WIP critique and stuff
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24556
Printed Date: 30 September 2025 at 3:37am
Topic: WIP critique and stuff
Posted By: GarySavage
Subject: WIP critique and stuff
Date Posted: 09 September 2015 at 6:34am
My recent works, definitely needs improving.
 - Nisha from Borderlands: TPS.
 - just grapes, green and round.
Do you have any ideas how this pictures could be made better? |
Replies:
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 09 September 2015 at 7:41am
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Are you using some kind of tool other than the pencil in the girl portrait? ------------- |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 09 September 2015 at 9:07am
Y, for girl image I used only pencil, but used line for background symbol -
 Wanted to change it later but forgot.
 This is that image with simple grey background -
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Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 09 September 2015 at 9:29am
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I see its cool to have the BG graphic.
I only meant because you have so many unneeded colors but that you can make better by upping the contrast and tweaking colors a bit. Also, the color changes in the red and purple use what's called 'banding' which is not a good thing to do so don't get in the habit of pixelling that way. See cure's thread in the sticky link in my sig if you need visuals for that. ------------- |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 09 September 2015 at 10:34am
Well, i tried to make picture look "smooth", but if using less colours with higher contrast... Are you suggesting to use dithering? I tried it earlier, before i decided to make "smooth" picture, and result was "strange".
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Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 09 September 2015 at 10:52am
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You don't have to dither tho this update looks better because the contrast is higher in the shades.
Cell-shading is probably fine for this type of art because generally speaking dithering and flesh don't tend too look nice because dithering does add 'texture'. ------------- |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 11 September 2015 at 3:29pm
Hi again, I changed color scheme a bit(using less colours with more contrast) but her neck and cheecks feels "empty", just some field of skin colour. Do you think something could be done with that?
Lighter part on her neck and nose supposed to be highlights. |
Posted By: Ottbot
Date Posted: 12 September 2015 at 9:56am
| It still looks flat because of the lighting... her hat and her chin should be casting more of a shadow. |
Posted By: MasterSky
Date Posted: 13 September 2015 at 7:12pm
 did a quick thingy on the face and neck to show generally how the shading should be done. i used this without a reference, which is always bad, so it might not be %100 accurate. look at a portrait with this type of lighting and see how the light falls on the forms and how it casts shadows. i also touched up the bottom of the nose a bit. i also used some hue-shifting, which is a skill you'll eventually get the hang of |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 15 September 2015 at 10:23am
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Wow, ty, I really like the changes. As I understood, you changed hue value of shadow, so her face would look "warmer". So, if i'l want to do the same thing with her hair (as it's basic hue is red) I will need to change hue for shadows to purple? (about 320 hue)
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Posted By: MasterSky
Date Posted: 15 September 2015 at 4:04pm
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more or less, yeah lol its more complex than that, and these will really help you out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL_5va7jEx8 https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/1458/how-to-game-art-7-hue-shifting http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139392#139392 (this goes more in depth about colours and palettes but still very handy!) |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 20 September 2015 at 4:35pm
Hi, tried to change the picture again, changed some colours a bit, added more shadows to the face and hat.
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Posted By: Drazelic
Date Posted: 22 September 2015 at 7:23pm
Think more painting and less outlining. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 23 September 2015 at 4:55am
| That's really nice, but this is more "realistic" picture. I want to keep this picture "cel-shaded", so black outline is nessesary. As for other changes, I'm not sure that amount of details is needed in simplified, "comic-style" picture, although your change of hair shape is really nice, i'l think how to add it. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 05 October 2015 at 10:06pm
Well, I changed the picture with some suggestions from Drazelic in mind, i really like the face and hair so far, but when i tried to change the hat it started to feel "out of place", it was like that earlier, but I thought it was because of angle, and now I'm not sure/ Mb make it darker and lower the number of colours?
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Posted By: scorched
Date Posted: 06 October 2015 at 8:15am
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I think this is because when you changed the angle you didn't lower edges of the hat, so they became too high and steep. Also I think the mouth is too long. Don't forget to change the collar style too. Otherwise, I like the picture. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 09 October 2015 at 12:24am
Fixed lips and hat, I think hat's new shading was too bright, and didn't match the rest of the picture, so I changed it. Mouth was too long because of the outline, now it should be good. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 14 October 2015 at 2:31am
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(I'l just post in the old topic)
Well. Round 2. FIGHT!!! 
 - Handsome Jack
1.I'm not sure about lips, for now they dooesn't seem too different from skin, maybe make them brighter or move hue to yellow? 2.Neck shading, does it look ok to you? For now i think it lookds like a skin tone column, mb add more shadows to it's lower part? |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 01 November 2015 at 8:39am
Hi guys, I really could use some help with my last thing. Don't know how to make it feel "right", something it definetely wrong with face, eye size,shading, but I can't understand, what exactly needs to be changed.
