Em's Splicing Attempts

[Emerson]

So, um... Hi. I'm a bit new here. Not to Serene's, just this part of the forum.

I haven't done any work on Portraiting before now, and I kind want to start.

I have an unfinished splice here...

Erk body, Forde head.

I think I have the body done, but I'm not 100% final on the neck (It is absolutely disgusting now that I look at it). And, obviously, it has no hair. I currently can't find any I like and fits.

I may add some details as well to it later. Just because.

If I make more splices (Or finish this one), I'll add it to this. I do plan on making more.

Any constructive criticism and or tips would be appreciated.

Have a nice day.

Edited October 2, 2016 by TrueEm

[MrStarster]

Well, the shading for the most part on the clothes seem really good to me. I'm not very good at busts but the color choice on the clothes are pretty good. The only thing is the blue outline. its... odd? Pretty out of place but since you never finished I'll assume you didn't mean to have it blue. You really should add some hair though. Fine some quickly! slap it in there! lol. Nah, just take your time. As for the neck... feels a bit big. maybe a pixel or two smaller would fix it. Though all this might just be woobly wobbly since I really haven't had much experience in spriting busts. Still, you should keep at it. You can only get better as you keep practicing.

[Emerson]

Well, the shading for the most part on the clothes seem really good to me. I'm not very good at busts but the color choice on the clothes are pretty good. The only thing is the blue outline. its... odd? Pretty out of place but since you never finished I'll assume you didn't mean to have it blue. You really should add some hair though. Fine some quickly! slap it in there! lol. Nah, just take your time. As for the neck... feels a bit big. maybe a pixel or two smaller would fix it. Though all this might just be woobly wobbly since I really haven't had much experience in spriting busts. Still, you should keep at it. You can only get better as you keep practicing.

Thank you :3.

I was experimenting with the Blue outline. I thought it looked... ok. Not really sure what other color to use. Erk's original was a faded purple, and that looked ok as well, but I felt the blue worked better. There's probably a better color for it though. Possibly a darker and faded blue would work... Although I'm not changing the undershirt, that looks good.

I just kinda made this up real quick. On a crappy laptop. I'll have access to my better computer (and more time) tomorrow, so I'll work on it then.

Thank you again :D.

EDIT: Y'know, I'll probably just go black on the outline.

Edited July 19, 2016 by TrueEm

[Eliwan]

I was experimenting with the Blue outline. I thought it looked... ok. Not really sure what other color to use. Erk's original was a faded purple, and that looked ok as well, but I felt the blue worked better. There's probably a better color for it though. Possibly a darker and faded blue would work... Although I'm not changing the undershirt, that looks good.

Every GBAFE mug uses a purplish outline. FE8 uses a different one than FE6/7 do, but all FE6/7 mugs use the same outline color and all FE8 mugs use the same outline color.

It's not a color neutral black because that reduces the vibrancy of the whole set-- a truly neutral black can easily seem to siphon the liveliness out of a piece and make things feel drab or bleak.

Purple is used probably for a few reasons--

a. Blue and purple are colors that have a low value (closeness to black),

b. Purple is a color that easily ramps* to black and is visible doing so often in life (a few moments after the sun finishes setting, particularly).

c. Purple transitions well from the skin tones.

*transitions? Your colors are, since not single tones, actually "ramps"-- like the skin colors that you have are a ramp, & you can do a lot with that.

Expanding on C: This makes it look not unnatural when you use the outline color for details on the face, usually in the eyes and eyebrows.

Regarding the actual pixel art itself; the neck on his right-- the left side of the canvas-- looks extraordinarily awkward given the angle his head seems to be at.

On the other side, there's no transition between the third and second skin tone combination and the outline color-- which makes it look completely separated from the cloak. It really needs some transition--using the other flesh tones already in palette-- to not look awkward. The chin line also doesn't follow shading down the rest of the neck-- which makes it look out of place; as it casts a shadow in one place but not in another.

You have a lot of colors that are close-- all 3 of the colors that you use on the trim component of Erk's cape, in particular, are very near to one another, and are not really distinguishable.

You also left the skin tones from the original mugs in their place-- this creates more "chaos" within the pixel art instead of a "unity" which is usually sought for to make everything look more like it belongs.

[Emerson]

Wow, not updating for 2 months? Maybe this IS a real art thread!

I got busy with school, so I just started messing with stuff again recently.

I might try and be more active with my splicing if I feel like it.

Have fun criticizing the heck outta my stuff I guess.

This is 3 versions of the same thing, with the last only being a minor edit.

EDIT: 10/3

Some more stuff.

also i just noticed i forgot to shade their necks frick

Edited October 4, 2016 by TrueEm