You are welcome. Its what we're all here for :)
You lines are much cleaner now and I hope you noticed how 'stepping' lines always help thing flow.
You have some coloring issues as it pertains to coloring shadows and some AA inconsistencies but as this was a line exercise I won't bother you...this time :p

Will your final pixel retain the blue BG?

I was going to make an edit and just wanted to know if the BG was going to be in the final or if it would be trans.
Because you are using a blue BG then colors are affected.
Many like a plain grey (on the darker side) BG to work their colors out so as to have as little effect as possible.

I meant having a plain grey BG as you work to keep a cleaner eye on color as oppsoed to any shade with a color. You can remove BG when done.

The grey is a personal thing.
What you have there is very close to what I use.
Notice how your greys in the shirt and socks now look bluer than they did before.

I reviewed and went thru your colors and they are just fine and I find nothing wrong at all (not a color expert).
I did tweak them for levels and balance and my palette is on the right side.
You mention that you see something not quite working right and I was going to attempt to illustrate that sometimes its not just the colors but the lightsource and was going to show you how different lighting using the same colors can make the colors look different. I decided not to do this however because I felt it would both sway you from your artistic direction and possibly send you back to the start and since nothing is really wrong with what you have. I decided to go ahead and show you what little I did start on.
For future pixels just remember that the lightsource direction and angle is part of the palette and overall color.

it bands a little, as does some of your areas that have too much AA (AA at 45 degree lines arent often needed), but you arent really getting any of the negative aspects of banding anywhere, mainly due to how big the image is. 

I think the black is working, since you reserve it mainly for outlines and very minimally for shadows.  You really want to avoid too much black for shading, as shadows aren't really black and it can hurt depth. but you've used it well.  :)  I'd call this finished. 

yes your perception was right.  You dont have to remove the AA, since it is not effecting the image unless you zoom in.  even still, it doesnt really change the artistic merit of the piece.  You have to make the call.  As a pixel artist, it isn't necessary to be this obsessive of details like this, especially at this size.  Generally, the smaller the size, the more you can be nitpicky about these things.  No one is going to care that you have some slight AA banding in this piece.  Generally, it demonstrates great pixel work, and that is enough.  Stop worrying so much and keep pixeling new stuff ^_^  Maybe something smaller so all of this focus you have on wanting to improve your technique will be useful.

In the edit-

orange= some think it is ok, I personally avoid it since i consider it a kind of banding.  You can decide for yourself whether you keep it or not

red-worst aa offenders.  For you, it is usually 45 degree lines.  45 degress lines rarely need aa.

Notice how the changes I did didn't really improve your image unless maybe if you zoom in?  Yeah, your piece is done, time for new stuff! Great job.

Its all fine.
AAing 45 degree lines is considered bad pixelling ;)

No. That is one of those things 'about pixelart'.

Sometimes you can hide it when there's a busy BG or its inside a pixel. When its on the edges there's not much you can do cept maybe in this case another hair curl or a ribbon ;)

Thanks for clearing things up, Jalonso and Friend!

Nonetheless I do not want to use the excuse "this is on purpose" to explain bad pixeling. Avoiding bad pixel behaviours and keep on working on bad pixeling is what I should focus on this piece.

This is the new update. Does this way of highlighting work?

Thanks a lot, Friend! You were a big of a help to get rid of all those mistakes! I took some time and tried to break down your marked areas.
I tried to solve almost everything and then compared to what you suggest in terms of fixes. Sometimes / quite often our changes differ a bit or more but that should be no deal.



Is there anything important on the hair highlights I did? Do they work out? If somebody can give me feedback about this I would be really happy :)


Edited by Lakelezz - 13 March 2015 at 12:09pm

Well, I did a rough edit on your idea.



I took the hair of Jalonso's edit and pasted it roughly above her old hair.
The shadows and light feel way too 3D in my opinion.

Edit: Though were you talking about the general idea of shadow placing?


Edited by Lakelezz - 13 March 2015 at 12:35pm

Well, to a certain level I want to stick to the original anime references. That means avoiding too much 3D :P



This a new attempt to display the highlights on the head!

Edit: I shaded the left back hair.


Edited by Lakelezz - 13 March 2015 at 4:55pm

Hmmm, I do not think that it is too detailed because the hair is the only part of the references which is highlighted and shaded at the same time.
I would not know how to combine the old with the new otherwise :/

I see what youre saying about the hair being the only shaded and highlighted part.  The thing is you're right, but if you pay close attention to the anime style of your reference, all parts of her have the same amount of depth....Her hair in the anime has just hints of shadow and specks of highlight, dominated mostly by a base red.  It's not really how youve drawn it in the new version, which is fine, but to my eye, I see clashing styles between your new hair and the rest of her.  It kinda looks like a wig because youve given it more depth than her head, thus looking like it's sitting on her head rather than her real hair.

idk, i like how you did the new hair, but I do feel it looks off with the rest of the style.  I think all you would have to change is make the shadows of her skin more pronounced.

Just my opinion though.  She is all yours

Wow.. The eyes look beautiful and really well pixeled. In fact, I think the change also helped solidify the style. :]
Wonderful ^_^

Just added to the gallery and see this in the description:
"Transparency is used as well, so it will be 15 colours on pixeljoint!"
Transparency is a color anywhere online.
The technicality is that its a color with a mask but its still a color :)

for everyone who is interested and stumbled upon this thread:
Having a WIP thread and showing even the slightest effort is almost a guarantee it will be added. With the effort and work you put into it we should really have feature it, not just added

Sometimes works are featured as news on the front page when an artist displays lots of hard work. Last I remember is Ashcrimson. That guy is awesome

That's kinda different. The featured pixel artists are kind of more like an interview with highly experienced pixel artists and or pixel artists that offer something unique to the world of pixel art.

I'm talking about a news piece on the front page, like the weekly challenge and pixel news.

•~• can't wait to see your next piece

Friend is correct we feature a news item on threads from time to time when the artist shows effort and the thread contains enough info that others can learn from it just by reviewing.
This thread almost had it all to feature but the breaking point is that the start of the thread was on another art than the last one that showed your progress and actually has enough tips, tricks and info for others. Its a little confusing because of that and featured threads should almost read like a tutorial.

Small update:


I reduced the colours, changed some shapes, replaced some pixels, added some minor details.

Any suggestions in terms of what I mentioned in my last post?


Edited by Lakelezz - 18 March 2015 at 2:15pm

is this an original character?  I love it so far.  And youve captured the style down to a fine art xD 

One thing that bugs me is the right hand holding the staff and the left leg poking through the dress.  The arm I'm not sure what's going on, but I think youre trying to depict her holding it back, kind of like how you throw a javelin?

The right leg, I'm just not sure what's going on either.  it looks like her leg is sticking out of a hole in the dress, rather than simply sticking out under it

awesome improvement.  The arm and leg is now so much more readable.

Now I think the pose could be given a small boost of excitement.  I think if you take the leg closest to the staff and have her step back more with it (or bring the other leg more forward), it would emphasize more her pose.

This brings me to another suggestion.  In your references above, all of the arms and legs are shaded one brighter than the other to show which is closer.  Try darkening the arm holding the staff in the same way, and try darkening (bringing back) the leg by the staff.

Basically what I mean is try shading the leg by the staff darker to pull it back in space, and try the same with the arm holding the staff.


Edited by Friend - 21 March 2015 at 5:49pm