Zelkami

I meant the spot you circled in green, but the other section could also use a teeny bit of improvement now that I'm looking at it. Also I was more referring to the skin underneath the hair, not the hair itself.

It's a very good start, but it doesn't look quite finished. The headband is all jagged, and the shading underneath the hair on the right side of her face is nonexistent. Also, it doesn't look like you merged it onto Brunya's body properly, like you just panned the body underneath the face's layer and left it at that.

Not the pose necessarily, but try to change the look of the character more. The two examples you have right now are very clearly Tana and Marisa. If you're aiming to make a project with an original characters and story, you'll want them to look different. This can be as simple as mix and matching the hair, face, and body of three different characters, but you should generally try to be more creative when combining assets. If I didn't explain that very well, here's an example of how to go further with splicing by Taoamr.

It doesn't actually matter as long as it's different from the rest of the colors. Ideally it should be something light and pale so you can see your work better, but I don't think there are any actual color restrictions.

Remember, those 16 colors include the mandatory background color, so your character is really only allowed 15 colors on it. You'll also need animation frames if you want it to function properly.

Another thing worth noting. This sprite looks like it goes over the 16 color limit. If you want to use this in an actual hack, you won't be able to insert it.

If these aren't for practice, and you're planning on using them in an actual project, you should try to be more transformative. This isn't exactly required or anything, but it will make for a more defined final product with it's own identity.

Very good for a first time. Nice and clean, and you've made good changes to the source items. A couple things I would fix though. Red isn't a bad color for this guy, but Amelia's color makes him look like a silly strawberry. Might just be me though. His collar could also probably be shaded a bit better. Looks very flat currently.

I'm not going to critique these new guys specifically, but I'll use them as an example as they're fairly emblematic of a common problem in your work. You seem to only be using base character sprites like a character customizer, taking hairs, faces, pieces of clothing as they are, and sticking them together. Your 3rd sprite for example, it's painfully obvious it's just Vaida with Fir's ponytail and Garret's shoulder armor. You'll get much better results if you take it further. Don't feel tied to a single piece, and don't be afraid to make minor corrections. Here's a visual example made by Toaomr in case I didn't explain that very well.

I guess that's fine if you're just for yourself, but you should still try to keep track of what pieces you use from which artists, just in case.

Here's the sheet in question, but you do have to get direct permission from the artist to use these.

I don't know who Astra is, but here are some sprites that are completely free reign to use.

You should upload your sprites in their original, unzoomed resolution. This way they can be judged properly. Just going by eye though, here's what needs fixing. From left to right: 1. Good job on the hair and face. I'm having a hard time telling where you got your pieces from, which is a good thing when it comes to splices. Everything from the chin sown needs work though. He needs more shading on the neck to make his chin stick out a bit more. His armor could also be touched up. It's clear you're trying incorporate Ephraim's armor, but it's not done well. The way the cloth attached to the shoulder armor made sense. Here, it's not clear what's supposed to be going on. 2. Simple fix. Needs more shading on the forehead and neck. It looks very flat. Also, round out that cheek of his. It's unnaturally sharp. 3. Yikes, where to start with this guy. His chin isn't properly outlined, so it looks like it's stuck to his neck. Even if it were outlined properly, that doesn't change what a poor fit it is. The way the body is positioned, his head should not be facing at that angle. If you're dead set on using Geitz's body and Hector's face, I'd redo the whole thing with the version of Hector's face that's facing the player. You should also at least recolor the body to differentiate it from Geitz. 4. Nothing much wrong with this one. His hair looks kind of flat though, so it could be shaded better.

I think the other two put it a bit more eloquently than I could, so I won't delve too much into where they've already gone. As for the splices themselves, they're not great, but I've definitely seen worse. There's a bit too many to go into individually, but there is one common theme I can see that needs to be addressed. Color consistency. You're clearly using colors from both the FE6/7 and FE8 palettes. If these are all going to be part of one game, you need to settle on one or the other. I'd also suggest you try to be a bit more creative and ambitious with your design choices. None of the characters really stick out from the crowd or catch the eye. Not every character necessarily needs to be a stunning bastion of originality, but there's not a lot of inspiration on display here. The lady with the bandanna and the purple braids, and the smug looking green guy are a step in the right direction. More of that please.

Nanna's feather was bugging me so I fixed it a bit. Added a her necklace, and updated her minimug to be more accurate.

New first one is much better. The circlet looks a bit off center, but it's great otherwise. For the second one, I think you may need to find a new head to use as the base. I think the problem lies with the angle of the neck.

Thanks. I thought there was something wrong with it fundamentally. This sounds like stuff I can fix. Will get back to it at some point. This one took way too long and still has room for improvement.

