Pixel Joint Forum: New to all of this!

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   Hi, I've just got into pixel art, literally this is my first piece that was meant to be pixel art and what i see from this is that it is lacking in areas.  Basically I'm here to get some helpful C & C.  Tips for shading etc.. I've read a lot of tutorials on this site as well as other sites, but I'm still looking for whatever help i can get!

I uploaded that on tinypic, not exactly sure if thats the smartest way to post on this site, let me know if im doing this wrong.

I've got a dual monitor setup, and for some reason, the one i was working on seems lighter than the other.  Is his face tan to you guys? or dark hazy, almost like he is outside at night (it didnt look like that when i was working on it lol)?  I'm not quite sure which monitor to trust.

Well, i downloaded this palette, not sure what the name was but i think it was on this site.

Anyways, any help would be great, the colours on his face seem flat to me, and in total the shading just seems off.  (i kinda got desperate in terms of shading towards the end, i think that's easily distinguishable from what you can see.

(its supposed to be a weird rendition of luigi)

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sparkmind Seaman Joined: 08 September 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2	Topic: New to all of this! Posted: 14 October 2012 at 11:30pm
	Hi, I've just got into pixel art, literally this is my first piece that was meant to be pixel art and what i see from this is that it is lacking in areas. Basically I'm here to get some helpful C & C. Tips for shading etc.. I've read a lot of tutorials on this site as well as other sites, but I'm still looking for whatever help i can get! I uploaded that on tinypic, not exactly sure if thats the smartest way to post on this site, let me know if im doing this wrong. I've got a dual monitor setup, and for some reason, the one i was working on seems lighter than the other. Is his face tan to you guys? or dark hazy, almost like he is outside at night (it didnt look like that when i was working on it lol)? I'm not quite sure which monitor to trust. Well, i downloaded this palette, not sure what the name was but i think it was on this site. Anyways, any help would be great, the colours on his face seem flat to me, and in total the shading just seems off. (i kinda got desperate in terms of shading towards the end, i think that's easily distinguishable from what you can see. (its supposed to be a weird rendition of luigi)
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McKn Seaman Joined: 15 October 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Posted: 15 October 2012 at 3:20am
	Hello sparkmind! I've done a quick paintover (pixelover?) of your piece. Now let me preface this saying that I just started with pixel art like you, so most of the changes were informed by my (also fairly limited) knowledge of digital painting, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Things I changed: 1. Hue variation in the shadow skin tone: The main reason why his face seems kinda flat and lifeless is because it has no hue variation from light to dark. Most people people tend to go more towards blue or purple for their shadows, which I also did here, but as ar as I know there's no hard rules abot this. The important thing is to have any variation in hue at all. 2. Lighting situation: The lighting situation in your piece is kind of all over the place (which you seem to be aware of). The light source seems to be mainly slightly to the left at eye level, but then his cap is shaded at the bottom even though it's slightly bent upward and his stache seems to be lit from our right. I changed the light to the upper left to make the lighting a little more interesting (and also to make it easier for me to figure out were to put shadows lol). Now, I didn't fix everything but that should give you a decent idea what to look for. 3. Highlight color: not much to explain here, just added a highlight color to widen the value range and have some more interest in the picture. You'll almost always want at least 3 values in your piece: dark, midtone and light. 4. Other minor things: -gave the face a little more structure, mainly around his mouth (keep in mind though that I'm not very familiar with the planes of the face) - gave him some stubble, just for funzies - added a highlight to his stache, according to the lightsource I really dig your design though, kind of reminds me of a mario I painted a while back :D (http://mckn2007.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=72#/d48n5ck hope you don't mind me sharing this) Edited by McKn - 15 October 2012 at 3:23am
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sparkmind Seaman Joined: 08 September 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2	Posted: 15 October 2012 at 7:32pm
	Wow awesome post! Thanks a lot man, great art btw +watch. I'll keep touching it up, maybe start adding a body and post back here.
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McKn Seaman Joined: 15 October 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Posted: 18 October 2012 at 8:09am
	You're welcome! Looking forward to were you'll be taking this! And thanks for the watch on dA :D
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