My Attempt at Sprite Creation

[FlowerDeath]

This is really my first attempt at a sprite. It's not perfect. I'm not an expert artist, but I'd like some feedback and thoughts from people. The hoodie the character is wearing is just a stupid joke. I learned a lot from doing this sprite (and messing up a lot in the process). The character's name is Justinia.

I would like to do freelance work sometime, but I really want to get a feel for how others think I'm doing before I attempt to do something like that. If I need to brush up my skills first, then that's certainly something I'll work on with diligence. I certainly don't want to try to do freelance if my skills aren't up to par or nobody would be interested. Either way I'm thinking of working on a short visual novel of my own, but I'd rather work on someone else's VN since I'm too busy to write/code one myself.

Neutral Justinia

Neutral Justinia

Blushing Justinia

Blushing Justinia

Sad Justinia

Sad Justinia

Angry Justinia

Angry Justinia

Happy/laughing Justinia

Happy/laughing Justinia

[meiri]

I adore your sprite style, it is just absolutely gorgeous!

Feedback:

• I think you have a good understanding of hand anatomy, but I think you should definitely work towards making them look more alive and less static! Hands are a really special part of the human body, in my opinion.
• From the angle she faces, her left arm (right from the way we are viewing it), should probably a little more "tucked" behind her body. It makes her arms look a little long.
• Her arms are at, maybe, a 90 degree angle. From the pose she's in, she'd look a little more relaxed if her pocket were a little higher, and her arms at a 45 degree angle (by angle I mean the bend of her elbows, by the way!)
• Her thighs are at an odd position.
• I quite like your shading style!
• Your expressions are really great, and it adds depth to your sprite!
• This is more of a technical thing, but you should crop your sprite down to only Justinia. When you try to move the sprite across the screen, using ATL, for example, it won't move because it is the full size of the screen.
• Your hair is very natural and pretty. It looks and sits like real hair would, in my opinion.
• The blush, if you want it to be more realistic,should be a redder,oranger, browner tone.

As for freelance work, Im not a good estimate on whether or not people will pay, but I think your art style would get a good response, as it is very unique and anime-styles are not fitting for all visual novels. I

[FlowerDeath]

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. I got similar feedback from one of my friends about the arms. The technical feedback is especially helpful. I'm not quite sure on all the "mechanics" of sprite creation, although I've done some research.

I suppose as far as "freelance" goes the best I can do is put myself out there and see if anyone takes the bait.

[FlowerDeath]

I made this sprite today, as well:

I haven't made any other expressions so far.

[MaiMai]

This is a nice style of character sprites. I like it!

Color wise though, the values are too similar (unless you're going for a certain mood, but still). What I mean by that is if you squint, you can barely make out any of the shading and different colors you used on your sprites and it's very apparent when it comes to skintone. I think this could be remedied by using complementary colors instead of just a darker version of whatever you were using. Here's this tutorial/reference that probably explains skin tone better than I can:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Skin-Tones-453067403

Something else I would recommend for lineart is that you don't use purely black lines (unless, again, it's a style thing). Something like a dark red/orange/brown would be interesting to experiment with! You can start lineart using black since it's easier to see against a white background and then what you do is lock your lineart layer and then you can color over it without having to redraw anything.

[FlowerDeath]

Thanks. That tutorial is exactly what I need.

[FlowerDeath]

I tried to implement the suggestions I got here in my newest sprite. I hope someone is interested in allowing me to do art for their VN. I don't want to commission yet (my art still needs work), but working for free would give me valuable experience and let me see my art in someone's VN. Nobody has taken the bait, but I'm just gonna keep practicing regardless.

And I refined the coloring slightly on this sprite. He had no color value before. Still not perfect, quick fix but good practice.