	Witchsmeller @ 10/18/2007 08:11 commented on Base Camp yea, I agree its perfect icon for the scene :) You just have to click it. Like it's already said, perhaps some more details at a few places could add some more interest. Seems like all materials (metal, skin and wood) is treated in same manner. Overall composition is fine, though I'm not sure what the gestures are. From my own experience, you have to be much closer to the fire to be able to get some warmth :D Hues and contrast should also be improved, in my personal opinion like this: http://i24.tinypic.com/331n7m9.gif But to be fair enough, it should be said it's not easy to create a comp like this and get proper lighting, it takes much time. Great idea and solid composition, if you'd touch it a few times more I'm sure it would be awesome. This reminds me of Caravaggio, please check out his lighting in pieces like Incredulity of Saint Thomas and similar. Also, if you're interested in techniques of using high keys of lights and darks, you should check out chiaroscuro type of painting. Cheers!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/17/2007 10:29 commented on Fist study LOL thank you I guess the few glitches I left here and there actually find it's way proving it's not auto-whatever and possibly that the model was really "live".
	Witchsmeller @ 10/13/2007 13:36 commented on Fish driving a skate! Well, not sure about it looking as a penis, maybe a double-sided one? And yes, stomack is silly, ain't it? :D It looks much better in the game when it's actually moving around, but it's still an animation drawn in an hour or less. Not one of my golden pieces but I still love it.
	Witchsmeller @ 10/13/2007 13:32 commented on Fist study Frost: thanks for pointing out about wrist, I've re-checked and it seems to be a bit higher than it should be, though I'm sure it was like that while I was drawing. I guess those wrists move around each day :)
	Witchsmeller @ 10/12/2007 07:48 commented on Fist study Thanks!! Do you mean anatomy? Bones and muscle apperiance? Just by looking. Well, you do need some practise... being classically trained helps too ;) Though, better pixeling would further improve it.
	Witchsmeller @ 10/11/2007 16:43 commented on Fist study I used the bluish background to better separate it, but in case of drawing, brown of course :) And after all, I had to justify the blue light comming from the back (my monitor aint that bright btw! :) Larwick: naah, I will limit myself more rigidly next time. As a photographer, I even worked with 16-bit images for creating some ultra transitions for of up to 10,000 pixels, just in case you're wondering why I have the color number problem :D I'll notify you of my next pieces, though I'm quite busy these days... Cheers!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/11/2007 14:45 commented on Fist study Ok, folks, here is the work in progress. As you can see, it was not started as a classical pixelart by drawing outline, filling with solid, doing highlights and shadows etc. Instead I drew it as I would in real life, drawing with different opacities and stuff. In the meantime, I realised the most important good-pixelart piece factor is small number of colors (limits of ancient computers and color modes like CGA which turned into a rule of pixel art), so I'll be working with 5 colors max, next time. I promisse. Stick to the masses I say. As I said earlier (baah, who reads it anyway) all those comments will come into consideration when I re-work on this one (I thought I wouldn't do that but anyway). Thanks everyone!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/11/2007 11:10 commented on Fist study I'm sure you guys know that telling me I used / traced a photo is a compliment to me, right? Not believing me I didn't trace anything is an extra one! I hoped to get such comments in fact. But please read pixel art Details "It is not photo or drawing trace, no crap. Plain ol' study." "... makes the peice look unfinished not stylistic..." I understand what you're trying to tell me, I really do. The fact is that I'm not pixel-educated artist, but in fact classically-educated artist. And really, after my recent 19th century history of art exam, I've been brainwashed, in a way. To cut it down, "unfinished" is an often titled given to some artists which progressed from neoclassicism to impressionism and later to realism. I mean, just look at Edouard Manet's painting by which the whole movement got the name Impressionism. They had similar comments too. We can say that he also "made an unfinished painting" comparing to current tradition. I'm affraid we're actually arguing about style. And don't tell me this has nothing to do with pixelart which has its own rules. This kind of result is usually due to someone being too devoted to using their reference, and not spending time on their pixelling I guess this is true, I spent more time looking at my hand and looking silly at night than fixing some jagged pixels here and there. And yes, some transitions seem poor (at middle finger) but I was after the impression of a fist being held strongly, with apparent bone and muscle structure. And I'm sure I made it. Now, if someone sees some imperfections at 400% -- my hand's not perfect either. this is a photo trace or you used a photo reference. Thank you.
