Pixel Joint Forum: His name is Art (portrait)

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Reference picture (Source (Dutch))
List of used colors

So, actually when I registered here a few days ago, I did it with the idea of posting my pixel art here for criticism, however I was hesitative of posting my pixel here at all because I didn't think it was any good. But after having worked on it some more I now feel it at least post-worthy for this forum. I have absolutely no idea what experience level you're used to on this forum, so I have no idea if this is any good, but this is actually my first serious take at pixel art. I have done simple pixel art before, but that was always in the context of games, never as a discipline of itself. It was actually from a game idea that I needed portraits, but I started to like it, so I took this a step further and tried to create a serious pixel portrait of an existing person.

And my model of choice is Art Rooijakkers. Art is a Dutch television host that probably noone outside the Nederlands and Flanders will have ever heard of. So, why him? Well, for one, his name is Art yet (almost) no one ever draws him. Notice I changed the perspective to full frontal because this way it looks the most like a "profile picture" which means I could use it in a game if I would want to.

Anyhow. This topic is not about Art, it's about pixels. I'd like to have some comments, tips, suggestions on the pixel itself. Preferably about everything you can think of.
Proportion, anatomy, expression, etc. Colors, shading, etc. Clothing, and everything else that catches your attention. I essentially don't know how anything about how to draw clothing, so I just did something there. Any tips on that?

Thanks in advance for any feedback :)

Edit by self: added (portrait) to topic title

Edited by Erik Leppen - 28 January 2011 at 8:38am

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Erik Leppen Seaman Joined: 22 January 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 9	Topic: His name is Art (portrait) Posted: 25 January 2011 at 3:57pm
	Reference picture (Source (Dutch)) List of used colors So, actually when I registered here a few days ago, I did it with the idea of posting my pixel art here for criticism, however I was hesitative of posting my pixel here at all because I didn't think it was any good. But after having worked on it some more I now feel it at least post-worthy for this forum. I have absolutely no idea what experience level you're used to on this forum, so I have no idea if this is any good, but this is actually my first serious take at pixel art. I have done simple pixel art before, but that was always in the context of games, never as a discipline of itself. It was actually from a game idea that I needed portraits, but I started to like it, so I took this a step further and tried to create a serious pixel portrait of an existing person. And my model of choice is Art Rooijakkers. Art is a Dutch television host that probably noone outside the Nederlands and Flanders will have ever heard of. So, why him? Well, for one, his name is Art yet (almost) no one ever draws him. Notice I changed the perspective to full frontal because this way it looks the most like a "profile picture" which means I could use it in a game if I would want to. Anyhow. This topic is not about Art, it's about pixels. I'd like to have some comments, tips, suggestions on the pixel itself. Preferably about everything you can think of. Proportion, anatomy, expression, etc. Colors, shading, etc. Clothing, and everything else that catches your attention. I essentially don't know how anything about how to draw clothing, so I just did something there. Any tips on that? Thanks in advance for any feedback :) Edit by self: added (portrait) to topic title Edited by Erik Leppen - 28 January 2011 at 8:38am
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Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 25 January 2011 at 5:28pm
	Your piece is good, but there is way too much dithering. I understand the man has a lot of freckles, but I think you went overboard. I suggest you get the forms down, with no dithering, and then you add in the freckles. Good luck! Edited by Adcrusher524 - 25 January 2011 at 5:28pm
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r1k Commander Joined: 01 April 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 336	Posted: 25 January 2011 at 6:40pm
	first, no need to be nervious about the quality when posting. After all, we're here to help you, not ridecule you. The way I see it, the worse you are, the better reason to start a thread. That said though, this isnt bad, but it suffers from the two things that I see people doing portraits for the first time do: over dither, and overly gray/brown desaturated skin tones. Right now your dither is serving more as noise. Its because its just everywhere. There needs to be places with no dithering so our eye can rest. Simply and busy need to coexist, not dominate one over the other. Dithering is generly used as more to create a buffer of color between two shades. Using it to suggest entire areas of new color isnt good because, well you can just create a new color for that. The skin tones are too grayish brown. Seems like alot of people do this, maybe the underestimate just how colorful reality really is. So I made this the top row is colors taken directly from the photo, the bottom row is your colors. See how dull and brown yours look now?
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Erik Leppen Seaman Joined: 22 January 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 9	Posted: 26 January 2011 at 8:59am
	Thanks for the two quick replies I have no time to experiment right now, but I might as well answer to the tips. The dithering was an attempt to make the shapes more "round" and three-dimensional. I had the feeling that without much dither, large areas of solid color would suggest "flat surfaces" which is not what I want. But I'll look into this whether I can get the same effect with less dither. Actually @Adcrusher524: I didn't even think about freckles actually (not sure I even noticed them at all...). But I think that those are too small of a detail to even render at this scale. About the colors. That's interesting r1k. It might be over-compensation because I just didn't want him to appear sun-burnt But I'll try out your palette when I have more time. EDIT Update! I guess you guys were right on both accounts. I reduced the dither and introduced the two intermediate colors. I still have dither though, but not as much and indeed it seems to look smoother now. Although when looking closely I can also see the "banding effect" which I don't like. I updated the skin colors as r1k suggested. I didn't use the exact palette given by r1k, but something close to it. After doing that I decided to redo the hair colors too because there looked too grey too. It looks much more vibrant now. Also I changed the shirt and background color. This is no guarantee that those will not change again the next revision though Finally I made some small changes to the eyes and moved the whole cheek one pixel down. I believe that's it for now. More tips please! (but everything else is welcome too) I'm still not completely convinced by the smile and eyes. EDIT 3 February Topic dropped off first page & I'm happy with the result -> Onto the gallery... Edited by Erik Leppen - 04 February 2011 at 4:15pm
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