Hi there, i just recently started pixeling and found this awesome site and decided to post my work here.

I'm currently working on steampunk based characters, Sarah is just first of currently total of 4 planned characters.

Sarah the Steam Mage

NOTE: Her title Steam Mage means that she can use Water and Fire magic. Her water magic comes from Blue/Water shard from her Glove on right hand and Red/Fire Magic comes from Staff, thus comes Steam.


I will probably make some kind of lore to these characters so it isn't boring :)

Hope you like it and thanks for checking my thread .

Thanks for information, when i was creating her i was trying to put so much detail and color but guess i was wrong. Im currently work on another steampunk based character and he will be up in a few days :).

Hope i get better understanding after reading the thread you recommended :).

Thanks for quick replay. I'll see if I have her file that doesn't have merged layers, if so I'll post it as bit later.

Edit: I just finished reading cure's pixel tutorial and understand few more thing. I just have one question is it forbidden to use layer modifications for example: i used overlay and dodge effects for my glove crystal and staff crystal lightning thats why there are more colors than i used, for every color ramp i used 1 standard color, 2 tone and 2 shade colors, that are shifted in valuge/lightness and hue.

Edited by Whoozy - 22 February 2015 at 7:56am

Here is next character still in progress, Poisonus Tom


I would like to get special feedback for guns im not sure wich one is best.

Hope it's better than Sarah even though he is still in development

Edited by Whoozy - 22 February 2015 at 10:49am

Oh you don't want to do this at all. It makes it NPA and defeats the whole 'control on the pixel level' and makes a hybrid out of pixelart.
If you used CGd FX of any kind on the submitted pixelart then it should not be in the gallery at all.
There is nothing that cannot be done using just the pencil tool and the point is to make it with just the pencil* tool.
*eraser, fill, lasso, solid brush are cool and basically time savers but they do not lose control of pixels.

If its a girl and you can't tell then that needs to be established too.
As Friend says every pixel is crucial and every pixel can create all sorts of things even tho its a pixel...thus 'pixel' art.

It's funny, i used gimp for the longest time.  i rcecntly switched to grafx2 and immediately my understanding and skill of pixeling improved.  no joke.  i believe it is becuse grafx2 is designed for pixel art, so my intuition simply fed off of that. 

so yeah, i cant recommend grafx2 enough.  it is literally perfect in my opinion :p

I'd recommend graphicsgale; you can get the free version here:

http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

Okey i finished recolouring her and now instead of 59 colours i have 16 + 1 colour for background :), hope its better now:


Note: She is facing to the right.

For some reason GraphicsGales says it has 19 colours on layer and 18 colours in file but i counted only 16 + 1 background colour.




Edited by Whoozy - 23 February 2015 at 12:01am

Whoozy, you are getting there.  I also want to say, you have really good style, and I think you will become a great pixel artist very quickly!

About Sarah, it's good you shrunk the palette.  Only problem is, you lost detail in the process.  You don't want to do that!  Remember, more with less, not less with less :p
You also have a few needless colors in your Sarah palette.  For instance, the middle yellow is only used in one place -_- same with the dark red.  Try to merge colors, or pick more outlandish colors that can actually combine with others to simulate what you're going for.  For instance:

you are still using around 4 colors to color the red cloak, but in my edit, I did it with two reds.  This is possible because I mixed a burgundy with a scarlety color, rather than a plain medium red, a plain dark red, and a lighter red etc.  The two reds I used were also purple enough to be used on the staff on the right, and the brain actually perceives those reds as more purple when used in that area, because it is balanced enough to fit in both circumstances.  If the colors were slightly  more red, it might look too red in that area.  This idea is borrowed from a process known as hue shifting, which will be the next technique you will apply to your art.

Notice how your color ramps are very linear.  You use one base color for a ramp, and simply have a darker and lighter shade of the base color.  Try shifting hues as you go from the ramp.  For instance, as you go up to a lighter red, try shifting it to a more yellow color (orange-like), or as you go down, make it more purple.  This is a common way of shifting hues (lighter is more yellow, darker more blue), but the possibilities are limitless.  The goal is to shift hues with purpose; for instance, in my edit, notice how I shifted the blues in the left arm to a more greenish grey color.  I did this so I can better represent the glow of the blue magic with less blues, so I can add more contrast in the pants shading, and also so it can be used on the staff.  This way, I can do more with less, and that should be your goal.

Poisonous Tom is looking great and will be a perfect piece to practice hue shifting and color conservation with.  Remember to apply these techniques with strategy and intent though.  Don't just do it for technique's sake.  Worst case scenario, linear ramps aren't always that bad, but making ramps less linear can be quite a major technique in most pixel art situations.  Lastly, when thinking about these techniques, don't be afraid of colors that seemingly shouldn't work.  Any color may be fair game anywhere.  A fun thing newbie pixel artist learn is that color doesn't have to literally use tans to be tan, and grass doesn't literally have to use greens to use green. 

Thanks for encouragement, it really helps me go through this rocky begginers path :) .

