This is Li'l Miss Mushroom (aka Lilly) with her sidekick, a little fairy.
I worked on it the last two days and am generally happy with the outcome. There's still some shading to do, as well as the feet, though.
But the longer I look at it, there more I think that some things are wrong. It could be that the neck is too long, or the head too big, or the legs too thin.. I don't know. Also, I'm not too happy with how she's holding the basket. I made it that way to avoid drawing the hand, haha (always my biggest problem next to the feet).
Any comments, criticism and suggestions are welcome.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/LMM_new2_small.png)
I am not an artist so don't take this as gospel but this is my opinions:
The neck is a tiny bit too long. Bring shorten it by about 2-3mm.
You're right about the arm with the basket. To me its either the fact that the arm looks skinnier than the other (because of how you've positioned it), or the fact that the weight may cause the arm to be naturally straight when carrying the basket.
The final thing I have noticed is the chest seems a bit long. Even my boobs don't drop that far down my chest ;)
Other than that I can't see anything else. But hey I'm a bit of a noob
I think she's stretched overall, which you can correct by reducing the distance between her shoulders and bust by a few pixels, the distance between her stomach and hips by a few pixels, and the lengths of her upper and lower legs very slightly. With an arm resting at her side, the hand should reach just to her mid-thigh. Another thing to consider is that her hips should be as wide as her shoulders and that each shoulder length (from side of the head outward) should be the width of her head. Aside from that I think it's very nicely drawn piece and she has a cute, somewhat shy expression!
As ProgZ said, shorten her body, cause it looks stretched out and even seems to stretchout more as you go from head to feet.
Her left hand (the one with the basket) doesn't look that bad, but the lower arm looks short compared to the other arm (the one holding the pixie, btw that lower is arm is bit to stretched out as well). But what's causing more problems might be that bow on her skirt which kinda makes her arm look like a straight line and you can't see the wrist so the arm looks weird.
I think that's the reason at least.
Maybe do the comparison with those drawings of how long should a body be compared to the height of head (you know the ones where the body is like the size of number of heads and then you can see where all the other major anatomy parts should be)...hope you know to what I am reffering. I think it's something like - 1 head is head (insert about half a head for neck), 2 heads lenght is the middle of the breasts, 3 heads is to the navel, 4 heads is the end of body, 5 heads middle of thigh, 6 heads knee, 7 heads ankle (and btw, body about width of 2 heads)...something like that, you can modify to make a body type. ;D
And again, I really like you style of drawing.
When I draw arms, I always use "elbow = navel, wrist = crotch".
The boobs need to move up quite a bit; the muscle beneath them is connected to the shoulder right above the armpit.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 23/09/2009 22:20:32
she has a cute, somewhat shy expression!
That's exactly what I was aiming for ;)
It was a rather unusual piece of art for me, but it might even become part of an adventure. Addiction to (magic?) mushrooms, an NPC-Pixie that can give useful tips.... this just might work.
Well, thanks guys, these were some useful tips. Now that I'm thinking about it, most of them are rather obvious. But it's always the same when you work on something for several hours without leaning back and reconsidering proportions and stuff...
Though she's supposed to be rather skinny I agree that she looks stretched, especially the shoulder-breast part is way off.
Okay, a new version is coming soon.
FIT!
Useless response, sorry ::)
Well drawn though!
Is her skin supposed to be that shade of yellow? Just wondering.
Also, besides the comments about her being stretched too tall in places, her neck actually seems too thick. Perhaps make it a tiny bit narrower?
She could really some some beefy calf muscles in there! 8) her legs are thinner than her arms, or at least about the same. that's kind of strange.
you wouldnt need to thicken up the whole of her legs, but some curves in the calf region would look cool I think.
@ Mods: No worries, I said "ANY comment are welcome" ;)
@ Terran: Yeah, it's supposed to be that yellow. I don't know why, but I chose that tone right from the beginning and I'm happy with it. And since it's a fantasy picture and she's supposed to be some sort of elf I guess it's justified that she hasn't a "regular" skin color.
@ Azraq: Well, as I said she's supposed to be rather skinny, but I'll see if I can alter the legs a bit. For now I got a new version.
I lowered the head/shoulders, widened the body a bit and added some more shading+details here and there..
EDIT: There was way too much pink and I decided to give her a more natural look. Also, I wasn't happy with the pixie sitting on the mushroom, compositionwise, so I made her fly around. I altered some things too.
Old one: Newer one: Newest one:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/LMM_new2_small.png) (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/LMM_new3_small.png) (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/LMM_new4_small.png)
I guess you are going to make her stand in long grass since I don't see any feet forming on these new revisions. ;)
Worked on them today, as well as on other views! :=
Still working on them.. the front view feet are too flat I guess..
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/3_dir.png)
No more flat than my feet are... :P
She has a nice profile, and her face is consistent between the front and left view which is great. Judging by her hand, I think her feet in the angle view might be a bit too long and thick, especially for such a thin woman. In the front view, the position of her feet make her appear bow-legged. Also, she seems to be missing visible ankles. The feet themselves look fine, though. Keep at it!
She's beautiful. If I saw her in real life I think I'd instantly fall in love. Although the yellow skin makes her seem a tad Springfieldian to me. Have you tried playing around with different skin-tones/-hues? You might find something that works better.
I love the 3/4 and the side view. It looks really great!
But looking at the front view, I noticed that she somehow looks younger than she does on the side view. Perhaps it is just a matter of correcting the eyes and mouth a bit.
Can't wait to see the face on the 3/4 view.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Sun 27/09/2009 02:25:18
She has a nice profile, and her face is consistent between the front and left view which is great.
Yeah, I'm quite happy with how the sideview turned out.
