Make sure you have a stable lightsource before you start the shading. At he moment it doesn't seem like it. You skills are pretty good however. Is the head's size deliberately this small? Like a mech drivers?

You can grow the face elements to make it look like shadowed. Still it's the same lightsource problem you're having there. The face is being shadowed from all directions. It should be shadowed from 1 direction.

PS: If you put a link to the reference we can make better comments.

I enchanced the face some and tried to make the light more defined (in the area above/behind head so far).

I'm wondering if the face didn't get a bit too round and flat in the process...



EDIT:

Worked some more on the face to make it less flat and moved on to upper body armour shading:


Edited by Ixolite - 27 January 2011 at 7:22am

Maybe chill a bit on the dithering? Metal should be smooth with high contrast.

Yeah, you're right. Dithering was a bit of an experiment - I kind of like the effect but I do think it doesn't work quite as well as I hoped.

Another update - removed most of the dithering in favor of smooth shading, not too happy about it again :( I think I'll re-work it while adding the details later. I also think I found a way for the dark areas, and tweaked and expanded the pallete in the process.



Arghh... I see something that needs fixing every time I look at it in different size :(

Yeah, no problem. Thats because I use 1920x1200 screen and 1:1 scale is a bit small at times.

Anyways, update:


3x zoom in here

Mostly done with the basic shading, adding the details to the armour will be my next step. I think I'll make a lot of adjustments to the shading then, unless I stop thinking that it sucks after taking a break from looking at it ;)

Ahh, forgot about the zoom feature - I don't use it since opera blurs zoomed images...

I was actually thinking about adding some colour to the armour. Can I use your re-color palette?

Can I hug you?

/me hugs Photocopier

Why didn't I know you can switch that feature? Life is so much better now :D Thanks!

Edited by Ixolite - 01 February 2011 at 11:45am

Moar contrast.

His face needs eyes, unless you ment for him to be looking downward.

The face just isn't doing it for me, I believe it's in the colours themselves and the shading.

Thanks for the additional feedback!

As for the face - yeah, I am still not happy with it at 1:1 scale, though my intention was for this piece to be seen at 2x or 3x scale and I think it does look better (the face) on that larger scale. I did struggle with the palette, having spots too bright or too dark on the face and ended up with not enough contrast I guess. One lesson learned.
I find it really hard to even see banding, apart from obvious cases, I'd appreciate if you could show me couple spots that need attention in this regard?

AA issue is probably a result of inadequate palette again? I tried to soften the lines here and there but I was missing proper colours to do the AA in most places I think. Another lesson learned.


Elk: I'm not sure I understand what your are trying to say - what does lineart have to do with other elements of the image? If I drew the lineart from scratch, how would that improve the shading/lightning?

EDIT: formatting

Edited by Ixolite - 09 February 2011 at 2:59pm

too late for an edit? naw, never.

edit:
>>

fixed a lot of banding. played with the lighting a bit (shadows appear on planes, but nothing seems to be casting shadows onto other planes).

Edited by cure - 09 February 2011 at 4:33pm

Yeah sure here's an edit to show the problems here:

Red borders show some of the banding.

Notice how people call the armor is soft and fluffy?
Now observe the 2 breastplate pieces on the right. Upper one is yours. It has banding on the edges which renders those places like a soft outline rather than the edges of the pieces. Notice how I broke the banding here and there. Examine the difference in feeling it gives.

But the main reason the armor is soft is using all the colors in a ramp in almost equal shares. It destroys the metallic sharpness that should be in an armor. Actually it makes it look as soft as wool. In my edit I took out some of those colors out and used those colors as AA. Now it looks more sharper, and the single color shapes are smoother thanks to the AA. Note that your palette is more than adequete.

Also my edit is far from perfect, I'm sure you can do even better.