Advice/critique on sprite

[captainsugar]

Hello everyone, this is my first time making a sprite, this forum already helped me a lot with sprites tutorials, but i want to know what you guys think? any advice on improving this sprite?
Are the design and expressions okay?, thanks.

[akemicchi]

I like it. :D The design and expressions are well made. Now for critiques:

Some of the lines don't meet on the arms of the right fullbody sprite so it looks a little rushed compared to the left sprite. Also, the forearms of the left sprite are too long, especially when you look at it relative to the thigh and knee. If you compare its size to the sprite to its right, they wouldn't be the same length. I also noticed that the right sprite doesn't have fingernails but the left sprite does. The 'v' crotch seems little too harsh too. I don't think the lines there should be that steep.

In terms of the coloring, there isn't a set light source, and it's most prominent on the hair. It's difficult to understand the form of the hair with highlights and shadows placed willy-nilly. The highlights behind her neck where you'd expect shadows is especially confusing. As long as you determine a light source and stick with it, it should turn out all right.

I'm just nitpicking though. It's really good otherwise. :D

[sendo]

Welcome to the forums!

I love the sprite, it's full of character and i just love her design. The hair though, the transition from turquoise to purple is too abrupt. Maybe soften the gradation?

Your lineart is rough on some parts. What resolution were you working on with this sprite? If you want crispy thin lines, try using a very big canvas; more than 2000px width and height, and then scale it down when you save it. What this does is to thin out the lines and even remove a few mistakes.

Your coloring looks like its suffering from Pillow Shading - you shade from the outline inward. You can improve this by placing your light source in a different position. Right now, the position of your light source is directly in front of the character and while its not necessarily wrong, you would get more interesting results if you position the light source differently... I hope I'm making sense here... I can try to edit your sprite to show you what I mean if you're fine with that?

[angeliza]

Her hair is shiny, the sprite is well made, and the expressions are beautiful...
...not much advice to give here...
...maybe, uh...
...give her an embarassed/flusteredexpression as well?
Of course, she may not need one. Really, it counts on what you plan on using her for, but other than that...
...I've got nothing.
:/
Good work, though!^^

[Fungii]

The only thing that really bothers me is the colour change on the hair is a bit sudden, it doesn't really ease into it like real dye jobs do. I'd make the colour transition a bit longer.

[captainsugar]

Fugii: yes i have a huge problem with gradients, i don't know how to make them i use sai and in this program i put the base color with pen the green and violet and then blurred them out in the middle haha, thanks for the advice i should work in that.

Angeliiza: thanks glad you liked it i was thinking in adding those expressions too

Crestforge: i was working in 585 px width 1209 px height, my lineart is really messy, thanks for the advice on using a bigger canvas usually when i work on an A4 my lines came up cleaner, i have to try to scale them down, i always work in huge canvas and never scale them haha. Yes please edit the sprite if you can that would help me a lot i always have a difficult time with light source, i use only one u.u

Akemicchi: thanks glad you liked the design and expressions, yes i did the second arm possition later and i rushed things, in the forearm i just noticed, it you're right , i also noticed that the first arms are thicker than the second ones, thanks for make me realize that. Yes i always make the "v" crotch like that how i can fix it with thiner and short lines? or just using shading on that part?
Is good that you were nitpicking those details really helped me out

Thanks everyone!!

[Fungii]

There's a super easy trick you can use for gradients in SAI, my friend introduced it to me recently.
It works like this:
Make a canvas that is 1px by 2px, and then use the binary tool at size 1 to choose each colour, like this:

After that, just resize the canvas to say, 1000px x 2000px

Ta da, instant gradient. All you have to do then is paste it into the canvas and use the transform tool, layer clipping and the eraser tool to trim it down and get it just right.

[captainsugar]

@fungii omg thanks so much!! good trick it looks quick and easy, i have to try it out

[angeliza]

You are very welcome!
I'm happy to help.^^

Wait..."v" crotch?
*checks*
Ah! I see it now!
No worries, though, that can be fixed easily...
I'd like to show you how, but I've been kicked off the pc. I'm on my android now.
Hmm...
I suppose I could try my hand at explaining it...
Ok.

In anime, it's not uncommon to find female characters with gaps between their legs that are really just...impossible for the non-mutant human female. I'm assuming that her crotch ends slightly above the first gash in her pants. I could be wrong, since that's going by how I normally proportion girls, not your style. Anywhoose, I suggest you draw the end of the crotch around there, or below, depends on your style, and erase the resulting triangular gap, or, if you made it lower, shade it in the same color as the lines you used.
That should get rid of the v.^^

Hope I helped!

[sendo]

Crestforge: i was working in 585 px width 1209 px height, my lineart is really messy, thanks for the advice on using a bigger canvas usually when i work on an A4 my lines came up cleaner, i have to try to scale them down, i always work in huge canvas and never scale them haha. Yes please edit the sprite if you can that would help me a lot i always have a difficult time with light source, i use only one u.u

585 x 1209 pixels is pretty small in my opinion. What i do is increase the size until it hits 2k resolution or above. For example, if my final sprite size would be 600 x 1000 then i increase it by 200% to get a 1200 x 2000 working canvas (sometimes even as far as 300-400% if there are a lot of details). I work this way because I have messy lineart as well. But I've seen artist who work on lower resolutions and still have ultra smooth line art.

There's nothing wrong with using only one light source . Having more would just make it more complicated, not advisable when you're still learning. In fact, I haven't tried using a lot of light sources myself hehe I'm also still learning so... But the important thing to remember is to position your lightsource in a way that will give the character interesting shadows and highlights - to me, it's almost always above the head and a nudge to the right or left.

Here's the paintover, it's not perfect, but I hope it helps!

[captainsugar]

Angeliza: thanks on the advice i'm gonna try it out.

Crestforge: thanks so much for taking your time in making this, you even fixed the hands, strands of her hair and "v" crotch, i really appreciate that. The hair looks smoother that way and gives a more 3d look to the character and with the different shadows you can give more detail. Glad you like the design . I have to practice a LOT with light source, this was really helpful
i really like your coloring n.n

[angeliza]

You are very welcome.^^

And thanks crestforge! I learned something about cging characters too...
*taking notes*

[sendo]

@captainsugar Well the hands I played around it but I couldn't find the best way to fix it so i kinda just left it like that. Happy to help, and thanks!
@angeliza Hey thanks! Glad you also found it useful

[angeliza]

@angeliza Hey thanks! Glad you also found it useful

I should be thanking you! I've been spending this whole weekend trying to improove my cg by reading tutorials and trial and error, *the results so far are in my art thread, link in sig*, so every little bit of advice helps.^^

[captainsugar]

I did the changes and fixed the shading, the hair still looks strange in the back part but well this is what i could do. I'm gonna practice a lot more so i don't make pillow shading ever again. Have a nice day everyone, and thanks again this was really helpful