 15 October 2009 at 1:27pm
	Already looking better. It was a good choice to use a more interesting reference photo; the previous portrait suffered a bit from its static pose. Your colours could really use some work, right now they are boring and there are quite a number of useless colours. Maybe some more contrast in the face and I think you could benefit from experimentation with hues; why not try a little bit of colour in the greys? Also, I think you could play around wih the face dithering a bit, perhaps something more interesting than generic ordered dither. In fact, you could try not dithering at all; it's not really that great for skin texture anyway. Look at the reference image - her skin is smooth but in your piece it's rough and gravely.
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 15 October 2009 at 2:29pm
	Thanks for the reply The colour count is ok at the moment, but the colours are just roughly how the contrast and brightness will be. The final work will not have a grey skin and blonde-like hair colour but will be all in colour; It's just to keep the hair and skin in a different palette while working in paint The contrast could indeed be improved on (especially at her cheek) and for the dithering I need to see it on a computer with a TFT screen; I work with a bulky old monitor which fades the dithering a bit It may well be a bit too grainy at the moment, though I will keep dithering in the piece. Edited by Varock Shade - 15 October 2009 at 2:30pm
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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KittenMaster Midshipman Joined: 23 November 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 83	Posted: 15 October 2009 at 7:26pm
	Her entire face is grey. When one gets around to making the skin tones, some of the shades can easily be replaced with hair color meshing with skin color to reduce the color count.
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Hapiel Rear Admiral Joined: 30 June 2023 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3266	Posted: 16 October 2009 at 7:06am
	Please: Go as realistic as you can with the shapes, as wild with the colors. Be proud of that you do it the pixel way, and proof that!
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 17 October 2009 at 5:13am
	Here's some progress I made. I knew there was something wrong with the haircut, and I decided to move parts of the hair around a bit. I still need to improve the overall shape of the haircut, but I think it's better now than it was before: New Old I will adress the issues with the colours after filling everything up, and before even continuing the colouring of the piece I want the shape of the hair exactly right. Edited by Varock Shade - 17 October 2009 at 5:17am
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 09 November 2009 at 1:58pm
	The past few weeks I haven't had time to work on the portrait. The progress over the time is visible though; I finished making the haircut 'fuller,' edited a few of the hair locks (including one of them I already coloured - I found it too straight and it didn't fit the rest). Here is the result of all these seemingly small yet (imo) important edits: New Old Edited by Varock Shade - 09 November 2009 at 1:58pm
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 10 November 2009 at 12:07pm
	Time for another update: New Old I pretty much finished on filling up the hair I think The biggest change to that would be the lock at the cheekline. Other changes have also been made to accent the curly hair style. I also edited the colours at the eye and eyebrow. It turned out that I overlooked one colour in the palette and hadn't used it to make things look smoothly. Now it does though, right? Edited by Varock Shade - 10 November 2009 at 1:26pm
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 02 December 2009 at 2:34pm
	Bump and update (#4): New Old Obvious change of course is the skin tone I tried many, many colour combinations, and this worked best so far (although I don't know if I'm satisfied with it just yet). I also redid the colouring of pretty much the whole face, making the contrast higher by using the colours I already had in the palette but hadn't used yet for bigger surfaces. This results in higher contrast without seeing the dithering (even more) clearly. Now I've redone the skin, I'm going to revise the way I filled up the hair. It looks differently styled from the skin. It also needs a change in palette, slightly more red maybe, less saturation for sure...
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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vampireslug Commander Joined: 16 February 2009 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 187	Posted: 03 December 2009 at 11:51am
	The only thing I can see that looks a bit "off" is the curvature of the bottom lip where it meets the teeth... in the reference pic it curves downward away from the mouth while in the pixel it appears more straight across. That being said, I'm amazed by (and a little jealous of) the job you've done on the hair. This piece is really coming along! Edited by vampireslug - 03 December 2009 at 11:51am
	"The Earth starts to rumble, world powers fall. A 'warring for the heavens, a peaceful man stands tall...." - Mustaine. ©1992 Screen Gems/EMI
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 03 December 2009 at 1:41pm
	*Originally posted by vampireslug* The only thing I can see that looks a bit "off" is the curvature of the bottom lip where it meets the teeth... in the reference pic it curves downward away from the mouth while in the pixel it appears more straight across. That being said, I'm amazed by (and a little jealous of) the job you've done on the hair. This piece is really coming along! Thanks! Funny you mention it about the lower lip. I tried making it like on the picture, but it turned out to look a little exagarated, this looked better probably because of the lower resolution and the slightly different 'camera point' in the pixel as compared to the photo. Meanwhile, I've been working on the pixel some more. Here's another update: New Old The changes I've made are pretty diverse. A little dithering at the chin, changing the colour of the lips from the skin (still not completely satisfied with the colours yet, somehow), added more depth to the hair, made the hair slightly more red and the colours have less saturation. I also cleaned the palette and piece of unused colours, the total with background according to Irfanview is currently 32 colours. I could have done with one or two colours less in the hair, but I'm pretty satisfied with that colour count at the moment
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Artisan Commander Joined: 29 August 2023 Online Status: Offline Posts: 219	Posted: 03 December 2009 at 11:06pm
	have you tried to change your colour ramp of the face and hair so that the dark shades go towards purple or red/blue?... some of your darker colours seem too grey i think purple or red would warm this up a treat. looking good regardless though.
	I like shiny things, i do indeed.
