Fist study :: Pixel Art Detail

a little rough but nice :D .... dobra anatomija :D

Nice!                                                       

LOL thank you
I guess the few glitches I left here and there actually find it's way proving it's not auto-whatever and possibly that the model was really "live".

People - If you will ever want to fake pixelart by auto-dithering, please at least set the filter close to this :)

(This of course is not autodither and I really like it.)

Frost: thanks for pointing out about wrist, I've re-checked and it seems to be a bit higher than it should be, though I'm sure it was like that while I was drawing. I guess those wrists move around each day :)

Looks good but I think the anatomy of the wrist looks a little weird. The AA and dithering could be improved a lot. Keep it up!

Thanks!! Do you mean anatomy? Bones and muscle apperiance? Just by looking. Well, you do need some practise... being classically trained helps too ;)
Though, better pixeling would further improve it.

how did you get the perfect design? nice work

I used the bluish background to better separate it, but in case of drawing, brown of course :) And after all, I had to justify the blue light comming from the back (my monitor aint that bright btw! :)

Larwick: naah, I will limit myself more rigidly next time. As a photographer, I even worked with 16-bit images for creating some ultra transitions for of up to 10,000 pixels, just in case you're wondering why I have the color number problem :D

I'll notify you of my next pieces, though I'm quite busy these days...
Cheers!

Thanks for posting that!  I like the brown background better since it gives it that drawn quality. 

Thanks for understanding Witch! :)
I wouldn't limit yourself too much, 16 colours max should suffice.
Good luck on your next piece.

Ok, folks, here is the work in progress.
As you can see, it was not started as a *classical* pixelart by drawing outline, filling with solid, doing highlights and shadows etc. Instead I drew it as I would in real life, drawing with different opacities and stuff.
In the meantime, I realised the most important good-pixelart piece factor is small number of colors (limits of ancient computers and color modes like CGA which turned into a rule of pixel art), so I'll be working with 5 colors max, next time. I promisse. Stick to the masses I say.
As I said earlier (baah, who reads it anyway) all those comments will come into consideration when I re-work on this one (I thought I wouldn't do that but anyway).

Thanks everyone!

If it matters I DO believe its 100% pixelart 100% good pixelart. Indeed all the wondering should be flattering.

Do you have the "few in-progress files?"  Everyone would like to see them.

If this were 16 colors and the lines were cleaned up, it would be much more impressive.  But as everyone is saying, it just looks photo trace BECAUSE you didn't put in the extra effort of eradicating those stray pixels, and you're not supplying us with reference or WIP. 

If you really want everyone's respect, you got to prove yourself.  And perfecting your pixels by reducing color count and fixing the AA wouldn't hurt either. 

Can we see thoose w.i.p shots,please?

I'm sure you guys know that telling me I used / traced a photo is a compliment to me, right?
Not believing me I didn't trace anything is an extra one! I hoped to get such comments in fact. But please read pixel art Details "It is not photo or drawing trace, no crap. Plain ol' study."

"... makes the peice look unfinished not stylistic..."

I understand what you're trying to tell me, I really do. The fact is that I'm not pixel-educated artist, but in fact classically-educated artist. And really, after my recent 19th century history of art exam, I've been brainwashed, in a way.
To cut it down, "unfinished" is an often titled given to some artists which progressed from neoclassicism to impressionism and later to realism. I mean, just look at Edouard Manet's painting by which the whole movement got the name Impressionism. They had similar comments too. We can say that he also "made an unfinished painting" comparing to current tradition.
I'm affraid we're actually arguing about style. And don't tell me this has nothing to do with pixelart which has its own rules.

This kind of result is usually due to someone being too devoted to using their reference, and not spending time on their pixelling

I guess this is true, I spent more time looking at my hand and looking silly at night than fixing some jagged pixels here and there. And yes, some transitions seem poor (at middle finger) but I was after the impression of a fist being held strongly, with apparent bone and muscle structure. And I'm sure I made it.
Now, if someone sees some imperfections at 400% -- my hand's not perfect either.

this is a photo trace or you used a photo reference. Thank you.

