I've already posted this in the challenge thread, but I'm posting it here because I'm hoping that someone can help me with the anatomy and I don't want to totally hijack the challenge thread. I'd really like to improve upon it, as I can see it doesn't look quite right, but I don't know how to fix it.



Any feedback is welcome, but I'm particularly concerned with the face and the hands.

I made an edit, I think it will help:

Mainly I just tried to illuminate the face a bit more, especially the nose and cheek area and I worked on adding light to the orb hand, in particular the thumb, as I figured that when the far side of the sphere gets lighter because of refraction, that would also light up the thumb. Oh and the forehead I worked on too, getting rid of some lines over our left eye to add in an illuminated ridge for an eyebrow.
I wouldn't know dithering so I can't help on the orb but I suggest you apply the same pattern that you have around the candle to really make the orb pop.
Oh and you were missing a fingernail on the right-hand thumb.

Hmm...The hand is a lot better, but something still seems off in the thumb area. It could partially be that the "orb" is not round, but I dunno.

I assumed it was male, I think, because of the width and stiffness of the shoulders, which is in large part due to the robes shape. Now that you mention it, however, I can see from the facial shape that it is female. It can be hard to tell in pixel art because you have so little space to work with, and I think that the shape and detail you've managed to put in the face with so little room to work is remarkable.

I think you need to add the dithering light effect in front of the lantern box and really make the non-glass parts bright to make it look like it's casting light.
And because you have a lighter band on the opposite side of the orb, I think you should draw the thumb just next to the index finger using the orb's palette, so it looks like the orb is transparent and you can see the thumb behind it.

Thanks a lot for your help, guys! Much appreciated.

@Lathien: I've tried to do as you said, but I'm not sure if it worked. What do you think? I added a thumb on the far side of the orb, but it's barely visible.
@Gemist: Thanks, I must have spent a few hours now drawing and redrawing the light from the lantern using different techniques. This latest version is the most acceptable.

max color count to challenge is 32, your piece got over 40.

Well, i would change the light coming from candle more yellowish. Add yellow highlights to face. Also add some blue to all shades. And maybe the eyes could reflect light.

also made little edit for the face.



Edited by Miumau0 - 10 September 2011 at 3:45pm

lol, started make little edit to the robes colors. I may post another edit later. And nice to hear if you liked my face edit :o

I would make the lanters light brighter. :) Looking good :)


Edited by Miumau0 - 10 September 2011 at 5:15pm

@Miumau0: Thanks! Tried to make the lantern light even brighter, but I had to resort to dithering due to the colour restriction, so I'm not sure if it's working.

@GreyScale: Thanks a lot. Do you suggest having less ripples / lines on the left side of the mantle?

I got one comment from the gallery concerning the eyes, which made me think a bit. There are so few pixels to work with at this scale, so there aren't too many options. Still, I'm not sure.
EDIT: On reflection, the comment may have been referring to the eyes in the background, but it still made me think.




Edited by CELS - 11 September 2011 at 4:19am

The eyes in the background are fine, I was referring to the eyes on the wizard.
try to make the eyes more solid shapes rather broken up by stuff.
And maybe make one eye darker then another.
The mouth is rather hard to read, I'm not sure if shes smiling or dying of pain, lol.
Might I recommend to remove the outline from the robbes too, because It makes it look like leather!
But good work are you from Norway, BTW?

nice edit good shadows 

@Neo: Thanks for the advice. Honestly, I was worried that the clenched hand was larger than the hand holding the orb. Maybe you're right though, I'll have a look at it. And yeah, I remember the rule of thirds. I just didn't think to apply it to a portrait. Slow learner, remember? :)

@ Alex: Good point about the outlines. They weren't that obvious before I changed the darkest shade to a bluer hue, but they're really bad right now. Having looked at the different options for eyes, I don't like any of them. The top one looks too asian, the two middle ones look too cartoony and the bottom one doesn't work at all. I rather like their complexity, so I don't mind that they're "broken up by stuff". They're not regular human eyes anyway. In regards to the mouth, I find that it usually works to paint a mouth like a really wide M, as the top lip protrudes at the center. But I guess at this scale, it doesn't really work, so I'll change it. And yes, I'm from Norway.

@Miumau0: Thanks a lot for the edit. It's certainly very pretty, but I'm not so sure about the way you've shaded the robe. After all, the left arm is pretty straight, so the candle is going to be slightly in front of the lady, rather than to the side. For this reason, the candle should cast light on both sides of the robe, and both sleeves, though certainly in varying amounts. I really do like what you've done with the right hand though. Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this! You may see some changes in the way I shade the final version.

I was planning to finish my work this morning and make use of some of the excellent advice from you guys. Unfortunately, I got up too late and now I have to get going.

Nevertheless, thanks for all your helpful criticism, which I'll try to make use of in the future.

@ Mr Special: You like the slanted eyes better? Well, you may have an asian fetish. There's nothing wrong with that :)