11-08-2009, 01:29 AM
Well, I could probably guess that Lovecraft liked ice cream. Who DOESN'T like ice cream? Also, I commend you for doing Lovecraft himself. Coming in here I was expecting Cthulhu.
AND now I feel I should give you your requested crits. Um, as an off note, dark red background muddies it a bit at 100% view. Recommend a change to a WAY more muted color, but whatever.
For ease on me, I'm just going to focus on the one on the left. First off, based on the portrait, he actually tucks his tie into his shirt. While you didn't sprite the portrait, I think it would actually look better with it tucked in. But as it is, the tie looks odd seeing as it's the only solid object without a black outline. It would look more uniform if they matched.
I think his face is one pixel too long, it looks out of proportion. The nose is an odd thing to pixel, seeing as there aren't any hard lines separating things. I think it would be much better handled with shading than a hard black line, as currently it looks like a bubble nose, something that would like right on Mario. Instead of using the black to draw the eyebrows, use the hair outline color to make the eyebrows match the hair and soften the face a little. I would also put the ear another pixel foward, it looks a little far back. Try widening the mouth 1 pixel, the photo makes him look pretty wide lipped.
Aside from the fact that I think he should be wearing a jacket, which, again, doesn't matter, it looks a little odd on the lineart. The side to our right bulges in the middle, which is really odd, and the sleeves look little, um, bendy. HIS left shoulder is a pixel higher than his right, I believe. Actually, looking at it, it looks more like a sweatshirt than like a shirt or jacket. Also, you have a a dark line between the end of the neck and the collarbone-ish area. If there was supposed to be his shirt in that collarbone-ish area, it shouldn't be (mostly) the same color as his skin, which it is. The different colored highlight doesn't help it all that much there.
The outline for the pants is definitely jaggy. In general, I think the pants should be reworked, sorry. If you have a pair of good pants like the ones you'd imagine him wearing, take a picture of yourself wearing them in a pose like him to see how the outlines would look, where the folds would happen. It's also a great teacher on where the shading should go on it. If you DON'T have any, well, try the web here. There's gotta be SOMETHING. In particular, the knee areas look odd. Also, the three diagonal bright pixels near his hands, which I assume to be a pocket, is a little too close the crotch and a little too far down the leg.
I'm not quite sure what's wrong with the shoes, buit they look a little odd. Maybe it's that they aren't on level ground, unlike the rest of the picture. Try some stuff out.
Also, I decided I SHOULD note that in the right one, the arm with the ice cream is too short. As is, it puts the hand about at the end of the tie.
It's pretty good though. You have a good grasp of shading, leaving most of the issues with the lineart. Personally, that's also MY problem. As such, I tend to just color other people's linearts(which reminds me, WHY is there no lineart thread here? Those are always a good idea.) A bit of fixing up, and this should be a pretty good piece. Although I totally think Lovecraft would wear black, not brown.
I agree with Gizmonicgamer too, legs ARE a little short. And while hue-shifting isn't a TOTALLY necessary step, it might look nice.
To emphasize gizmonic's explanation, lets take your base brown color. As you make a highlight color, increase your brightness of the color, and move the hue slider a smidge toward the yellow/orange section on the slider. As you make a shade color, decrease your brightness, and move the slider a little bit toward the dark blue/purple area of the slider. This adds a bit more color to your piece instead of seeming very monochrome-y.
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/pics/10-2.png
See in this image, they took their brightest color, their base, and made a number of progressively darker shades. Instead of staying solid pink the whole time, they moved more and more toward purple with each step. The diagram on the right soesn't really matter.
Good luck with this, it's looking good.
AND now I feel I should give you your requested crits. Um, as an off note, dark red background muddies it a bit at 100% view. Recommend a change to a WAY more muted color, but whatever.
For ease on me, I'm just going to focus on the one on the left. First off, based on the portrait, he actually tucks his tie into his shirt. While you didn't sprite the portrait, I think it would actually look better with it tucked in. But as it is, the tie looks odd seeing as it's the only solid object without a black outline. It would look more uniform if they matched.
I think his face is one pixel too long, it looks out of proportion. The nose is an odd thing to pixel, seeing as there aren't any hard lines separating things. I think it would be much better handled with shading than a hard black line, as currently it looks like a bubble nose, something that would like right on Mario. Instead of using the black to draw the eyebrows, use the hair outline color to make the eyebrows match the hair and soften the face a little. I would also put the ear another pixel foward, it looks a little far back. Try widening the mouth 1 pixel, the photo makes him look pretty wide lipped.
Aside from the fact that I think he should be wearing a jacket, which, again, doesn't matter, it looks a little odd on the lineart. The side to our right bulges in the middle, which is really odd, and the sleeves look little, um, bendy. HIS left shoulder is a pixel higher than his right, I believe. Actually, looking at it, it looks more like a sweatshirt than like a shirt or jacket. Also, you have a a dark line between the end of the neck and the collarbone-ish area. If there was supposed to be his shirt in that collarbone-ish area, it shouldn't be (mostly) the same color as his skin, which it is. The different colored highlight doesn't help it all that much there.
The outline for the pants is definitely jaggy. In general, I think the pants should be reworked, sorry. If you have a pair of good pants like the ones you'd imagine him wearing, take a picture of yourself wearing them in a pose like him to see how the outlines would look, where the folds would happen. It's also a great teacher on where the shading should go on it. If you DON'T have any, well, try the web here. There's gotta be SOMETHING. In particular, the knee areas look odd. Also, the three diagonal bright pixels near his hands, which I assume to be a pocket, is a little too close the crotch and a little too far down the leg.
I'm not quite sure what's wrong with the shoes, buit they look a little odd. Maybe it's that they aren't on level ground, unlike the rest of the picture. Try some stuff out.
Also, I decided I SHOULD note that in the right one, the arm with the ice cream is too short. As is, it puts the hand about at the end of the tie.
It's pretty good though. You have a good grasp of shading, leaving most of the issues with the lineart. Personally, that's also MY problem. As such, I tend to just color other people's linearts(which reminds me, WHY is there no lineart thread here? Those are always a good idea.) A bit of fixing up, and this should be a pretty good piece. Although I totally think Lovecraft would wear black, not brown.
I agree with Gizmonicgamer too, legs ARE a little short. And while hue-shifting isn't a TOTALLY necessary step, it might look nice.
To emphasize gizmonic's explanation, lets take your base brown color. As you make a highlight color, increase your brightness of the color, and move the hue slider a smidge toward the yellow/orange section on the slider. As you make a shade color, decrease your brightness, and move the slider a little bit toward the dark blue/purple area of the slider. This adds a bit more color to your piece instead of seeming very monochrome-y.
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/pics/10-2.png
See in this image, they took their brightest color, their base, and made a number of progressively darker shades. Instead of staying solid pink the whole time, they moved more and more toward purple with each step. The diagram on the right soesn't really matter.
Good luck with this, it's looking good.
![[Image: Altered_photo1_sig.png]](http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/maxdxam/Altered_photo1_sig.png)