First one isn't awful, but it needs work. The way his head is positioned and sized makes it look like his armor doesn't fit on him right. You can fix this by either altering or replacing the the shoulder pads, or repositioning the head from the neck up. If that doesn't work, you may have to reattempt the face entirely. I can't tell what colors you used, but the hair looks very out of place. Lastly, this might be just me, but the outline on this guy looks oddly jagged, like there are some extra black pixels that don't need to be there especially around the chin and collar area. The second one is really nice though. Simple and effective. However it does have a couple tiny issues. It's clear you used Sonia's hair, but you need to make more alterations to it the way you're using it. Sonia's hair drapes down her back, while on this lady, it's going over her shoulders. It's fine if you want to do that, but instead of extending the hair in a way that looks natural, you just cut it off, so that it looks like it's hanging in a way it shouldn't be (See the hair on our right) Thankfully, this is an easy thing to fix. Just take some other hair, and paste it over. You'll obviously have to recolor and make manual edits, but it'll look a lot nicer either way. The second issue, is that her eyes are just a teeny bit mismatched. They look to be different sizes, and the one on the right has more dark colors in it, making it look more emotionless and glazed over. They also look like they're staring in slightly different directions. They're close enough that it might be excusable and overlooked, it's just a small thing I noticed.

Yeah, you always want to be using either GIMP or Photoshop, or anything else that has layer functionality. Anyway, sorry if my notes are a bit sparse, I'm a little stretched for time right now. 1. Nothing much wrong with this one. Eyes look a bit off center, and she could use some more shading under her chin. 2/3. Again, nothing really glaring with these two, other than this weird anomalous jag on the outline to the left of the eye. 4/5. #4 is the better of the two. The colors work better. The pose gives his headband's motion a bit more realism, and the chin is less boxy. Skin color also seems a bit off on both of them. #5 has some really weird shading on his neck also. 6. The issue here I think is mostly with the outline. It's kind of hard for me to tell with it offsetting everything else. 7/8. Good idea here, but it could benefit from using a different face. The angles of the head and neck don't sync up, so it looks like her head isn't quite on straight. 9/10. Again, more coloring issues. It looks like you used 6/7 colors for the skin and eyes, and SS colors for the hair and clothes. For #9, the place where the ponytail ends connects with the back of the head needs shading. 11. This one is pretty good. It'd be improved greatly by getting rid of that hair nub that inching over her cheek. 12. Very good, but I can't help but feel that the coloring is off somehow. I can't tell what though, so disregard this if you choose. 13. Nicely done, except for the blemish in the middle of his face. I can't tell if it's supposed to be a wrinkle or a scar. If it's supposed to be a wrinkle, it needs to be less harsh. It's easy to look at examples of other characters to help distinguish the two. 14. Outline is the wrong color, and the cheek is too angular. Not much else to say. 15. All the problems with this one are in between the eyebrows and mouth. The eyes look like you used Lute as a base, and then edited them. If that's what you did, that's fine, it could probably use more cleaning however. The hair on the side of her head closest to the camera doesn't look like it fits there. Her ear is also oddly lumpy looking. 16. Head band seems like the wrong color, and the face looks a bit uncanny valley-ish. Good design other than that. 17/19. I think you'll have to change the outlines on these two. It makes them look all buggy. 18. This one is really nice. Not too much that needs to be changed. Maybe add some more shades of color to the pauldron? 20. Another good one, nice and clean. The only weird thing about it, is the shoulder armor makes it look like one of his shoulders is bigger than the other. Cloud. Face looks very pinched, and the custom spikes don't look like what they're supposed to represent. Good job on the body though. Feels like it could be a bit wider however. Squall. I already told you all the problems with him in my previous note.

I'll make some more detailed comments later, but I might have a solution to your color changing problem. If you're using GIMP, sometimes it puts a random color limit on the image. You can get rid of it by going to Image>Mode and changing Indexed to RGB.

Your splices are good for the most part, but I think you have two common issues: Eyes and coloring. The best example I can make for coloring is the final guy on the bottom row. (Is that Squall?) To me, it looks like you've used fe6/7 colors for the hair and face, SS colors for the collar, and custom colors for the armor. Generally you want to hold off on custom colors until you have a better idea of what colors look good together, but the main issue is the mixing of palettes. If you want to use palettes from both games in a set of portraits, that's up to you, but you generally don't want to mix them on a single character. The difference in tones is really distracting. I also notice that some of the units in your collection have outlines that are just pure jet black. Don't do this either, because it makes the entire portrait look really off. Stick to the dark purple the other games use. As for the eyes, I appreciate that you're being ambitious, but eyes are some of the hardest things to custom. For now, you should stick to using preexisting eyes, and only make edits where you have to. You're also making a lot of smaller errors in your splices, but these are things that you'll learn to spot and avoid with practice. If you'd like me or someone else to go over the ones you have now, you could label them individually to avoid confusion.

How much customing are you doing? I can tell where most of your splice pieces are coming from, but parts of your faces and eyes look misshapen in places. (see second guy and Pegasus Knight)

I'm not dead I swear! Trying to splice with hands a bit more. Definitely needs work though.

Totally not a bump. Finally done with Malice I hope. Nanna portrait I did for the Echoes competition. Both portraits are based off SS colors and are fully insertable.

"Paired units have no place in Valentia" Nagalujah