	Witchsmeller @ 10/11/2007 06:24 commented on Fireball Sorc Diablo 2 looks great, I like the movement, and the shadow is nice too. Perhaps I'd smooth-out edges around her body, to make it more female-like :) But looking at your palette, there doesn't seem to be any dark-brown which would fit... but the overal effect is very powerful!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/11/2007 06:18 commented on Fist study lol, that doesn't seem like a useful comment. Which pixels? It looks quite realistic to me, with few corrections here and there (I assume pixelart is to look at 100%). But thanks for lighting praise... it means a lot to a photographer :D
	Witchsmeller @ 10/11/2007 03:57 commented on Dragon lol, I like tail animation! very cute piece. I'd love to play a game controlling this little fellow.
	Witchsmeller @ 10/11/2007 03:30 commented on Fist study Of course, personal taste is always just like that-personal :) Now there may be some inconsistencies since I drew for three nights and the light position might have varied a bit. Now, after I check those index- and middle-finger dithers, I do agree there could have been some lighter shades -- will take that into count too. If I get some more time to work, I might make a softer version of this and perhaps do some background work too. Thanks everyone for some useful comments!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/10/2007 17:59 commented on Fist study lol, those wrinkles gave me some pain, though I figured them out, mostly. I really wanted to texture it heavily, I imagined this as a sort of an anatomy study, bones and muscles. Sure, it could've gone with less colours but anyway... I'll send you progress pictures in a day, I should really go to sleep now
	Witchsmeller @ 10/10/2007 15:52 commented on Fist study Yes, I was thinking of AAing the backside, I probably should. I guess at my large screen (1600x1200) it doesn't appear so obvious lol And I could cut on colors, but I was thinking the subtle color differences might improve skin and muscle apperiance. Will re-think again.
	Witchsmeller @ 10/9/2007 18:10 commented on Fist study thanks for positive comments, yes, there are some random pixels which need fixing, but I decided to leave it a bit "wild", hoping it might increase the liveness of the hand. I've stolen the idea from some artists like Rubens and Gericault :) I could spend a few hours more to fix / dither everything but I'm affraid it could make a cold sculpture out of it, I don't want a mathematically correct image, just sort of an impression. It's probably more a question of my own trips lol :) there are a lot of colours in, more than 100. Yeah, a wee bit much you'd say, but I started this as a small pixel painting, with lots of colours and opacities and later reduced it (by hand!). I wanted to try combining two very similar colors dithering next to each other (ie. dark maroon and dark brown) again, to try to get the effect of vibrating-pulsing, thus to increase liveness. Number of colors was not my concern. Fist isn't aimed at anyone in particular, but I started it as a gift to those who flamed me because of my messy piece called Portal, and as a further confussion material to those who said my style & skill is incosistent Love you all, cheers!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/9/2007 07:42 commented on Portal You seem to be such a great pixel artist that you totally cannot recognize jpeg artifacts! LOL, that is a compliment, actually. But lets see how clever you are: 1. Jpeg artifacts - none. Double-check before flaming someone. 2. Stray pixels - true. This is a "messy" piece. Do I have to obey your clean style? Maybe I want to make it messy and dirty, or clean. If you've read (which you haven't) some history of art, you'd know that each style has its effects. Forcing one or the other is stupid and completely unprogressive. 3. High colour count - bravo! You got me! Tell me, what is the upper limit for number of colours a "proper" pixel artist can use? Give me the link, I want to read the rules! This piece has 256 colours, it's a GIF. So?! Cm'on, tell me the exact upper limit, if you're so smart. If there are no strict rules, then keep it to yourself (aka stfu). 4. Skill incostistency - eh? I really don't get it. Skill incosistency inside this piece or all of my pieces? With a few years of pause in between, I'd like to see your skill too. If inside this particular pixelart, then you know so little. Your arguments are weak. If you want to tell me my pixelart is crap, you don't like the style, it's to blurry, not well defined or whatever -- than say it loud, it's your subjective opinion. If there are rules about number of colours, please give me the link, I want to obey the website's rules, I really do. But don't tell me there are too many colours as if there was some rule, while in fact you have some personal problem with more than 10 colours. All you think of art in pixels is number of colors and clean lines. Call it art, but in that case I can write the software in 10 min which would rate the quality of pixelart. And please stop flaming me because of my style and some invisible rules. I agree this is a messy piece and deserves a re-touch, but don't hang me for that. p.s. respect to the guy who added Portal to fav! thanks man!