 - Aurelia
The only think I really like here is the tophat. 
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Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 01 November 2015 at 8:55am
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There is quite a bit "off", which might be why you're struggling to pin down what's wrong. The nose is too far to our left, so it's off-center. When you position the nose, the part attacked to the face should be in the middle, but it looks like you positioned the side that sticks out in the middle instead. Also, the face looks flat, the bridge has no defined bridge. That's fine for some faces, but the way you've drawn the nose suggests that the face should not be flat and that the eyes should be deeper into the face. The eyes are open very wide, people only do that when they're very scared or are trying to look creepy. People naturally tend to have their upper eyelid overlapping the iris, and when we can see the top of the iris, it tends to look like something is wrong. Your previous piece has this same problem, but to a lesser degree. It also looks like the eyes are copy-pasted. This is better than mirroring them (which would make them look flat), but it doesn't look right for them to be exactly the same shape. There aren't eyebrows. The face is long overall, but that is only a problem if the character isn't meant to be long-faced. I would move the eyes down a pixel or two, perhaps. The mouth is very large, and the two peaks of the upper lip are very part apart. As a result, the philtrum (the dip above the center of the lip) is also too wide. It also looks like you drew the philtrum with a ridge in the middle of it? The neck is very long. This isn't necessarily a problem if you're going for an exaggerated look, but if you're going for natural-ish proportions, it's too long. Also, you've shaded it like a featureless cylinder. You have the same problem in your previous one too, and it's probably why you're struggling with the shading. Necks have some features that make them look like necks xP The dithering on the hair looks like noise rather than hair. Keep hair simple, avoid introducing texture to it if you don't have to. Also, instead of having the lines outlining the different locks run parallel to each other, have some locks overlap others, that looks much more natural. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 02 November 2015 at 10:11am
Thank you, you are awesome! 
I've changed the picture, and think it became better, but i really could use your advice again. Am heading the right way? 
About ridge, it actually supposed to be shadow in the philtrum, but I messed up the shading... Does it look better now? i'm not sure. |
Posted By: Iscalio
Date Posted: 03 November 2015 at 7:25pm
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On your Nisha picture you're still mixing your techniques. If you're using volumes on most of the portrait why do you have black lines on your eyes, nose and collar? Fixing those things to match the rest would be a vast improvement that would be pretty easy to do.
edit: I guess you fixed some of this but not in the thread. Also doesn't feel like that hat is seated. Is it at the same angle as the face? feels it's more tilted and hovering over the head? Can you give each of these characters a name so we can refer to the name instead of trying to describe which one we are referring to each time we want to review them? Not all of us remember the names of all the Borderlands characters. 
I think simply doing some research into exactly how jaw lines are curved would do wonders. Looks like your second woman is improved a lot already though. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 04 November 2015 at 2:26pm
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Thank you for suggestions.
About tophat, it is supposed to be a bit titled to the right, but you're right it is hovering, I think it's because she doesn't have bangs, but you could still see her hair below the tophat, that should be fixed now. What do you think about these changes? ( I extended lower part of the hat and moved it a few pixels down, also changed shading of the closer cheekbone and jaw) 
About names, yeah, you are right, I really should have done that. 
First one is Nisha, second is Handsome Jack, and woman's name is Aurelia. (I also edited some earlier posts) |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 28 November 2015 at 7:42pm
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Hi, it's been a while. I'll pixel more from now on.
Tried to finish my last picture, changed face a bit and added fur collar and shoulders. Now I can't make the right shadin of the jacket, maybeb you can help? [Grey thingy on her right shoulder is some kind of a shoulder strap] 
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Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 21 December 2015 at 2:24pm
Just small update nothing special, how do you feel about her hair now?
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Posted By: NancyGold
Date Posted: 23 December 2015 at 6:23am
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Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 25 December 2015 at 4:05am
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Yeah, something in common.
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Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 30 December 2015 at 2:47pm
Some changes. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 15 January 2016 at 3:51am
Well, I need a piece of advice, which fur collar texture is better, left or right? 
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Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 15 January 2016 at 8:34am
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Right, but neither of them looks like fur. The shape/shading of the collar looks like it's something thin and flat and your texture looks like a low relief or something printed on it (my first guesses were lace or printed fabric), whereas fur tends to be thick and fluffy. |
Posted By: GarySavage
Date Posted: 20 January 2016 at 8:09am
Maybe something like that, does it look better{like fur} now? |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 20 January 2016 at 9:36am
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Yes, but again - the collar still looks flat. The form of the collar is the issue more so than the texture is using (the new texture looks the best though!) Also why is the fur comingfrom above? Should it not be attached to (and therefore coming out from) the base? |