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Judging by her hand, I think her feet in the angle view might be a bit too long and thick, especially for such a thin woman. In the front view, the position of her feet make her appear bow-legged. Also, she seems to be missing visible ankles. The feet themselves look fine, though. Keep at it!
You're right and I'm still working on the feet.
Quote from: Stupot on Sun 27/09/2009 11:55:21
She's beautiful. If I saw her in real life I think I'd instantly fall in love.
Me too I guess. Seriously, who wouldn't?
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Although the yellow skin makes her seem a tad Springfieldian to me. Have you tried playing around with different skin-tones/-hues? You might find something that works better.
I played around a bit but wasn't happy with any other tones/hues. It maybe the combination of skin + clothes or something else, but I like the yellow tone.
Quote from: Blue on Tue 29/09/2009 06:59:59
But looking at the front view, I noticed that she somehow looks younger than she does on the side view. Perhaps it is just a matter of correcting the eyes and mouth a bit.
Yes, I noticed that too. I'm still (or again) working on the front view face, cause I'm very happy with the sideview face. But somehow I have a hard time making them look similar, when it comes to age.
Quote
Can't wait to see the face on the 3/4 view.
Me too, haha. My first few attempts (drawing mouth + eyes) failed miserably and I put that view away for the last days. But I'll work on it again today or tomorrow.
A new version should be up soon.
Edit: Okay, I worked a bit on the face and I think both views look more similar now.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/x2-new.png)
:-\
I liked the old front view, and was hoping you'd change the profile. She looks haughtier and not as cute now.
I think you could slightly enlarge her pupil/iris in the profile view to make her look less severe.
There are some black lines there suggesting bone structure that really shouldn't be there. The mouth and nose too would benefit from softer shading/lighting instead of thick black outlining.
Also, I really think you should reconsider the skin tone. To my mind it just distracts from her over all image, and instead creates Simpsons-associations.
Sometimes when you've made a decision early on - in this case the colour of her skin - you grow so used to it it becomes difficult to regard the picture with an objective mind, and any changes appear as inferior to the original.
@ Snarky:
I made the pupils in both views larger and moved the eyebrows/mouth in the frontview a bit. I think now she looks cute again but still resembles the side view.
@ Andail:
I recolored the one black line at the neck (which is what you were talking about I think). Also, I changed the skintone a bit to a more brown color. Do you think it's better now? I'm not sure myself.
As for nose + mouth: I'm not sure if I want to replace the outlines with shading, but I'll test it some time.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/x2-new2.png)
The new neck shading is so much better it's almost silly.
The new skin tone is an improvement as well.
I think you need to kill more darlings here and exchange the last "inner" outlines with proper shading.
The next step would be to work more with colours to express nuances in her skin; not just brighter and darker but colder and warmer hues as well. And get rid of the last yellowish remnants in her skin please....
I think go more with changing the side view to fit the front rather than the other way round?
Her eyes need to be slightly longer so they come round the face a tad more in the side view. Same goes for the cheeks... They both curl up a lot, which is making her look older and more severe than the front view. Also, if you make her nose a little bit more upturned and less prominent that should help too.
Still, it really is a lovely sprite! :) Well done!
I rather like the skin tone, for the record. Since she's not human she can have pretty much any color there is, and this one is quite pretty. Better than the pale white skin of flower fairies (http://www.craftystuff.co.uk/cat--Flower-Fairies-Decoupage--Decoupage_character_flower_fairies.html), in any case.
(I remember my mother telling me that back in the day - when she was a girl, or maybe earlier than that - girls used to collect and trade paper fairy cutouts in that same saccharine style, with flowers and cutesy woodland creatures, along with other motifs, which you could buy by the sheet at the grocery store. I've also seen a bunch of these (http://www.natureswonderland.biz/Books/cottpressedletters1.jpg), kept pressed between the pages of books. Was that a thing everywhere, or just in Sweden? Is there a term for it in English? Google didn't find much on "paper fairies" and similar searches.)
Edit: The Norwegian Wikipedia page (http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glansbilde) on "glansbilde" knows what I'm talking about.
@ Andail: Yay, the improvement on Lilly is silly! As for the inner outlines, it's still supposed to be a rather comic-like style, not a too realistic one. And besides, I'll concentrate on the feet, hands and arms for now, since they are the parts that need the most work right now.
Marbilly, I agree that the cheeks in the sideview make her look much older, but I like the look. I'll see what I can do about that though.
Snarky, I think I know exactly what you're talking about too. I remember these paper thingies lying around in our house in Sweden. Don't know if they're still there, it's been a long time since I've seen one of those.
Nice character!
Regarding the skin colour and shading, I think it all depends on the style and colour schemes of the intended backgrounds.
I'd suggest developing the character and background style simultaneously, creating "concept screenshots" where you get an overview of the entire graphical setup, as the only thing that really matters in the end is how these things work together.
Course, you might already have done something similar, and in that case it would be nice to have a look at a background to be able to give helpful advice.
Matti - I say don't change the skin color. I think it suits her well. Also I still like the side view better than the front view, but that is because the older look gives her a touch of mystery.
Snarky - The paper thingies were also popular in Denmark at that time. I wonder how far it spread :)
I really don't like the black line on her shoulder in the side view. It suggests her shoulder being higher than some part between her shoulder and neck, which doesn't seem to be the case when looking at the front view.
Loominous: You're right. I'll try to create and post a background soon. The backgrounds will be in the same style as the character and will mainly have warm brown & green tones (cause the game would take place in a deep forest with lots of plants + trees, and some buildings made of wood).
Blue: I'm still not sure about the tone but I think I prefer the yellowish one too. I did like the side view better too but since the last version I think both are equally good.
Zabnat: True. I'll do something about that line. It just looked a little odd without a line at all, but I will make it at least shorter.