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 08 December 2009 at 3:39pm
	*Originally posted by Artisan* have you tried to change your colour ramp of the face and hair so that the dark shades go towards purple or red/blue?... some of your darker colours seem too grey i think purple or red would warm this up a treat. looking good regardless though. Sorry for the late reply. I haven't had a lot of time to work on the pixel - Anyway, although I think it needs to be a little grey to give it the pale look her skin has on both the picture and in real, I will have a thorough look at it The colours can be improved on some more. Anyway, here's update #6: New Old Minor changes at the shadow at her mouth. Changed the shadow at the throat a bit, too, because of the bigger edit I made; The jacket. It's based on a leather jacket she wears nowadays - I really like it, and it looks good with her hair, so I thought it would be nice to use it for the pixel. I still need to change it somewhat, and I will adress the colours themselves again (not only the skin, but also the hair). I also have to start thinking about a background. Any thoughts? Edited by Varock Shade - 08 December 2009 at 3:42pm
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 09 December 2009 at 9:29am
	Update #7: New Old I tried out what Artisan mentioned, and made the skin tones a little purple-like in the shadow colours. While I had my doubts on how it would turn out regarding keeping the skin pale, it turned out way better than my expectations! Thanks Artisan! I also started work on the Anti-Aliasing of the piece, currently only the lines inside the portrait are AA'd. I will have to pick a background and background colour(s) first before I continue with the AA-process.
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Zeratanus Commander Joined: 03 December 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 576	Posted: 09 December 2009 at 10:32am
	Her shoulders are very squished in :\ edit nevermind on that second part. was looking at the old one. but the shoulders are still the same* Still pretty awesome though :) Edited by Zeratanus - 09 December 2009 at 10:33am
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 17 December 2009 at 1:04am
	*Originally posted by Zeratanus* Her shoulders are very squished in :\ edit nevermind on that second part. was looking at the old one. but the shoulders are still the same* Still pretty awesome though :) Yes, it's quite a bit more narrow than the picture When I made the lines for the shoulders these narrow lines looked better... The shoulders maybe should be a tad wider, I'll look at that later. At the moment, my priority (when working on the pixel anyway) is the background, which brings me to my next update: Update 8 I looked at many background colours. Soft Purple, which looked pretty good, but only with darker colours, which became too dark to be realistic with the light source. I then tried soft and warm orange and red colours, but this just didn't seem right with the high amount of colours that already have this hue. After that I went for the option in between; Soft pink/red and purple-like red. I think it compliments the piece the best of the options I've tried The background consists of a tree line below and a lighter sky which turns brighter and brighter the more you go to the left upper corner of the piece. It's not done yet, I just wanted to show you this and ask for opinions
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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PixelSnader Commander Not a troll! Joined: 05 June 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3194	Posted: 23 December 2009 at 9:40am
	buh i had typed an entire essay here, but then stupid windows decided to open an image in opera (as opposed to the image viewer) so i'll keep it short: it looks good buy you'rre skipping a beat on the hair. there is very little overall volume, just clumps of hair, which look rather pillowshaded the lips should be viewed more sideways (it looks more like 3/4th now) the teeth look weird too currently like \|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__ should be more \|.\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__ you should see more of the underside of the chin, and the perspective on the eyebrows is a bit off as well. the shirt is rather shapeless too, get some forms in there. the likeness is pretty good so far, though if you want to improve here's a few pointers: - shadow from chin to cheekcrease should be sharper and straighter instead of curved -larger nostrils -lower lip/chin should be pulled back a bit in comparison to the upper lip -eye itsels can be a bit bigger -eyesocket has a sharper shadow and finally: personally i like the upright hair fluff in the photo, adds some dynamic, and the shadow over the face would tie the hair in better. edit: osnap, i forgot to add some ref for how you could handle the hair: detail is important, but volume is importander Edited by snader - 23 December 2009 at 9:41am
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 24 December 2009 at 2:09am
	Thanks for the advice! I already had my doubts on the eye, but forgot to adress it earlier. I just changed it and it looks way better! So do the teeth now! You are right about the underside of the chin and the lower lip. However, it seemed to me like the whole 'camera point' of my pixel was a little off from the photo (the person is viewed a little higher up on the photo than on my pixel). I think it wouldn't look right making the underside of the chin more visible and changing the lower lip like on the photo (the last of which I tried earlier and didn't look right). As for the hair, I will try to adress some parts which may have a pillow shading, and make some other edits hopefully complimenting depth in the piece
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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Elk Commander Joined: 12 May 2024 Online Status: Offline Posts: 483	Posted: 24 December 2009 at 2:59am
	Jump to the skin tones http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm#hues Edited by Elk - 24 December 2009 at 2:59am
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Varock Shade Commander Joined: 29 March 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 24 December 2009 at 4:09am
	Nice link Elk But one question though... What are you posting it for? Anyway, Here's what I am at now. Update 9: New Old As you see I finished off the background. After that I AA'd all outlines (I did this before starting the edits on the points that Snader mentioned), and I quite like the result that I got from doing that After this I changed the teeth, made the eye bigger and started on recolouring the hair. Especially on the top I have some more things to change, and I will add some more locks to fill it in a bit more. EDIT: It's done! I'd happily refer to This Link to view it I tried to remove as much pillow shading as possible and made many small changes. Thanks for all your advice, it has really improved this piece! Edited by Varock Shade - 24 December 2009 at 1:39pm
	http://www.mega.freeforums.org/ < PJ Member Dran's Multimedia and RP Forum
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WIP (Work In Progress)
Pixel Joint Forum : Pixel Art : WIP (Work In Progress)