Tears of a Clown. (WIP)

[FlyingMonkey]

Hello there TSR. I have been doodling two clown characters on a sketch pad all day, and now I have taken the time to sprite most of them.

Before I do any more I would like to receive some criticism from better spriters. I am open and ready to soak in all your knowledge so please take the time to respond to this.
The idea is "happy and sad." You'll notice that the masks the two are wearing are similar to the drama masks of theater. The girls name is Joy, while the boy's name is Cid. (Though, I am also open to name suggestions.) Also, if I can get an opinion on what palette I should go with that would be a huge help.

Thanks in advance to all those who have aided me!

(PS. I think ImageShack messed with my colors a bit. Nothing major though.)

[Vipershark]

a new member that's actually GOOD at spriting
finally, it's been too long since the last one

[Cobalt Blue]

both character's face features are really low on readbility. if you want to actually portrait them as "happy & sad" without leaving the style you're working with now, i'd either recommend in working in their body language or straigh rework their faces avoiding the use of such a pure black with all these soft, warm colors around. in the latter, you'd need to actually work hard into blending that linework with the rest of the sprite instead of juts throwing it there. such black outlines eat the colors and minor details, not to mention they tend to draw way more attention to them than to the sprite itself due the really huge contrast gap they usually create between other colors.

[Chutzpar]

The happy one doesn't look like she'd actually be able to stand up.
Her far leg's bent, so obviously the weight's not on that.... but her closer leg's leaning backwards, so she can't be resting her weight on that, either.
She's also looking really stiff!

I'm having difficulty bringing up any resources that explain this, so I'll give you an exercise.
Go stand in front of a full-length mirror. First, stand with your weight placed evenly between both legs - like you're standing to attention. It's not very comfortable or very natural-feeling, and it's also static as hell. Avoid drawing people doing this unless they're actually a soldier or something.

Then: shift your weight to one leg. What happens to the leg that's bearing the most of the weight?
What happens to the leg that isn't?
What happens to the angle of your hips?
and - and this is the secret part - what are your shoulders doing in relation to your hips?

In real life it's usually pretty subtle, but I've dug out some more "posed" photos that show what I'm talking about:

(durr hee hee a bum)
Note! The weight-bearing leg is stiff, and the hip is therefore raised. To counteract this, the opposite shoulder is raised.
It tends to be less noticeable in men because of differences in skeletons, but it still happens.

A REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE.
With a drawing or a sprite, you need to exaggerate poses somewhat to make them more readable. Basically, real life is boring - you're aiming to be convincing, rather than realistic.
On the other hand, if you push the hip/shoulder dynamic too far, everyone you draw will look like a stripper. So don't do that.

[FlyingMonkey]

Okay then, thank you all for your comments.

Tachikoma: The happy one doesn't look like she'd actually be able to stand up.

I forgot to mention however, that Joy is leaning against a wall. I just have not yet taken the time to make the wall. But that is the idea I was working with from my sketch pad. Would the same principles of anatomy apply even if she has a wall to support herself?

[Chutzpar]

To an extent, yeah- but since the wall will then be taking most of her weight, you can shift the balance off of her legs a bit. The bent leg will still be supporting some of her weight though, so you still need to keep balance in mind!

I did actually wonder after I composed the wall of text if that was what she was meant to be doing. x:

[Cobalt Blue]

may not be the case(you might even consider as a point of advice), but if the viewer can't identify she's suposed to be leaning agaisnt a wall easily forcing you to "explain" to the viewer what is she doing, makes the said explanation sound more like an excuse rather than anything.

[Chutzpar]

Yeah, you might be right. Apart from in cases of extreme stupidity, if you have to explain what's happening visually, you've probably fluffed up.

I'm gonna regurgitate this:

With a drawing or a sprite, you need to exaggerate poses somewhat to make them more readable. Basically, real life is boring - you're aiming to be convincing, rather than realistic.

What I mean is, it might be worth pushing the pose more so that she's leaning further back, so it'll make it less ambiguous.

---

I feel I should add, this part is definitely up to you. The pose will be much less ambiguous if you add a background, but as it is, you kinda have to make it obvious for the viewer, since we have no context for her pose.
You could also try raising her off leg off the floor entirely and having her rest it against the wall instead. It'll break up the pose a little too, so that it's not so straight up and down.

[FlyingMonkey]

I appreciate you two helping me out.
I'm going to start it over from scratch and add the advice you've given me.

[Kriven]

Just gonna say that I immediately knew she was supposed to be leaning against a wall just from the pose. I never once thought she was just standing in open space.

[Nindo]

I didn't realize this until now, but Cid who is supposed to be representing sadness, has more of the facial expression of boredom.
I'd recommend making the mouth a bit more agape, and making the eyes way more expressive. Opening the eyes wider would definitely help.

[Neoriceisgood]

Do you have any example images of what you imagined her/their hair to be like? I feel like there's some problems with the general shaping of the hair, but I'd have to have some more insight into your intentions to figure out what you really wanted to do with it.

[Jovian-12]

for palette, I'd suggest going with white/pink as opposed to the skin color. for Joy especially, the pinkishness of the skin sort of mushed into her hair/body color for me, and thus all the parts blended together. white helps each limb to stick out, and since her face is framed by her hair, it won't bleed in and become unreadable.

[FlyingMonkey]

Do you have any example images of what you imagined her/their hair to be like? I feel like there's some problems with the general shaping of the hair, but I'd have to have some more insight into your intentions to figure out what you really wanted to do with it.

Well Cid was supposed to have a gelled mullet kinda hair style, while joy was to have something close to this:

I'm afraid though that they both came out a little differently than I had imagined.