Character C&C

[earlwood]

I've been trying to modify my drawings into something a little more sprite friendly, as I usually use really thick black lines.


2x:

^{Surely you can help me make him look more "hip" than this!}


How can I colour him better and get rid of the terrible black outlines?  I know his stance is a little effete, but with the way I draw hands, it's really hard to place them anywhere else and not get them lost in his pants.

Any other critique would also be greatly appreciated.

[R4L]

Very nice work! I have one problem though, and its the arms. They don't really go with the character.  Maybe you could draw the arm shapes around the lines, then color it in, and shape it up. Other than that, this is a nice sprite.

[Steel Drummer]

Right about the arms. If you want a better outline, use a darker shade of the character's skin (darker than the shading).

[earlwood]

That's kind of my problem, I can't draw arms, let alone hands, for spit, which is why I want to try and ditch the black outline, but I don't want to lose all the definition.



I tried to get rid of the black outline, I think it went alright, are the arms a bit more palatable now?

[Steel Drummer]

Yes, the arms look good. Nice sprite!

[pslim]

This sprite is really awesome. I love him. I want to play a game with him in it. The hair is just fantastic.Ã,  And what's wrong with an effete stance?Ã,  8)


I would maybe back off of the purple in the nose just a bit. Maybe get rid of some of the blue? Adding red might saturate it too much, I can't tell without playing around with it.

Also, I think the outline of the white area of the shirt is too different from the shading, which is too similar to the white. I would maybe darken the intermediate shade just a tad there so it flows more naturally from white to darker to darkest. And there's a pillow-shading thing going on with the right sleeve that doesn't read well, imo. It might work better if the top of the sleeve (the part nearest the light) had only the intermediate shade darkening it, and the darkest shade was left for places farthest away from the light. I hope that makes sense.

[earlwood]

Thanks Yoda. 

Pslim, I like the idea of recolouring the nose, I think it look mucho..bettero(?), though perhaps not what you meant 100%?


I also changed the intermediate color on the T-shirt a little bit, but was so confused by what you meant by the pillow-shading on the sleeve that I almost redrew the entire character in unitard.

[Evil]

Well, here's my take on it.




Things that need change:
The knees were too small to really notice, so I made them 1 pixel bigger. I also dropped the hair curl to the bottom of the head so they look less like a sideburn curl.

Things I changed for fun:
I stroked everything because it makes it stand out a little more. The arms look a little wierd but when animated, I bet it'll look better. And all of the hip cats wear cool threads. So I popped a bowling shirt on him. Not really rockin' colors, but I kept what you had.

[earlwood]

Wow, those are some pretty bitchin' duds, you really changed the entire sprite with that shirt.  I guess I really didn't pay that much attention to it, I wanted to keep him simple but I guess he ended looking a little like a school boy with Male Pattern Baldness, and I thought all you hip cats were into diminished patellas.

[Evil]

LGM and I went to a surf/rockabilly festival this week and that's what everyone wears. Either a tight black, greaser shirt or a bowling shirt.

[earlwood]

Ha! Maybe I should dress him into this getup.