"lol, that doesn't seem like a useful comment. Which pixels? It looks quite realistic to me, ..."

Maybe because you used a photo ;o?
If you wanna know why I said "wrong pixels" read Larwicks post :p

Please can i see a reference picture? Since you're a photographer i imagine you used one. The lighting and form is good (although may not involve enough depth in the lighter areas), but the actual pixelling is quite poor. This kind of result is usually due to someone being too devoted to using their reference, and not spending time on their pixelling. Anyway, keep it up, do some smaller pieces to work on cleaning your art, choosing better palettes and the general stuff like dithering and AA.

Just checked because of the random colours i noticed around, and you have a colour count of 128. How did that happen?

Ok, i read what you said below. I have to say this weakens the consistency of your art, it doesn't strengthen it. The insane amount of colours and scrappy pixelling makes the peice look unfinished not stylistic, created by someone who doesn't understand pixelling fully. I don't really want to sound harsh but this is true and must be mentioned. I'm sure you'll work on it for next time.

Not many good hands out there. Good job.

But I think you're going to drive jalonso crazy.

lol, that doesn't seem like a useful comment. Which pixels? It looks quite realistic to me, with few corrections here and there (I assume pixelart is to look at 100%).
But thanks for lighting praise... it means a lot to a photographer :D

perfect lighting but wrong pixels :P!

Of course, personal taste is always just like that-personal :)
Now there may be some inconsistencies since I drew for three nights and the light position might have varied a bit. Now, after I check those index- and middle-finger dithers, I do agree there could have been some lighter shades -- will take that into count too.
If I get some more time to work, I might make a softer version of this and perhaps do some background work too.
Thanks everyone for some useful comments!

Well the texture is really just a personal preference.  I love the little bit of the palm you see, it's great but then the really really dark brown dither on the index and middle fingers throws me off a bit.   But again, just personal taste - I'm a soft and smooth kind of person haha.  Anyway, 5*s for you

lol, those wrinkles gave me some pain, though I figured them out, mostly. I really wanted to texture it heavily, I imagined this as a sort of an anatomy study, bones and muscles. Sure, it could've gone with less colours but anyway...
I'll send you progress pictures in a day, I should really go to sleep now

Ohh oooh show us the in progress files - I love watching those step by step animations, one can learn a lot from those!

It's a little too textured for my personal taste, but there's great depth in it and I love the little wrinkles!

Yes, I was thinking of AAing the backside, I probably should.
I guess at my large screen (1600x1200) it doesn't appear so obvious lol
And I could cut on colors, but I was thinking the subtle color differences might improve skin and muscle apperiance. Will re-think again.

Very nice. I think that you should AA the backside, as it's very rough. But nice overall. Are you sure you can't cut back on colors?

thanks for positive comments,
yes, there are some random pixels which need fixing, but I decided to leave it a bit "wild", hoping it might increase the liveness of the hand. I've stolen the idea from some artists like Rubens and Gericault :) I could spend a few hours more to fix / dither everything but I'm affraid it could make a cold sculpture out of it, I don't want a mathematically correct image, just sort of an impression. It's probably more a question of my own trips lol :)

there are a lot of colours in, more than 100.
Yeah, a wee bit much you'd say, but I started this as a small pixel painting, with lots of colours and opacities and later reduced it (by hand!). I wanted to try combining two very similar colors dithering next to each other (ie. dark maroon and dark brown) again, to try to get the effect of vibrating-pulsing, thus to increase liveness. Number of colors was not my concern.
Fist isn't aimed at anyone in particular, but I started it as a gift to those who flamed me because of my messy piece called Portal, and as a further confussion material to those who said my style & skill is incosistent

Love you all, cheers!

Some nice dithering action going on in there.  I see some random pixels here and there, but it's pretty nice.  How many colors is this?  And who are you shaking your fist at?

Yeah, this is really good, nice job. 

Nice job, very realistic.