SolidEmerald's Custom Pokemon Sprite(s) [Updated January 16,2011]

[SolidEmerald01]

Well first of, Hello I am new to the forums but not to spriting.
This is a Mugshot(HG/SS, B/W) Style for May(Ruby style)



Overall I really like how it came out, even though for some reason when I look at it, it seems something is missing or looks wrong. Maybe you guys will notice



Again, I like how it came out, but I do think it needs to be re shaded (Like around the edges and such.)

Hope you guys enjoyed, I'll be bringing more soon.

[Gors]

the base is good, but you need to study the Pokémon style a little more to make it style-perfect.

first of all, you are barely shading things. While Pokémon sprites aren't well-known for strong contrast, they still determine the shaded areas in a noticeable way.

Another thing is that you're using jagged lines for some parts. This is tricky because Pokémon style isn't exactly anti-aliasing happy with their sprites. Keep those to a minimum and try smoothening out the lines as much as you can without recurring to aliasing techniques.
You are also banding your lines. Ditch them as they're completely useless.

Finally, use selout in your sprites. Pokémon style uses selout throughly in their sprites, so using them will only make your sprite better. You kind of used it on the battle sprite, but it is pretty random and overall ugly.

Selout is pretty tricky to pull off nicely, because using it way too much or randomly destroys the lineart (on the other way, the lack of it might give your sprites a flat feel). Use black lines only in parts that suggests volume and/or is hidden of lightsource (like the difference of line width when drawing with ink pen), and if you're using selout, then use it on the whole sprite (in your case, you selouted the limbs, but not the head. Why?)

[Cobalt Blue]

selout is basically strategycally "shading" parts of the lineart. the idea is that you'll gain an "extra" pixel of mass in the character without having to add another pixel besides the lineart itself. most of the time is used in low sized sprites to keep or improve the readbility, but selout itself its an extremely risky technique since most of the time it either works in extremely specific contexts or backgrounds, and nowhere else.

[death_poetry]

May looks good

[Alpha Six]

And this is your third. Please look at post dates in the future.