Superspongebobbros's big stash of sprites

[superspongebobbros]

Thank you for your commentary on my work.

To start off with, the colors I use for Mario are taken from his official 3D renders from recent years. This wasn't always the case, though; when I first made these sprites his colors were based around the default colors provided in MS Paint, but sometime in 2018 I overhauled the sprites. You can see the original sprites in the last update.

You are correct in assuming that I don't sprite often. I had taken up spriting in 2017, but wasn't seriously into it as I was focused on other projects. By 2019, I had largely moved away from spriting up until the middle of 2020, when I made a few more sprites. In fact, that's one of the reasons why I began to actually use my TSR account, because I wanted to get back in the swing of things. 

Now, as for the process of these sprites... it's strange, since this sprite sheet reflects over 3 years of on and off work (and it shows). Initially, I made many of my original sprites by basically making the finished product as I went, and then going back to touch it up. For more recent sprites, however, I use the shape tool in MS Paint to either form the basis for the sprites or to give and idea of the proportions of the thing I am spriting. 

In the case of the recent sprites of Mario, however, I would take the base pose for running, which has Mario's head and torso, and draw outlines of Mario's one of his arms or legs, and then color and shade it. I have used references to create the running sprites, specifically using running sprites from New Super Mario Bros, and I think this decision has a role in the anatomy problems that you described, since Mario's sprites in the game are made from a 3D model converted into a 2D sprite, which causes the sprite to have an uneven appearance. This, I feel, leads to anatomy inconsistency with the running sprites, particularly with the third frame. Here, Mario's left arm is very short, and his legs being a bit too wide.

Looking back on these sprites as a whole, I have noticed other anatomy problems with Mario's sprites, namely that the size of his arms is inconsistent, with his arms being very short in his idle sprites and longer in his carrying and holding sprites.

I hope that my rambling has given you an idea on how these sprites are made, and I hope to receive your reply.

Interesting.

Personally, I don't think that the shape tools are going to help you right now in terms of making the line work. While it is entirely possible to do that you still need to take into account to have manual control over the pixels as well as being able to have a rough idea of what you are going for. It also kind of seems like you are saying that you are trying to get a clean outline right off the bat which, while there isn't anything wrong with doing that in of itself it takes years and years of practice to perfect doing it in that manner in the same way a professional artist would.

I don't know if you're using a mouse or a tablet to make these but regardless of that I'm wondering if practicing some of the fundamental things with anatomy may help you be able to put into practice these things and help you get more consistent results. For my approach I typically tend to draw out rough line work on one layer then adding another layer with the clean up work in the same way an animator would do for 2D work, and I can't stress enough how that's helped me.

Look into artists like Andrew Loomis, Stephen Rogers Peck, and Burnes Hogarth. Those three artists actually have books on these and I think understanding those guys and their perspectives may help you in developing anatomy. You should also take into account some things like shape, form, volume, etc.

It's a couple steps back from going right into the pixel art medium, but from experience I can tell you that it's better to study some of the fundamental things since it will help you improve immensely moving toward the finished product and get more consistent results more quickly instead of having to go on and off with what you are doing. And that's coming from someone who used to make some rather shitty things that, for the most part have been lost to time when I first really started doing this around 2008/2009ish before I studied art more seriously.

That's the feedback I would give in terms of the process you are going with. Remember, don't get discouraged by the critiques given here. In the long run you're probably going to make about 100 bad works for every one good work you do and even then, you'll find someone who sees worth in some of the works that you deem are bad. That's some advice I got from a professor quite a long time ago.

I wish you all the best in your project.

You have given me a lot to think about. I think that I will put the Mario project on hold for now until I have honed my skills in this regard.