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Making my puppy cuter

Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26185
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 3:41am


Topic: Making my puppy cuter
Posted By: tiffybits
Subject: Making my puppy cuter
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 10:15am
Im trying to make a 64x64 doberman puppy sprite for fun. I was wondering what I could do to get it to look more expressive, and just cuter in general?


My current puppy



Ideal Puppy faces






Replies:
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 10:44am
Hi tiffybits!

Nice start already :). Some suggestions of mine:

Make his skin a bit brighter, that might make him friendlier and allows more contrasts with the eyes.
Make those eyes huge!
The head is already out of proportions, but if you want it cuter you can shrink the body and stretch the head even more!

What do you mean by "more expressive"? What does this pupper need to express?


Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 10:45am
Your puppy currently has a very large muzzle relative to the size of the head, which isn't puppy-like. It's also very wide. Work on that. Looks like you've got some good ref already, and there's always more out there.
It also looks like you have a lot of space between the upper lip and the nose, which is odd for a puppy, and no chin, which just looks unintentional.


Posted By: tiffybits
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 10:55am
Thank you both for the advice! I agree with the brighter color , as well as getting the anatomy accurate (minus ofcourse the bigger head) :-) I will return with edits!


Posted By: tiffybits
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 10:57am
Originally posted by Hapiel

Hi tiffybits!

Nice start already :). Some suggestions of mine:

Make his skin a bit brighter, that might make him friendlier and allows more contrasts with the eyes.
Make those eyes huge!
The head is already out of proportions, but if you want it cuter you can shrink the body and stretch the head even more!

What do you mean by "more expressive"? What does this pupper need to express?


Resting kawaii face


Posted By: tiffybits
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 12:40pm
I dont think Im doing something right :-/ It looks better I think,
but not "cuter"
. Also, I think I need to work on my color selection all together, I cannot tell if this brighter color is right...

Newer

Older


Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 12:49pm
I think having the eyes further apart in the old one looked cuter.
Consider having the eyes smaller and lower on the head (=bigger forehead), so it's more of a chibi thing.

As an exercise, compare puppies to adults. What makes them look different, what makes the puppies look younger and cuter? Exaggerate those features.


Posted By: tiffybits
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 12:50pm
The space between the nose and upper lip did alot!!!!

Thank you for the puppy anatomy tips :-)


Posted By: tiffybits
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 12:58pm


Eyes spaced out more :-)


Smaller eyes spaced


Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 1:58pm
A few ideas, using your smaller-eyed version:

Made the snout narrower. Made the nose a little smaller, too.
Put some light on the lower jaw/lip so that the upper jaw looks smaller, and so that there isn't the appearance of an underbite. Defined the chin a little more, gave it a rounder/bubblier look.
Made the torso rounder and a little fatter. Baby fat :3
Defined the ear shape more. This doesn't help with cuteness, but it makes the ear look more like a Doberman ear. The too-smooth look from before looked more like hair to me.

I wanted to change the purple parts but ended up not touching them because I don't understans what the purpose of them is. The value is almost the same as that of the main grey coat colour, so the purple's barely visible.
You also seem to have two outline colours that are almost identical.


Posted By: JerryPie
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 1:58pm


I'm gonna agree with everyone else. The colors are very hard to read. I turned your purple light into a blue/grey which contrasts better since the general color of your pup is all shades of red/purple.

IMO a great way to depict a baby:

- Tiny body
- Tiny nose
- Tiny chin
- Tiny mouth

- Big sparkly eyes
- Big round head

Also maybe some small touches like scruffy hair on top of the head. or a collar with an over sized name tag.
I made your puppies paws rounder, and the tail stubbier as well. Less pointy angles and lots of round soft things everywhere.



Posted By: tiffybits
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 2:02pm
I love the edits :-) Thank you guys!! arigatou gozaimasu indeed :3 ! Im gonna work on it a little more, I love the help!!!


Posted By: tiffybits
Date Posted: 18 March 2018 at 2:10pm
Originally posted by eishiya

I wanted to change the purple parts but ended up not touching them because I don't understans what the purpose of them is. The value is almost the same as that of the main grey coat colour, so the purple's barely visible.You also seem to have two outline colours that are almost identical.



I made a palette but I wasnt sure if it worked. I was using the purple as a background leg color I suppose. Here is the palette I made




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