Lurhstaap's Art Thread

[Lurhstaap]

So I've been trying to make myself get back into art lately, in particular, learning how to pixel, because it's so different than anything I've done in the past except my archaic prehistoric beginnings playing with MSPaint when I was like... 10. As such, to get concrit and to keep myself motivated to keep moving, I thought I'd make a thread here.

 

Constructive critique on anything/everything I post here is very welcome and encouraged unless I specifically say otherwise.

 

I don't think rules or anything are needed but just in case I'm leaving this first post reserved for that or anything else I might want to add to the first post later on.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[Lurhstaap]

So this has been my main project recently. I've discovered I'm not very comfortable making pixels the way you're advised to... every time I've tried to base a pixel on a sketch it goes all wrong. So this time I just drew an outline freehand with the Pencil tool in GIMP, cleaned it up and got rid of all the jaggies and such, then began with color, working in texture as it comes to me naturally, which is more similar to my traditional-art style. So far it feels much more comfortable than the way I've been trying to do it before, and I -think- the results are better too... but I need some outside feedback. I've put a lot into it and even though it isn't done I'd really like some input on what's going right and what isn't.

 

 

If it turns out really well I'll make hatchlings and an egg (maybe a dimorphic other sex and/or a color alt or two) and submit it as a DR but for the most part I'm just doing this for practice. The mane is the part I'm struggling with the most, I think, but the shading on the back and tail is also giving me a really hard time. Then there's the more fundamental problem of my probable failed attempt at perspective. For some reason I picture this critter as a truly huge monster of a dragon, so I tried to show how epically big it is by showing the body and rear legs receding... but I'm afraid it just looks like he has a magical shrinking butt/legs. x.x (The yellow dot is to remind me about light source.) Trying hard to keep the palette down but it's like 30 colors already even with the basic red body, black/gray mane, and gold accents (eyes/antlers/claws/spikes). No markings or anything. How do you guys keep the color count down on more complex designs?

Edited June 16, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[Odeen]

I've discovered I'm not very comfortable making pixels the way you're advised to... every time I've tried to base a pixel on a sketch it goes all wrong.

The only "wrong" way to pixel is to end up with something that is not a sprite. I know Marrionetta, Process, and Birdzgoboom all sprite freely without the aid of a premade sketch, and for small things like hatchlings I will do the same (though I still prefer sketching first because my first art medium was graphite).

 

If you fare better spriting freehand, nobody has the authority to tell you you're doing it wrong.

 

As for crits, I agree with you that your attempt to apply foreshortening looks more like its butt is shrinking. Foreshortening is exceedingly difficult to convey in sprite form thanks to a lack of space into which information that implies foreshortening can be inserted. Also, I'm not really certain what's going on with the forelimbs (as in why one has claws and one doesn't).

Edited June 16, 2015 by Odeen

[Lurhstaap]

Odeen! Hi

 

I think my problem with sketching is that I too began with traditional art and I have a tendency to create very detailed, finicky things when I draw normally. Then I have to convert it into a sprite and I find out that what works fine in a sketch really really doesn't work as a pixel. So my sense of what actually will work once it's shrunk down is basically nonexistent. Working tiny to begin with forces me to cut out the gingerbreading and create a more focused, simple design. And even then I got all ornate with the antlers and such. But at least it's more achievable. It's good to hear that I'm not totally violating all good sense though!

 

Do you have any suggestions about fixing the shrinking butt or is that just something I'll have to keep in mind for future sprites? And do you see anything else that sticks out? (The one paw has claws and the other doesn't because I forgot to give it claws at all to start with and I haven't added them on the other paw yet, that's all. I thought of trying to reshape/reshade the closer paw into a folded fist but I decided that's probably too small a detail and will just make people go 'huh?' like you did.)

Edited June 17, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[TehUltimateMage]

I don't sprite too much myself though I'm not unfamiliar with the medium. I'm really appreciating the dithering texture on the back and also how the hair was done!

 

Personally, I've realized that sketching for sprites and sketching for the sake of sketching require two somewhat different approaches (you can't have tight turns, for instance, or make perspective work on a 100x100 pixel, as you've noticed). What I'd recommend instead of perspective is to overlap parts to create depth (a popular trend I've noticed is overlapping the tail with either the body or the limbs), or make the sprite overall more dense by filling in all the space to convey size (the Plated Colossus in-cave does this well).

