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Yea I noticed you attempted the outline style, but there's a lot of jaggy outlines that could be smoothed out too, particularly around the tail and it's left leg.
I don't find anything wrong with occupying the whole space. I like to make full use of the canvas as well, it's nice to work out all them details. Well since the sprite fits in the size limits of the D/P/Pt/HG/SS sprite styles, I would just convert it over and see how it turns out.
I would just not worry about dithering for your initial shading and come back to it after you think you have the shades worked out. I look forward to seeing your future endeavors.
Thank you KoA, that's very helpful advice. I tried to purposefully not look at the sprites and instead use drawings of Pokemon as a reference (for fear of looking too similar) but I guess i went too far the other way.
And yes, I do agree I overdid it on the dithering. It was an experiment.
And ofcourse, in the diamond-era of sprites, most pokemon don't use the whole canvas unless they're very big like Gyarados. Lickitung occupied a smaller space, but I tried to use up the whole lot.
I guess I couldn't decide whether to make it a sprite or a stand-alone piece, and I don't think it succeeds as either.
I tried to emulate the whole thing with the outline being part black and part sel-out. I think it was a form of AA, but I'm not sure. I have to keep studying.
Anyways, thanks for taking the type to type out CnC :)
Well I don't oppose dithering to pokemon, as it is a bit of a staple to what's used in the games. However the dithering used on ingame sprites is strategically used, and often times not even noticeable. (This is referring to the current generation of the franchise's sprites anyway, the older games were obviously heavily noticeable) In this sprite here, you went overboard and it takes away from the piece alot. Only use it to emphasize a textured area or to smoothen out an awkward shading patch.
Seeing how this is 80x80, I'm assuming you were going for the aforementioned sprite style, so I'll share some advice I use, since that is the style I predominantly work in.
1) Use existing sprites for reference. Kinda self explanatory when working in an already established style, but laying down example sprites next to your piece and studying the methods used will tremendously help you out and improve your overall piece. This is also good as you can compare how your piece looks in the end with the existing sprites. If it looks like it might fit in, then you can consider it a success.
2) Watch them outlines! Pokemon sprites have an unusual outline style and this might be the toughest thing to learn. Typically the sprites will use solid black in conjunction with darker shades of the body color, they also use a bit of sel-out. It's hard to give advice on it specifically, but again, if you follow what existing sprites do, you will eventually pick up on it. Working on pokemon sprites for awhile will get you very good at AAing and sel-out.
3) Be mindful of body patterns. Pokemon are crazy creatures, and a bunch have some crazy patterns and decorative markings on them. Lickitung for example have those stripes on their tummy and spots on their knees. Outlining the patterns like did here makes them look like scales and unnecessarily emphasizes them. Generally patterns are drawn out with solid color and shaded only when there are shadows cast on them.
There's more I could give, but it's late and i'm a sleepy old man. If you adhere to those basic tips you should see your pokemon sprites increase significantly. If you need anymore help though I would be glad to offer any other tips and criticisms.
Good lineart. I think the tongue should be curved. Like sharprm said, don't dither pokemon.
good but not great. don't dither pokemon imo. also, he is not symmetrical. eg. head and body. also, the ref has a line of action which follows the tongue. this doesn't., the pose is stiff and lacks the tongue popping out emphasis. check out john k's blog: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/09/preston-blair-lessons.html
its advanced stuff but ultimately if u want to draw a good pokemon cartooning lessons are probably important.
Really nice : D