@Friend I used hue shifting but not correctly, for example most of my colours are chosen by picking startign colour then for tones I just increase hue and lightness number by 15 and for shades just decree by same value. I'll play with colours a bit then I'll rework them both.

@Iscalio thanks for clearing up on what parts to work ill get to it and posibly post thrm in two hours or under.

Again, thanks for encouragment and a lot of useful information.

Thanks :) as I said in previous post I'm currently trying out different tones and shades. Sarah may be up in half an hour to hour and tom hour and a half later :)

Edited by Whoozy - 23 February 2015 at 11:13am

Okay this is the rework i did, not finished, still tweaking colours. I Switched background because she was done mostly in warm colours so i needed her to stand out even though background is just one colour i think it may help a bit, also i used greenish yellow colour as shade for some parts and some sort of cyan for highlights. Her arm is also repositioned so she seems like she is ready for battle with that water ball.

Edit: I changed colour of the ring/gear on staff so it's a bit more noticeable.





here are download links of this one and previous version:
EDIT: Ups xD i really don't know how to give download link...

This are all the files that i have on her.
Mediafire Download

Edited by Whoozy - 23 February 2015 at 1:01pm

Its appreciated that you scale up for viewing purposes but this is not needed.
The forum and the gallery have zoom features.


While the 'less is more' approach in pixelart is something you'll hear often from other pixel pushers its important that you learn technique from this but retain your artistic vision as much as possible.
We all stumble into edits that stem from the technical aspect and affect the original vision but this is something to balance. I see you are picking up the quality on every update and only want to point out to try and balance all this with your concept ideas.
This here is just a visual edit using 13 colors based on the original 256 color (hybrid). Click to zoom.

Tried to increase the readability of the sprite a bit
also reduced and reused a lot of colors.
Thickened up the arms a bit, re positioned the legs.



Edited by Lachrymose - 24 February 2015 at 8:02am

Okay i finished Sarah and im going to post her later in Gallery.



I had to add two colours for steam because if used any dark colour from my pallet it didn't give the same effect.

Edited by Whoozy - 25 February 2015 at 3:01am

Okay i posted Sarah at gallery here is a link Now i can concentrate on Poisonous Tom and Scarlet Knight with this bit of knowledge you all gave me , there will be more information about her in a few days.

@Jalonso
Thanks for the link it helps a lot .

Edited by Whoozy - 25 February 2015 at 1:29pm

Looks great to me.  maybe clean up boots and shadow.  single pixels can look sketchy.  i also wouldnt include the palette in the pic.  for some pieces it doesnt look too out of place, but in your case id leave it out when you submit it

It may not be my place to say as I'm new to pixel art as well, but while the original may not have followed the "rules" of pixel art, I think it was absolutely beautiful and I wouldn't have it any other way <3
If it's meant to be a still, I think it works wonderfully. Rules in any form of art are guidelines, not laws, and sometimes breaking them can have magnificent outcomes. I greatly appreciate the original piece, so please consider that.
At any rate; I'm glad you're also keeping your mind open and learning the guidelines people usually follow. Do keep in mind, though, that they remain guidelines.
Anyway... I've said my peace, and now you know.

I have to agree. The original was good and most probably are ok with it.
The only issue is just the distinction between pixelart and not being pixelart.
Every single PJ member works very, very hard to push every conceivable boundary while staying pure and true because if you don't follow the 'standards(rules)' of the medium then you are not making pixelart.

i dont think the original necessarily fits into any specific medium.  it would either be considered simply as pixel art in common society, but as you bridge off  more into the traditional pixel art community, it could be considered "impure or dirty" pixeling

no you dont have to wait for approval to edit your picture.  however, make sure your edit is acceptable and is pure pixel art.  also, you can include a link to your original in your description, or im sure mods would also accept having a dirty version next to your pure version in the submission.

actually, im curious to know this.  Jal or other mods, what do you think about having a dirty version included next to the pure version in a submission?

Impure pixels are never allowed as gallery art even when its a comparison.
Its is however cool to use the description panel to explain and 'describe' anything one feels which includes images or links to images.
This is simply to avoid any confusion by those who do not or cannot read.

@Whoozy, we trust all PJers when updating a pixel and when something uncool is uploaded some other PJer will find and report it.
fyi, updating is best done using the 'edit it' under the art instead of deleting and submitting anew.

Head is looking just pixels too small. Just an observation.

hehe, hair at this size should only take a few pixels to suggest.




suggestion- the animation could be cooler and more magical.  maybe longer extension or something like ivy's sword from soul calibur


Edited by Friend - 28 February 2015 at 8:42am

looking good!  you are coming along.  your sprites are already fantastic.  I think to take them to the next level, you could look at trying to understand banding, anti aliasing and pixel cluster theory. 

I'd recommend checking out this knowledge by awesome pixel artist, Helm - http://www.pixel.schlet.net/

bout the sword, magical was the wrong word.  i meant perhaps make it more extreme, more "whoa, cool", since a slight range boost seems about redundant to me anyway


Edited by Friend - 28 February 2015 at 1:57pm