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/8/2007 14:48 commented on Portal filters? like, lens flare? color reduction, yes. Not that I meant it as cheating: contest had no rules about number of colors, so I wanted to create a high-res (smooth) art. Go and flame me for that, why not?! You know what, I'll make a black-and-white piece just for you ;) one-by-one pixel, of course. That should be art enough. Or even better, black and transparent, you can't be a better artist than that! Anyway, I did not start defending myself "before accusations were made" -- I edited image description after some comments, just to clarify things to newcommers like you. But if someone's gotta flame, someone's gotta flame
	Witchsmeller @ 10/8/2007 09:00 commented on Ogre warrior because he is a mutant (Orc)
	Witchsmeller @ 10/8/2007 06:08 commented on Pippi the Longstocking hah, well yes, you are right. As I've explained here, all of those pieces were created with at least a year-two or three of pause in between. This one is the latest. But anyway, I don't really fit into any style at all. It doesn't mean I have no personality or such, it's just what drives me at the moment. I'm not doing this for money or anything, and unfortunately, other things do occupy much time and it's the main reason why I haven't made it into any style. Lol, when I submit my next piece (still in progress), I guess you'll be even more confused. p.s. I did not say the pixeling other than in "portal" is silly, just that limiting to one-by-one is silly. It is limiting of personal style and techniques development. But not that all other styles are silly. I love pixeling one-by-one. And I love being silly, isn't it silly? Silly.... sounds like a... Sally. Cheers!
	Witchsmeller @ 10/8/2007 05:53 commented on Ogre warrior That's what I noticed about their pixels -- every shape is treated as it is oval, which if you think, it is. As you can see, every part of body / armour has a central light point and it fades to dark tones around it. Quite simple effect, but works on body parts :) and armour Also, as a side note, each of the team colors (blue, red etc.) had exactly 4 shades. In code they they swapped those 4 shades with the color which a player has chosen (when playing multiplayer mode). neat (but I used more than 4 here)
	Witchsmeller @ 10/8/2007 05:47 commented on Well lol, supposed to be. Now that I examine it, it has rather unusual shape. I guess it's broken
	Witchsmeller @ 10/8/2007 05:44 commented on Portal Yea, I know it's the only way of having some order inside of pixelart community, to treat 'real' pixelart where you place pixel-by-pixel. And it's really where 'real' pixelartists differentiate from other reduce-high-res-and-compress artists. The piece of mine unfortunately got unfinished-it's smooth and stray pixels should've been cleaned-up but basically, it was made for 320x200px, so there's no talk about me cheating lol :) Anyway, I promise I will fix this one and upload as new. Also expect some new stuff. No hard feelings :) Cya on pixelween, right?
	Witchsmeller @ 10/7/2007 17:52 commented on Crazy green fish lol yes, mainly because all of these were drawn with time difference of a couple of years. The earliest one is orge warrior and the 'well'. Then the portal shame-on-me piece, then the fishes and finally, a few months ago the pippi :) At some point I stopped doing pixelart (yea, kill me) due to my faculty commitment (photography and stuff)... so.... I hope to catch some extra time to make some new stuff. This year's pixelween seems like the place ;)
	Witchsmeller @ 10/7/2007 15:58 commented on Ogre warrior I've just noticed! there's an alien pixel on his hemlet! DOH :)
	Witchsmeller @ 10/7/2007 15:50 commented on Portal I don't really think there is pixel-art way of shading. Except if you think of pixelart as placing every pixel with one-pixel brush. Could be. I also like pixeling like that. Though, limiting pixelart only to one-by-one pixel drawing would be silly. Anyway, I've seen some other pieces around here (better than mine) which also shade soft and compress to get smooth dithering effect. I'd rather say it's messy pixelart, which it is. There are no clean pixels/shape. Shame on me, I admit. Take a look at some other, cleaner pieces. p.s. jalonso: I think it was Pixelation! back then they didn't have zoom option. And noone complained about stray pixels, everyone was positive! :) lol Thanks for commenting! :)