The only advice I can give you is hue-shifting. The colors get more blue as they get darker, and they get more red/yellow as it gets lighter. Why is the shadow on the scorpion brown?

i've been adjusting those hues like mad. before they got so much more yellow and limey as they got lighter, i can adjust a little further i geuss.
 
and often when i paint outside of the pixel world, i shade things in the opposite color. i was trying to play around and see if there was a way to mimic this with pixels. the scorpions are this blue-greenish hue, so i shaded him in this reddish-orange.



thanks! and once again, i want to make fake critters based on actual critters. none of my bugs look like their real bug, i wanted them to look a little weirder.

hopefully i'll have time to work on them further today! thanks for both of your comments :)

I suppose.

Listen to this guy! =D

Edit:



I see some issues somewhat similar to your previous bug, with lines, colors and light.

You can refine those lines better: I made a few changes to claws (small 'finger', right side of right claw) and upper part of tail; precision work on the curves can give a more 'nasty' feel (or whatever you want).

Highlights can move closer to the edges, and shadows accordingly take up a larger portion of the body (claws, a bit on the head). Think more of the actual volumes: the claws and head don't direct their 'bulges' the same way towards the viewer; head is rounder than claws.

I tweaked your palette, towards a single ramp joining green highlights to brown shades; removed the lightest brown from the claws and head (but not elsewhere): its value is way too close to the nearest green. Added a darker reddish brown.

The 'tusks' are not very readable, I used some reds from the eyes to make them more visible.

And, check for banding! (this can wait for the latest cleaning stages)

Editing these bugs is quite fun! ;)


@ Indigo:


Edited by Manupix - 29 November 2009 at 8:45am

so i've been practicing at spotting banding! like in this useful thread, i outlined what i think might be banding on my scorpions. i'll link them since i scaled them for the purposes of outlining - and they might be too big and obnoxious for forum view.

#1

#2

am i on the right track? i don't quite get 45 degree banding, but i have a feeling i'm very guilty of it! it seems i staircase all over the place! i also spot some 2x2 squares within bigger "clusters" and i'm not sure if they count as banding, but they seem to stick out so i outlined some of them.

is this a good start? any comments? i'll continue to work on #2's claws and fix some of what i think are banding issues in the meantime! :)

oh my goodness! banding abound! this may take some time, i hope i can figure it out.

if only i could pixel all day long....

thanks of course!

no i didn't forget! i did a tad more tweeking!

#1:


#2:



yes, i've been trying to learn the balance of fixing banding and leaving it alone. some of it looks too strange when i remove it so i left those. and a lot of my step and 45 degree banding seems necessary, though i could be very wrong. i don't want to look at these to death and over work them either so i'm stopping very soon! (then i can finally do #3)

i think i'm finally happy with #2's claw shapes though! so that's something. i think what i have left for him is the shading on his left arm (our right) and he has more shading issues at the bottom of his body towards the tail - but i feel much closer so that's something...

i was thinking about background issues too! that's just something i'll worry about much later, they may never make it to a BG, if they do they'll probably need more editing. :P

i think after this i'll take a bug break and do something a little more fluffy! :)