Tatterhood, C+C please?

[lo_res_man]

Some of you may have heard of the story of tatterhood
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatterhood
I decided to design, though not make, yet, a game based on that story, which is one of my favorite fairy tales. I mean she's one kick butt heroine.
I decided as well to do some sprites as somthing fun to do to get my idea's  expressed.

in order from left to right, tatterhood, the magic teacher, and rosebud tatterhoods twin.
please C+C to your hearts content

[Da_Elf]

very interesting. i like the images too. where is the spoon

[Buckethead]

rosebud tatterhoods twin's hand seems to disappear behind her back. It looks a little strange to me.

[lo_res_man]

where is the spoon

oh its in
hammerspace

seriously,  ;)if you think it would look better with it, okay. its just I like my sprites to be technicly symetrical, so that animating is way easier. but i'm just lazy

rosebudsÃ,  hand seems to disappear behind her back.

its sort of meant to, I was trying to create a cutsey effect, apperantly it didn't turn out so well. any and all paint overs are of course welcome

[lo_res_man]

I did a minor paintover of the two young ladies arms, which seemed to be bothering people the most.

what do you think now? And what do you all think of the aristocratic older woman?
(sorry if this is 'bumping', I just would like some constructive critical responses)

[Da_Elf]

groovy

[lo_res_man]

oy, da_elf, thanks for the comments, but can't you (or anyone else) be a bit more helpful in your comments? I mean, okey you think they are groovy, but thats like one WORD. how am I supposed to improve my work  with that?how is it good, how is it bad, how would you improve it? how could I improve it. anything you hate for peronal reasons, anything, please. short answers like that just don't help. It may not look like it, but I have spent weeks refining this piece. So,if its not too much trouble, A little more then just "groovey"

[Snarky]

'Tatterhood' is an odd fairy tale. What is it about it that made you want to make an adventure game based on it?

Tatterhood herself looks... sexually indeterminate. It's not obvious whether she's a woman or a man, and in fact I would probably assume the sprite was male. She also isn't obviously ugly, more... tomboyish.

Is her spoon really supposed to be that big, or is that your addition? It's cool, but not what I expected.

Pixelwise I think they're great. Very expressive in an exaggerated cartoony way.

[MashPotato]

I think they're cute .  If you're looking for crit, the blond woman looks kinda angry, as the black lines (which I assume are supposed to eyelashes) look like downturned eyebrows to me (if that was not your intention).  I think her waist would look better if the pixel that goes in the most is deleted, so her stomach doesn't look as "sucked in".  Keep up the good work ^_^

[Snarky]

She looks like Christina Ricci!

[Da_Elf]

she does look tomboyish but i think thats how the character should look. to make a biiit more of a distinction that she is a woman though maybe a little more shading on her breasts. i kinda agree that the spoon from the story i read online sounded smaller however this is kinda cool having it as a huge spoon like a staff or power or something.  id love to see an update on the mother.

[lo_res_man]

Yes, it is supposed to be a kind of staff of power/ quarterstaff.
the tricky part is giving her better breasts, without making it look like she has implants, always a fine distinction in pixel art
and yes da-elf and snarky, she is meant to be tom-boyish, at least I always felt that when I read  the story.
MashPotato I'll do an edit soon, watch for it.   
And to you all, yes, more editing all around. Got to go now, bye!

[lo_res_man]

okay here's yet another edit to feed the ravenous hoards of critics

as you can see, I edited the eyes the arms, the torso, as well made the breasts more obvious.
that older lady ain't the queen, she is a character I invented who teaches the girls the reudiments of "womans magic" as well as being a governess.

[Snarky]

Mmmmm... no.

Not going in the right direction, in my opinion. For TH's femininity, it's not about breast size (they just look like pecs anyway). It's that her stance, muscles, proportions and clothes all look male. The face doesn't use any of the cues cartoons use to signal women (eyelashes, lipstick), and the hair is hidden under the hood.

As for her sister, I quite liked the heavy-lidded look of the original sprite. It gave her character. Now she looks very generic, especially with that smile. A brooding beauty is much less overused than just another airhead blonde.

In the first set of sprites, there was an interesting contrast between Tatterhood's manic grin and her sister's melancholy/sulky look. It seemed to promise entertaining friction between them. In the new set, the combination doesn't have that tension.

[MashPotato]

I guess I didn't read your description carefully enough, because I assumed that character was supposed to be a guy .  I did a quick paintover to give you some ideas to feminize her a bit:

I didn't want to change too much, so she looks very similar, but I think she is a little more womanly now.  Changes include:
-one pixel eyelashes
-nose less defined
-waist raised by a pixel
-thighs lengthened by a pixel (2, if you count the waist-raising)
-hips wider
-slimmer arms
-changed arm position, her stance was a bit masculine

I agree with Snarky about the blond character... I know I said before that she looked a bit angry, but I only mentioned that because I wasn't sure if she was supposed to look that way... so unless she's supposed to be a happy character, I prefer the old one

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Well, after reading the article about them it seems that they are twins, only one is ugly and mischievous and the other is beautiful and sweet.  I made an edit with this in mind.

1.  Redesigned tatterhood to look more like a twin (made the height and general shape similar).  They don't need to be identical, but some resemblance is a good idea.  By doing so I made her limbs and general shape more feminine.

2.  Added an additional shade for the face and body of each.

3.  Made her sister's pose more carefree and her expression happy.

4.  Gave tatterhood a large nose to make her less attractive and a more mischievous look.



Hopefully this will help.