Edited to include a new WIP version after critique from DTE462 and Chonky Pixel at Pixelation:

Hair is very much WIP at the moment. Original post below:

Hello,

New pixeler here, looking to become part of the community and learn what I can! I've posted this on Pixelation as well to maximize the amount of critique I can get to refine this piece. After that, I'm planning to submit it to the gallery. The rest of this post is copied from my Pixelation one (although it's awaiting moderator approval so this might be the first place it appears).

I have always had an interest in art and it's something I did for school and for fun until I went to uni and stopped (some time ago, now). I've also had an interest in pixel art for a long time and have decided to use my lockdown time more productively by producing some art and learning how to improve.

Here's a portrait I did of Ripley from Alien. It's based on the source photo on the right. I'm not too worried about the fact I've stuck so closely to the reference as my main goals were learning how to work with a restricted palette and how to render and imply forms and details at the pixel level.

I will attempt to improve this based on any critique I receive. Here are a few notes regarding areas I struggled with and some (questionable?) decisions I made:

The palette has a big jump in it between the second darkest shade and the next one along. The 'elongated' dithering was intended to ease transitions between these colours while evoking scan lines for that retro sci-fi feel, but other areas feel slightly wrong where dithering wasn't possible. The lips seem a bit too full in my version, for example, but I feel I've removed as much of the darker shades as possible without the mouth not reading properly.

I feel like the watch is a complete mess, but I wasn't sure how to go about improving it after my third attempt. I can see that the section on the right doesn't match the angle from the photo, but what's more important to me is that it doesn't feel completely at home in my piece. It lacks harmony.

The wrist probably has too much dithering on it but the big jump in the palette left me feeling like there wasn't an alternative.

Thanks for looking at this. I look forward to any comments!

First off I'd like to say Welcome! I always enjoy Game Boy pieces, and am looking forward to seeing it in the gallery!

Here are my 2cents.

I'm thinking most of your concerns are due to light and shadow.

Try to generalize the light and shadow into distinct masses while ignoring the subtle light details. The way I do this is to squint my eyes at the source image using my eyelashes to blur the image. This will reveal the shapes of light and shadow. I've done a quick edit that I hope will explain.

Also I would reduce your colors to four by removing the current background color. I think you will find that dithering/scanlines will easily substitute for it.

The gallery also has a variety of Game Boy portraits that may be useful to study.

I hope this is helpful!

Thanks for the welcome! Hopefully it doesn't take too long before I can submit it, although I have a lot to learn.

Final version submitted to the gallery after further critique:

Here's my current version, following advice from yourself as well as more critique from Chonky Pixel and dpixel at Pixelation. I ran out of time to work more on this today so I have very much not finished blending the shading in, but I wanted to put a progress report online in case I've done something drastically wrong:

I really appreciate your suggestions about the shading and the removal of one of my mid tones. I think this has given it much more of a three-dimensional appearance and the likeness has also improved. I do doubt my dithering abilities at the moment but hopefully that improves with practice, which I shall continue tomorrow.