EDIT:



current WIP

Hello pixelmasters,

This is my first post here. I'm a hobby game programmer of 10 years, but not an artist (yet!).

Just for fun I think I'd like to get good (or at least better) at pixel art, so I've decided to throw myself into the deep end and do something fairly hard straight away. I've never done any sort of art since I was in high school a decade ago so I need to pretty much work on everything...



Here is the line art so far. I realise it might be a bit early for C+C (but any C+C is appreciated at any point) but I'll update as I progress.

My next step is to clean up the lines, but maybe before then I should get dimensions, etc. fixed? Feel free to be very critical of anything, esp. proportion and muscle/anatomy stuff.

Thanks!

P.S. I also but this together to test how well I could do different shapes/textures. I don't know what this is supposed to be (abstract art?) but if you guys could help me find any style errors or general crappyness it would be much appreciated.




Edited by gennoveus - 31 March 2010 at 12:09am

As you wish!

I can't comment much on anatomy, but the colors are a bit washed out. You should generally make skin tones about twice as saturated as you think you should (just be sure to stop after one iteration). Here's a quick edit:



Also note: be sure to shift hue in addition to brightness. It really makes colors pop and mimics real life. Which direction to shift hue in? Depends on what's around your subject. Most people say "yellow in lights, blue in shadow", but this is just because sunlight tends to be yellowish and shadows, for whatever reason, tend to look blue. But it really just depends on your scene.

Also also! avoid working on a solid white or solid black background. It really messes up your color perception.




Edited by Hatch - 30 March 2010 at 8:54pm

That's generally true in outdoor lighting, so that's when it works best. The blue comes from the diffuse light coming from the entire sky in every direction.

Thanks for the input!

I thought it might be better to do it later in the process?
Or is it better to get rid of lines at about this stage?

I was thinking of using selout (is that what it's called?) If you look at the other little picture I drew in the first post, I tried selout for the first time. (although i didnt use it for the outer outline

Also, just a question, do you guys have a pattern that you follow when drawing? e.g.
1 line art
2 colour
3 shade
4 remove lines
etc..

For now I suppose I'll get rid of the lines (and grafitti!). I also need do work on his face. I realised the side of his head is too dark compared to his torso so I'll try and fix that too.

I want to make this really detailed (slowly adding stuff) so any suggestions at all are very welcome.

Thanks again