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[mendonca]

good advice

Thanks kazi, much appreciated, lots to think about. I don't like drawing clothes - hence the spandex jumpsuits

On the subject of sprite scaling, I used to draw very big sprites, at quite high detail, and scale them down. Trouble is, I found that 95% of the time would be spent in the 1:1 stage, so personally I find going too detailed at big scales as a waste of time. I might draw a super-rough 4 or 6 colour sprite at a non-specific big scale prior to scaling down, but wouldn't want to spend any more than 20 minutes at this stage, normally. All the iterations can happen at 1:1.

[star_sektor]

The mounts kinda ruin it imo.

[Psiyon]

Those Guardian PD systems are adorable.

[kazi]

good advice

Thanks kazi, much appreciated, lots to think about. I don't like drawing clothes - hence the spandex jumpsuits

On the subject of sprite scaling, I used to draw very big sprites, at quite high detail, and scale them down. Trouble is, I found that 95% of the time would be spent in the 1:1 stage, so personally I find going too detailed at big scales as a waste of time. I might draw a super-rough 4 or 6 colour sprite at a non-specific big scale prior to scaling down, but wouldn't want to spend any more than 20 minutes at this stage, normally. All the iterations can happen at 1:1.

Me too, hate drawing clothes and I suck at coming up with stuff that looks futuristic-ish/not *** looking (there are a lot of my portraits that simply had to die unfortunately).

Also, agree with your downscaling advice. Although downsizing makes things prettier because mistakes get lost, fine details get lost as well. To avoid redoing all that, I do ship spriting at 1:1 resolution almost all the time. That said, my portraits seem to be the complete opposite- I start at 512x512 then downscale right before the end. Not really sure how to reconcile the difference, but it could be that I paint them completely differently (ships are mostly done by mouse, portraits are via tablet).

[mendonca]

Drawn with references, at 512x512:


Iterated with references (damn extra clothing can wait):



I feel like I've got to a 'better' step 1 with a lot more concentration on real pictures / forms of faces to build the portrait up. Also very much appreciate having the extra level of resolution to toy with details at 4x, so that is something I'll keep. Still will need at least another pass, which can wait for another day after I've had time to reflect.

The face shape / nose placement etc. feels much better and will need far less work to re-shape etc. at the next stage.

[kazi]

I tried out painting again on linux (my only computer now is an ubuntu laptop after moving). Took me freaking forever to get the stupid tablet to work properly with the computer, I actually had to set up a couple udev rules and shell scripts to keybind the tablet buttons everytime it gets plugged in (for whatever reason, the Ubuntu Wacom tablet settings menu can't seem to set a keybind for just "ctrl" or "shift" and deactivate touch input).

Anyhow, here's the workflow of how I normally paint portraits... I don't use any fancy brushes, just Krita's pen and digital thingy you get from the right-click menu.

Scribble out a general outline -> draw a much cleaner set of lineart (still scribble-y) -> paint a bunch of colors underneath the lineart -> adjust colors to something I like -> add some basic lighting -> start painting on top of everything

Basically applied this to a new portrait-ish painting (I simply like doing them)- started out at 1280x800 (native Android tablet resolution, also downscales perfectly to Starsector's 640x400 interaction images) and worked from a couple references I got from google searching "ceremonial robes" and "female portrait photography".

VERY WIP (not even 33% done)


reference 1:

Spoiler

[close]

reference 2:

Spoiler

[close]

imgur album with screenshots taken at various points during the painting process to illustrate how I was doing things: http://imgur.com/a/7aBnO

Hope this helps!

[Zaphide]

[cool stuff about painting portraits]

Wow that was really interesting to read (and look at the imgur album)! I hope you continue the process

[kazi]

Wow that was really interesting to read (and look at the imgur album)! I hope you continue the process

Heh, thanks, I'll make another post the next night I start doing stuff again. Pretty much one night's worth of work there... 

[HELMUT]

Tried to make a phase destroyer.

    

Inspired by David's concept art.

[kazi]

That's quite good HELMUT! Love the back, not entirely sold on the front part- the "arms" feel a bit indistinct and blurry. Also I can't believe I'm saying this (usually my advice is the exact opposite), but the shading on the front outside edge of the back portion of the ship could be toned down very slightly (still looks good though as-is, I'm just being nitpicky).

[celestis]

Great sprite, but feels a bit blurry, as @kazi said. Maybe add more greeble there?

[HELMUT]

Yeah, not super satisfied with the prow either. Now that i look at it, i'm also not sure what i tried to do with that "fat roll" thing, maybe add some metal "stuffs" instead. Hmm, i'll try to rework those parts when i'll find time.

[Takion Kasukedo]

wow, that thing looks great

I dunno what advice to offer, since i've only ever done a few pictures...

[mendonca]

Got close to the point where I'm not sure how to make this sprite much better, so posting here for any thoughts.

[Wyvern]

[img]Got close to the point where I'm not sure how to make this sprite much better, so posting here for any thoughts.

Looks too clean and shiny - each section is essentially monochrome with a different tint to it.  I'm not entirely sure how to fix that, but that's where it could use some improvement.  In particular, I'd suggest having the blue-purple of the main hull bleed out into that small hardpoint slot a bit.