Help With Shading, Please?

[Guybrush Nosehair]

Okay, so this is my very first attempt at creating pixel art, and so far, I'm actually rather impressed with how well I've done considering I have no background whatsoever with art . I've been following this tutorial, but I'm totally stuck in the shading section. I want my light source to be coming from the right of the viewer's perspective (if that makes sense?). Can anyone please tell me exactly how to go about this? I gave a bit of an attempt, but I'd rather not muck things up more than I have to. Thanks!

[Monsieur OUXX]

Well the thing is that what you're asking for is too broad.
I'm just trying to explain why it will be hard to help you :

1. This isn't really pixel art. The resolution is too high for that. This is just computer-assisted drawing. This is pixel art: http://piq.codeus.net/static/media/userpics/piq_31154_400x400.png Because the exact location of every single pixel is important (if you move even only one, you completely change the drawing). I'm not nitpicking about a definition, I'm just helping you understand what's your actual goal. You want to draw with a computer, but you're not trying to do pixel-art.
2. You're asking a question about "how to draw". How to shade a character? Well, this is a general art question, not an adventure-related question. We'd be willing to help you, but you didn't shade it at all yet, so we can't give improvements advice.

So, my advice would be : Choose a picture on the web that has a shading similar to the one you want, and imitate it until you feel comfortable enough to innovate.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The purpose of the CL is to assist you in improving your skills rather than to actually do the work for you, but as far as light sources go I can provide some basic pointers at least for the face.

1.  Resized the head, making it a bit smaller and more manageable for shading purposes.
2.  Placed an upper right light source and made the background color neutral so colors would not appear too bright or dark.
3.  Shaded the face using the upper right light source as a reference as well as some images of Harrison Ford (for facial lines and shapes).
4.  Altered shape of hat somewhat and added some rudimentary highlights.


[imgzoom]http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/heady.png[/imgzoom]


My goal here was to show you some effective skin shading methods and not to reproduce Harrison Ford's facial features 100% so I spent more time on highlights, midtones, and shadow than on the actual facial structure, though I think he's at least recognizable.

The important thing here is to understand how light plays off of shapes naturally.  Examining photos of people under a light source will show you that some objects cast shadows while others do not; for instance, Indy's hat will cast a shadow partially over his right shoulder in this example, just as the right side of his face is mostly shaded by the left brim of his hat.  The parts of his face that stick out will receive the most light, like his cheeks, nose, and ears.  Also, there is 'bounce light' to consider, which is when a particularly strong light source actually rebounds from one surface and lights up the surface it hits, such as around the chin, the lower part of the cheek, ears, and eyelids/brows.

I encourage you to study highlight/midtone/shadow tutorials that also discuss bounce light because without a basic understanding of these you won't really be able to do anything convincing unless you are always following references.