First time splicer, would like some help with a few.

[GreatEclipse]

Hello everyone. I've spent the last few months working on the character portraits for my upcoming ROM hack, with 23 currently done and still many more needing to be made. I won't upload them all, at least not yet, just a few I think are really important to get right, or that I know need some work but where I lack the technical skill to know how to go about fixing. I had very little experience with visual art before undertaking this project, and so they are all "simple splices" made from 3 (sometimes 4) existing FE characters. Even if I knew how to make decent full customs, the sheer number of characters in the story I am writing would make drawing them all up an ever more unbelievably time-coming project. With my excuses out of the way, here they are:

Malika: Farina, Tethys, Ismaire

I really like her pallet and oriental beauty, but her neck always looked awkward, given the way her head is turned, which itself always looked a bit strange if you study it careful. As a character, she's extremely important to the story, so I really want to get her right.

Stella: Miledy, Brunya, Cecilia

The early Paladin unit. The big problem for me is her blue cape, it doesn't look like it has any depth in the center. It would be great if someone could give an idea on how to fix it.

Charlotte: Ursula, Louise, Eleanora

Again, problem is the neck; looks awkward, have no idea how to fix. I also think her head looks a bit too egg shaped, but I'm not sure if anyone else will feel that way.

Alexander: Glen, Karel, Pent

Now this guy I think looks perfect, except for when the portrait is flipped.

If you can't immediately tell what the problem is, look at the right side of his neck. I'm not sure if it needs to be widened or shrunk, or which side it needs to happen on. And as always, thank you all very much in advance for your time.

Edited January 4, 2013 by GreatEclipse

[Fateborn]

I'll cut you some break since others doesn't appears to be willing.

Malika has a bit of hair ribbon shading problem. I don't think it's supposed to have light tone shading, it just throws it out of the whack.

Don't overdo the shading on her face, that's your problem. Specifically, her left side of face, (our right) has bad shading. Not to mention her very right side of face has missing shading. The one next to the black outline.

The hair rope lace thingy. Ponytail if you like to call it that.

Some sections has shading problem too. Specifically the one segment at bottom. Looks like it's a custom.

For Stella, the cape thing is because it's not quite large enough to fix your problem on her blue neckcloth thing. I suggests using something different if you dislike that. Orson's cloak would be effective. But that's just personal preference.

Now.

You're not going to like my recommendations for the next two.

Shove their head down.

Yes. You'd hate it, really it's pretty simple because the reason why they looks weird is because their neck looks bit too long comparing to the body. Charlotte (Char :P)'s head should move down about two pixels and moved accordingly to the neck to ear factor.

Alex should just move a bit to the left (our left) and moved down covering a bit of the popped collar.

If someone would like to correct me on these, feel free.

I'm neither pro nor a critique

Edited January 4, 2013 by Ubel Engel

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Right now the biggest problems I am seeing are that your necks are too long. This is mostly because of poor proportions on the base sprites. The other problem I see (mostly with the Miledy/Brunya/Cecilia splice) is that there are no fixes where parts are spliced together. Especially when you place pieces together that don't always fit, you have to make them fit by minor customing. This is mostly true with hair pieces. But you're starting off decent. Keep it up.