Gang Member - 1902

[ScottDoom]

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I was drawing this and also entered him into a sprite jam contest, but it was a quick idea for a theme of a game I had and I was wondering how could I improve on the shading? I tried shading folds into the clothes but it just looked like weird pattern rather than shading. Also, what can I do about the pose? My characters are always in the same pose and seem very rigid, and never seem relaxed.

Edit: I went ahead and tried some very cheap shading myself and corrected the arm a bit, and also added a belt. See above.

[vict0r]

looks like that fella from "Gangs of New York"

[ScottDoom]

looks like that fella from "Gangs of New York"

Actually I thought it was an original idea but as I was drawing it I realized that The Gangs of New York had a very similar theme and my thought of having an original idea went out the door. I still think it'd be a neat theme for an adventure game.

[JRock]

   Looks excellent!  Do you have a game for this planned out?  Any other characters to show us?

[ladymeba]

he is looking good and I thought gangs of new york when I saw him too - would love to see a game with him in it...

As far as the pose goes I have a few thoughts for you

Hand on hip - Showing five digits (four fingers one thumb) which is very unnatural try placing the thumb (top digit) behind the body. Also the coat hangs straight down which means he is holding the hand away from the body which will make him seem rigid.

Silly tip - I tend to stand up and strike the pose that I give the character, if it feels wrong then I adjust the pose accordingly...  try to stand like you have painted him... notice how odd it feels...

[Pessi]

As for the shading, I think you should make it all according to where the imagined lightsource is, which should be something very generic so it'll work for all scenes. Like an outdoor lighting but a bit less highlights.

Basically, you could probably just use two shades of each color. If I'm saying it wrong, I mean for the jacket for example, just use the red that's in there already and pick a darker shade and draw shadows with that. That way you'll get some depth there and it won't be too hard or time-consuming to animate.

One thing I noticed is - isn't the character a bit too high in resolution? At least if you were to put it in the game directly. If you were to work on it further, I would suggest making it a bit smaller so you'll get practice on the pixel pushing thing too.

Personally, I'm used to learning everything by copying and trying to find the rules why the things are made like they are. When I think of good pixel character art I always first think of 'Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis'. I suggest taking an Indy character, pasting it in your painting program and trying to paint the same figure from scratch.

All this said, I'm not much of a character artist myself so take this with a grain of salt.

[El Drey]

About the pose, there are some useful changes possilble:
- The cane should be longer, if you have to stretch your arm just to make it reach the ground, it isn't of much use, is it?
- Try drawing stick figures first. Comes in real handy when trying to strike a pose. This pose is too stiff, try to loosen up. Maybe a contrapost-pose?
I did a really quick OpenCanvas sketch trying to explain.

Note that the blue lines refer to the stick figure. The direction of the shoulders and the hips are opposite. Doing this gives a relaxed pose (in case of female characters it becomes more seductive).

Try it out. It helps. If not, I've been living a lie over 20 years.

Keep it up.

Drey.