Try to be clean and precise with the pixels. The less colors the cleaner you should be. Resist the urge to over dither/pattern because you think you need it. Cell-shading in pixelart can be quite effective.

For this theme I suggest high-contrast/dramatic lighting. Turn of the light and take a picture of yourself lit as you'd like to see in your entry* with a candle/lighter for ref.

*This is nitpicking and semantics but erase 'contest' from your mind. These are entries. Entries, designed to challenge everyone to improve and try new things and work with parameters you may not set for yourself. These should be an effort to improve your own habits and pixels.
Also, good when creative juices stop flowing or one is giving their brain a break ;)

Pixeljoint is not meant to be competitive. The competitive aspect that does exist is just a human condition beyond our control. We much prefer a community driven support/instructional haven.

Changed the title to "Challenge" as I realized that's what it's officially called. xD *fails*

Anywho, I redid the shading using the same colors. While not entirely accurate to where light falls, it looks better than being accurate (For instance: in reality, the space between the upper lip and the nose is shaded. In an image (even the reference pictures) that looks stupid (almost like a mustache xP).

I kept the same color pallete in an attempt to keep from too ominous a feel (which adding another, darker shade gives). However, I did remove the lightest highlight color I had: it was unnecessary at that point, though I may bring it back as a color in the flame. I tried to get rid of the "sketchy" feel and dithering, while still keeping the inconsistent outlines to the shadows.



The hands are obviously not REALLY going to be that color, but I was blocking in where light and shadows go based on the hands and the placeholder flame. Just a little bit more work on the skin (including the shadows the arms cast, though surprisingly no shadows were cast on my face when I held a light in a similar fashion) and, unless anyone points out anything I need to fix, I'll move on to the hands.


Edited by GreyScale - 06 September 2011 at 9:52pm

Thanks for the critique. The hands were originally intended to be in front of the face? I'm going to move the flame up slightly. Here's my current WIP:



Does the shading help at all? And keeping the hands differentiated from the background face is an...interesting challenge. @_@ (I know I need to fix the knuckles, I was just roughing it out to see how something like that would look).

I just don't have the patience for pixel art, though. I keep getting distracted and doing a ton of different Oekaki for anther thing, but I lack the patience to refine any of it. xD I WILL finish this thing, though. *will try to force herself*

Well, I think you did a great job with the hands. It's not as busy as I thought it would be. However, the flame isn't that bright, so it's hard to say where the flame ends and the glowing skin begins. As the scene is very dark, you'd think the flame would look much brighter.

I'm also curious about the way you've highlighted the cheeks and the nose. As far as I can tell, the tip of the nose is brighter on top than underneath, and the orange spots on the cheek don't really make sense to me.

Likewise! :)

Looking at the sketch you posted earlier, I think the hair will turn out great. Might take time to pixel it, but you've got the weekend. What are weekends for, if not pixel art?

The highlights in the face look much better. Now, you have a bit of noise inside the palms, which I suppose was meant to simulate the flickering candle light. But really, it just gives unwanted texture to the hands, like he's smeared his hands with peanut butter and is now roasting it with magic fire. I think a smoother light would do wonders, since it's such a busy area. I'll see if I can do an edit to test it.

You're doing really well.
It may not be possible at this time, for this challenge and for this piece but in the future I'd like to see more clean and precise pixel work from you.

Here's my edit. I did this before I saw your latest reply. You'll notice the orange question mark. I'm a beginner when it comes to using colors, so I'm wondering how you're using this color. Do you use a color ramp? I mean, it's sort of a middle brightness, with very high saturation. I'm just not sure what purpose it serves, though I'm sure it does serve a purpose.

I noticed the trail of smoke as well, though I didn't see it before I started working on the edit :)

I think your latest version is a big improvement, and now it just needs some crip highlights. Not sure if my edit helps, but it's just an alternative.

Hair is meh. :\ I tried applying some dithering in order to have it fade into the darkness more.

I was planning on not doing so, but instead working on the edges a bit (at the moment, it's only roughly blocked).

@_@ That's good. Advice on what to do to make it look better?

Hmm...I was planning on using as few colors as I was able to get away with. I definitely need to add some of the darker color into the face, but anti-aliasing would be a never-ending thing for me because it would never be smooth enough. ;n;

Hmm. I haven't actually looked at references and stuff, so I'll fix that. 's an easy fix, though. ^ ^

On another note, because I'm so bad at staying on track and concentrating on one thing, I decided to practice bubble-y dithering (my first time attempting it) on what'll probably be the preview.




Edited by GreyScale - 10 September 2011 at 6:31pm

xD Really? I mean...I know I use them quite a bit (and generally attempt to avoid ACTUAL smileys, but...It's sorta a subconscious thing. xP

By "dark brown" which do you mean? Therein lies the problem of a piece based primarily on variants of a single ramp

That's a very pretty example. *u* I've always been astounded at what pixel artists can do.


Edited by GreyScale - 10 September 2011 at 6:45pm

Mmkay. With all the thing you've mentioned that I totally should have realized and could have found in a reference (aka the ears and hairline especially, though I'll probably do some work on the cheek shape too) I'm going to actually pull up some references, and may redo the hair entirely. ^ ^;;

I hope I have enough time.

Developed the hair a bit more. @__@ So short on time now. :<

Better?

@_@ I'll look into the eyes.

Coffee sounds good. I'll probably go do that.

It looks still pretty rough, you should consider smoothing out the jagged lines and make the pixel clusters more attractive. Regardless, this is really well done. Keep it up!