Something I might actually use... Tried again.

[Hoeloe]

The interesting thing is that the pose of the larger one is almost a perfect re-scaling of the smaller one. Of course, with a few edits to embody the difference in size, but they more or less overlap neatly, which is why I'm having trouble seeing why it's unnatural. It's definitely to do with the legs and feet, but I can't for the life of me tell WHAT about them...

[StarSock64]

Those legs combined with that straight spine makes the whole thing look really uncomfortable. I don't think the back leg should be bent that much, it doesn't really fit and if you account for the differing angles, that leg is probably longer than the other one. Try using a reference.

Also the scarf makes the neck look...really long. I think you should move the head down and, if it starts to feel less thick than you want it to, just have the scarf overlap some of his torso

[Hoeloe]

Okay, that makes sense. I'm still not sure about the whole scale of the sprite, either, to be honest. The first one was too small, and I think this one is too big... I'll have a look into that leg issue regardless. When drawing this, I did photograph myself with a webcam for the basic bone structure, and I used Fire Emblem sprites for reference while drawing the smaller sprite. I think, with minor edits here and there, I may well have diverged from the original references, though, so I'll check that over.

Perhaps I didn't convey the fact that the scarf is covering half of his face well enough? When I originally drew his chin, it went down to nearly the bottom of the scarf. It's not the case in the smaller sprite, but I changed it when moving it up. Regardless of why it appears that way, it's still an issue that needs fixing.

[Hoeloe]

Attempt no.3!

This one is about halfway between the sizes of the first two. It uses one extra colour because the metal using only a white and a grey shade wasn't working for me...



I think I might need to darken the metal palette, because the lantern is barely visible...

I also suddenly see the awkwardness of the large sprite. I hadn't quite appreciated just how awkward it looked before...

[Hoeloe]

Made some minor edits, including making the metal palette darker. I think it's a little more readable now, but it's still not perfect...

Other edits include lowering the head, expanding the scarf, fixing some banding, altering the shading on one of his boots.



Could I get some comments on this, please? I want to know if I'm going in the right direction.

[StarSock64]

I really think you need to exaggerate the light source more. Making his head so bright even though it's far away from the light source isn't really helping. I think adding just a few more shades would be beneficial for showing the effects of the light, specifically on his blue shirt. I know you want the game to be dim, but I think making bright spots in the area immediately around the lantern would be more striking and make it more clear that there's a lantern there. Because it's...still really hard to read behind his hand

The sword is really hard to read too. The shake is just kind of blended together , the little shading you tried to use to define the shapes really isn't visible at all, and it seems to be overlapping spots that don't make sense. You should probably make it stick out more or at a different angle and simplify it to a silhouette that's easy to read.

I wish I could give an example or something for all this, but I don't think I could pull it off in a way worth showing.

[Hoeloe]

Okay then, I think I can manage that. I can try and dim down his head, and also put some highlights around the lantern. I wasn't too happy with the sword, either. I might actually make it generally bigger, which might help with some definition on it.

Thanks for the comments.

[Hoeloe]

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I have new stuff to show! I haven't been able to work on this for a while due to my university work piling up near the end of term, but now I have two new things to show. First was one I started a while ago but only finished recently, which is the same sprite with updated shading:



The second is a totally new one. My girlfriend bought me a copy of "The World Ends With You" for my birthday, and the sprites were very similar in style to what I had in my head, so I did something after analysing the sprite of Joshua. It's not identical in style, but the anatomy is very similar.



Let me know which is better.

[Gwen]

Second one, I'm going to say the second one is the best of the two.

[Shade]

Yeah, I'd have to agree.
I like the second one more!

[Hoeloe]

I made some minor edits to the second one to boost readability slightly.

I also desaturated the palette, going back to my original idea of having it "washed out". One is slightly desaturated, and the other is very desaturated.

[Shade]

The desaturated version adds more readability if you ask me.
I like it!

[Hoeloe]

Which desaturated one is best, do you think?

I would also appreciate any comments or criticisms other than that.

[Hoeloe]

Drew another character and the sprites for facing the other way (Not bothering too much about the lightsource being from one hip now, otherwise I'll never be able to finish all the graphics I need). Something seems off about her, though... I think it's the hat...

EDIT: Made some edits to her. I think it's quite a bit better, now, but the hat still doesn't look quite right...

[Hoeloe]

Redid her hat. Looks more like it's supposed to, now.