I finished the pixel, you can find it here

After having done two other pixel portraits, and wanting to make another one, I asked someone if she would like to see her pixel self...  And so I started...



I have spent a couple of hours on it now, And I think things are going well so far (Better and faster than my first portrait ).

I started by putting lines in the photo, so I could see the proportions more clearly. Then I tried to rougly replicate these lines from scratch. After that, I detailed the face, and it started looking more like the photo.

After that, I checked with Photoshop if my proportions were right (Enlarging my canvas by 190% with free transform, and aligning the canvas to the photo). I was quite close, so I made only small edits in paint before I posted it (I kept the haircut a bit larger than on the photo, makes the canvas more filled up)...

So, what do you think of it so far?

Edit 1

Made the photo sharper in Photoshop, And I started filling in the face. It is far from perfect, it's undetailed, missing a few colour ramps at the moment (the darker ones) And It needs to be a bit lighter I think?

Edit 2

I've edited the lips, And I did some other detail work, added another darker colour, and added one darker colour ramp on the skin:


Edit 3


I made a second palette, for the hair. It needs to be tweaked a little though. And I know, it looks odd now... grey skin, coloured hair... The possibility is that I'll keep it in grayscale, but if I use different colours now, I can decide later if I fuse them together for one grayscale palette or that I give the skin colour.
And I hope the lips are a bit better now... (I didn't make them fuller in height, but in width (especially at what is the right side for us) to get a fuller look.

Edit 4

I did the first colouring of the hair. The whole image will probably become sepia or greyscale later on, but this works easier for now. I started doing the dithering on the skin. I hope it doesn't look too grainy on a TFT screen (I have got an old one), but if it is please inform me... And I hope the dithering techniques are ok? (I haven't pixeled for a at least a few weeks, and dithering is just not my strongest point)...

Edit 5

For your comfort I made the hair and skin on the sample on grayscale... I think I should do some small stuff to the eyes and mouth/lips, but it's looking ok I think... The hair is up next...

Edit 6

Started on the hair. As you see the darker parts are still a bit undetailed. I will add more detail to it later, first I am going to finish the part I am working on and I'll put highlight(-ish)s in it... The hair doesn't have any hard highlights, so I won't do that either, although I will accentuate the highlights a bit more than on the photo, not sure yet...

Edit 7

I added more detail this time. Some parts still need a bit of filling up, it somehow looks a bit empty and too clean... More small hairs with highlights will do the trick I think... I am quite pleased with the progress I made so far the last 2 days... If I keep on working with like this It will be finished within another few days...



Edited by Varock Shade - 23 March 2008 at 2:16pm

Thanks 

And yes, that will be a huge challenge But it will be easier than on my first portrait (At least, I hope so... )... I coloured hair and fur a couple of times now, and making a pallete has become easier for me too... In my last piece (for the challenge of Gas13) I used more complicated dithering for the first time... (I hope you know what I mean)? And I can always look at other portraits for inspiration/examples etc ^^


Edited by Varock Shade - 23 February 2008 at 6:04am

Boo P_O, you're making it too easy on him

Hehe, Well it does make it easier P_O  - And leel, If he wouldn't have made one, I would have probably did it myself... 

And I have a first edit here:

I made the photo sharper in Photoshop, And I started filling in the face. It is far from perfect, it's undetailed, missing a few colour ramps at the moment (the darker ones) And It needs to be a bit lighter I think? (And maybe less contrast, especially in the lighter colours)?


Edited by Varock Shade - 25 February 2008 at 8:20am

That bothered me too, so I've edited that first when I loaded the file again...  And I did some other detail work, added another darker colour, and added one darker colour ramp on the skin:

I'm not sure that the lips need to be fuller so much as brought forward a little more with extra highlighting on the skin below and above the lips.  As it stands, it looks like she's pulling her lips in toward her teeth. 

Nice work.  It's coming along well.

That looks pretty nice.

I would keep the hair greyscale. If you were to add a bright, colorful, unnatural twist to her hair, such a blue, green, or purple, you could pull it off. Since this is a portrait, though, it wouldn't look very good.

So yeah, greyscale.. Lineart is awesome, though, haha. Only thing I notice wrong with it is that her right shoulder seems abnormally large.

I think thee dithering makes it look more organic and less metallic. You should stick with it in my opinion.

Edit 6

Started on the hair. As you see the darker parts are still a bit undetailed. I will add more detail to it later, first I am going to finish the part I am working on and I'll put highlight(-ish)s in it... The hair doesn't have any hard highlights, so I won't do that either, although I will accentuate the highlights a bit more than on the photo, not sure yet...

Edit 7

I added more detail this time. Some parts still need a bit of filling up, it somehow looks a bit empty and too clean... More small hairs with highlights will do the trick I think... I am quite pleased with the progress I made so far the last 2 days... If I keep on working with like this It will be finished within another few days...


Edited by Varock Shade - 20 March 2008 at 12:36pm