 

Other critique I may have are that the forearm on the left side seems a tad too long (and that's the difficulty of starting small -- it's hard to judge distances correctly!), and the head and face look a bit cluttered and messy with all that hair. The head also looks a bit odd to me, like the eye is pushed too forward and the antlers that seem to be sprouting from its neck because the hair is hiding most of what's going on.

 

I'm looking forward to see how it develops. Keep at it!

[Lurhstaap]

Overlapping ;.; I get so confused with overlapping parts. I can never tell which pixels I need to snip or what to do to make it look right. I'm just going to have to get over that and figure it out though it sounds like.

 

You like the mane, really? I'm struggling with that SO much. I feel like it looks all... blocky, like it's a mane of Zergy tentacles rather than actual hair. (That's a cool idea for the future actually... but not what I was going for here. ) I need to refine that area, I think, but I'm glad it's on the right track at least.

 

Clutter/mess is a general issue I have. I'm actually attracted to/fond of a degree of detail that looks cluttered to most people. I'm still not really sure how to handle that. Still I think I'm going to remove some of the stuff on the face - I was trying to have the hair, like, falling over it in some places, but it didn't come out right so I'm going to get rid of most of it. The eye IS farther forward than would be typical, but that was deliberate. Along with the upward-pointing tusks I was trying to give a big, heavy, blunt-faced look. The mane does make it hard to tell what's going on with the antlers though x.x They ARE attached to his head, but the mane does make it look like they're coming out of his neck and I really don't know what to do about that. I've thought of cutting back the mane, too, to make it less voluminous.

[Lurhstaap]

Overlapping ;.; I get so confused with overlapping parts. I can never tell which pixels I need to snip or what to do to make it look right. I'm just going to have to get over that and figure it out though it sounds like.

 

You like the mane, really? I'm struggling with that SO much. I feel like it looks all... blocky, like it's a mane of Zergy tentacles rather than actual hair. (That's a cool idea for the future actually... but not what I was going for here. ) I need to refine that area, I think, but I'm glad it's on the right track at least.

 

Clutter/mess is a general issue I have. I'm actually attracted to/fond of a degree of detail that looks cluttered to most people. I'm still not really sure how to handle that. Still I think I'm going to remove some of the stuff on the face - I was trying to have the hair, like, falling over it in some places, but it didn't come out right so I'm going to get rid of most of it. The eye IS farther forward than would be typical, but that was deliberate. Along with the upward-pointing tusks I was trying to give a big, heavy, blunt-faced look. The mane does make it hard to tell what's going on with the antlers though x.x They ARE attached to his head, but the mane does make it look like they're coming out of his neck and I really don't know what to do about that. I've thought of cutting back the mane, too, to make it less voluminous.

[TehUltimateMage]

One thing I've learned throughout architecture school is that sometimes you have to sacrifice accuracy for legibility. So try out what works, and go from there. For overlaps, working with layers in GIMP may help a tad, though the trouble comes when you can't remember which pixel is on which layer.

[Odeen]

When you're dealing with overlap (and with implied depth, tbh) you can block out the form of the dragon with the flat color of the nearest part of the dragon being the brightest, most saturated color and then making the base color of anything that inhabits the space BEHIND that part a darker, less saturated base. That way, even before you throw in specific detail you can tell where everything is supposed to be with relation to one another, and having the more distant parts of the dragons start out darker will have the end result of pushing those elements back in the viewing field.

 

The most common application of this you see in DR is when people shade the far legs/far wing darker than the rest of the body even in flat color stages.

[Lurhstaap]

Of course! Why didn't I think of that? I'm familiar with that idea as it applies to the far limbs but it never occurred to me to apply that to whole sections of body. Do you think it would help the 'shrinking butt/legs' if I applied that and had the whole body shade from lighter/brighter in front to duller in back, then the tail becoming brighter again toward the tip, as it's approaching the viewer?

 

EDIT: I'm waiting to hear what you think of that idea, Odeen, before trying it, but I did change a few things. I edited the antlers and moved the eye back to make it clearer they are in fact coming out of his head, tweaked the hair (unsure if I like the changes or not), got most of the mane strands off the face, added claws to the closer paw, and began shading the tail spikes.

 

---->

 

I'm beginning to think I need to either move the spine shading or narrow the chest region... something about it just looks wrong. Do you guys agree or am I overthinking it?

Edited June 17, 2015 by Lurhstaap