Like most creative people (I assume) I'm often trying to improve. I came to the realization that, despite getting more intricate and all around better looking over the course of the past 7 years, my sprites all still bear really amateur features. My coloration is limited; I tend to avoid changing colors too much while shading. All of my shading is just lower brightness of the original color. I also still use true black outlines, which make things look flat and amateur.
So I decided to try to move forward with my spriting by changing those things; this is what I came up with.
I started with a basic outline, drawn with a mouse. I predominantly use the line tool to do outlines. I don't know if that's a bad practice or not, I'm just used to it.
I chose to make a sprite of the dastardly Murdergoat.
Next I did something that I've never done before; I made an actual palette. The colors actually change hue and saturation and fade from highlights to black. I picked the third color of each palette and used them to fill.
Next I shaded. I started with the second colors on each palette, then the fourth, then the first and fifth. Usually when I sprite, I tend to avoid having two colors touching when there's a shade between them. With this sprite I just did whatever I thought looked good.
Something I was a bit apprehensive about was changing the outline. I chose colors from the palette that were darker than their neighbors. I only used the third, fourth and fifth colors from each palette. I replaced the outlines where highlights were nearing the it. I imagine it'll be tougher to animate this with the outlines standing out less, but I can always revert to black outlines and then reshade them when I'm finished animating.
Finally I darkened the area around the eye and gave it a fiery glow. I thought it would look cooler.
So yeah, this is the first image I've ever made that I would actually consider pixel art. I'm quite proud of it. I know there's some really talented pixel artists on this site, so I was wondering what you guys think.
Basic principles such as making a palette, having the colors actually change hue instead of just lightness, modifying/removing the outline. Basically all I'm saying is I tried new things. I obeyed the rules, not because I wanted to "buckle down" but because they represent techniques that I have not attempted.
No, actually, JuurianChi, his banner shows that he doesn't follow any of the basic principles. He doesn't select a palette, dither, AA, or remove unnecessary black lines. He's like me in that regard.
Good art with pixels does not always mean pixel art. This conversation is dumb though, don't reply to this.I've never understood palette, but I get what you're saying.
Meh.