So I decided I wanted to do a real pixel art project for the first time and thought Lucille Ball would be a fun subject. I wanted to do an expression like this because I considered that goofy look to be the most iconic of her, but that was actually the only reference of it I could find. Most of her pictures are more glamorous, like this.

Anyways, I wanted to do a straight-on perspective to keep it simple and I wanted to do that goofy expression, so I made a rough sketch on paper, scanned it, and outlined it.

The outline kind of lost the expression and looks a little weird, but I figure the details and shading should account for that later. This is the outline before I scaled it all the way down:



And this is scaled down further:



I just wanted some consultation/suggestions/help on the outline before I tried proceeding any further.

Thanks in advance!

^^Hey, thanks!

I went ahead and made a rough color draft:



I don't like her hair right now and the shading and expression are going to need some adjustments. She's looking too serious for what I wanted.

And I dunno... Maybe her eyes are too high or something? Something looks funky with her proportions now that it's in color.

EDIT: Tweaked it a little


Edited by Berserk - 21 August 2010 at 11:08pm

Thanks for the pointers! I started fixing the hair... My shading abilities aren't really impressive, but I think it looks bushier and curlier like its supposed to.


I'll be fixing the other things bit by bit.

EDIT: I tweaked it a bit more



Edited by Berserk - 22 August 2010 at 11:09am

^^Holy COW that looks good. I'll have to study that. My only criticism (if I dare criticize it) is that it's not quite her hair color anymore which I think is important to make her recognizable.

I think I do want a more realistic style like that, but I have to develop my abilities more to achieve it. I think I had the basic concept of the hair texture down, but I definitely didn't go the full mile with it like you did and I think I do need more contrast. So thanks a lot for showing me how it can be done.

I'm still struggling with the shading in her face, but I've made some minuscule improvements. I did put some shading around her eyes, and it looks better, but I'm not sure if it's what you guys mean.

Here's my latest edit:


I think the highlights in the eyes help bring them to life. I also tweaked her eyebrows and lips because I'm still struggling to convey her expression.

I just reworked the hair today after studying what you did with it. I didn't realize you used only the colors that were already in the picture--not only does that explain why the hair color became more of a sandy blonde (all the skin tones and stuff that were in there), but that's some real skill right there to be able to take an arbitrary palette and make it work like that. My hat is off to you.

My shading and texture still isn't quite as good as yours, but I'm pretty satisfied with how it looks still:



Next I'll move on to the face.

EDIT: Meh, I'm starting to have misgivings about the hair now. It's not as orange as it used to be and I like how the orange looks against the teal/blue.

Edited by Berserk - 23 August 2010 at 1:39pm

You've done such a good job that I think its worth prefecting the jawline/chin first.