First I like to do a quick showcase of a slightly fixed Luigi (With recolors!):

We have the usual like Fire, Waluigi, Mario, and cyan costume. The last one was inspired by Ghostbusters. But now I really need help with this one:

My friend wanted me to make Lucina from Fire Emblem. First thing I want to fix is her face which is really bugging me. After that I'll fix any suggestions on other things (like maybe the cape). Please help me.

You made a very nice-looking Lucina, if I do say so myself. :3

Now, onto the areas that need improvement. I will leave out her face since you know it could use some work.

First and foremost, her eyes. Lucina's eyes aren't that big compared to the rest of her face and are a bit darker blue. She also wears eyeliner as seen in this image, so you'll want a little outline just above her eyes. Her ears are sometimes partially visible through her hair, but this isn't always the case.

Moving down, I noticed that her collar should be more open, so instead of making a V-shape, it should be vertical. This will expose more of her turtleneck, which should have short black vertical lines going down it. Now, onto her shoulder areas. Lucina wears rather noticeable pauldrons on both of her shoulders. These cover her shoulders and the cape. Her badge is shaped more like a shield and is outlined with the same color as the highlights on her costume. Pauldrons and badge seen here.

In moments when she is standing straight and not in a fighting position, her cape usually comes straight down. I also think it should be longer. The buckle on the diagonal stripe is a circular shape, like one on her belt. The "x" on her cuff should line up with her arm and the two highlight lines near her armpit should be lower, revealing more of her turtleneck. They should also be angled down more like in this image.

Now, for the colors, what you'll want to do is give the Falchion's yellow parts a Vegas gold color and make the yellow highlights on her clothing a more faded yellow.



I think you did a really great job, so far. I like the idea of a curvy and long-legged Lucina. Keep up the good work!

Nice Luigi. Tough, I feel that Lucina's face should be rounder, since her chin looks too... pointy.
Her nose should be smaller, and her eyes aren't proportional with her face. Otherwise, needs improvement, but I'mnot the best at saying this kind of stuff.

First the fixed-ish Lucina:

I made the changes to help make the costume be more accurate, but there some that I can still make. And here's something completely random:

This is Kamen Rider Gaim. You might know him, you might not. I just randomly felt like making him. Actually I made an introduction page like the ones in thos SSB4 trailers:

Do you prefer the Dojo look or an introduction page? Also I would like to say that even though I get little feedback, I appreciate them and hope to get more. And don't worry about being harsh, I still have more to learn.

I think I'll take a break from this pixel art and get back to spriting.

Your control over the lineart is amazing, that's definitely where your strenght lies. Your way of shading however, makes everything look pillowed and fluffy, I suggest focussing on that to better bring out your potentional. Can you describe your manner of working step by step to me so I can maybe be able to better point out where you could make changes to improve your shading?

Well I guess I'll start from the beginning. First I have to shamefully and embarrassingly admit that the four pixel art (Dr. Mario, Luigi, Lucina, and Gaim) are technically trance jobs (original images here, here, here, and here), but I only do it to get the posing of the body part down. I don't trance any of the detail (like face or clothes) parts and redraw them by hand, usually to add something, to correction something from the source image, or to change the character into someone entirely different. Then I usually resize the trace outline and do it again in pixels (I did try using the threshold option in Photoshop, but I felt more control by outlining again). I do this in green so it pops out more. After getting the linework clean up and fixed, I put down the base color. Then I start "shading" after making a color palette. I wasn't really taught how to do a proper shading and most of the tutorials I looked at feels like I missed a step between step 4 and step 5.

Don't feel bad about tracing, a lot of spriters do it to help them out with lineart. I'll write a more detailed report on what you could do to improve your shading, but in the meantime maybe you could consult our new tutorial platform topic for some extra tips?

Oh I have. Things like dithering and selout are a few things I really want to try out.

Okay last pixel art one, I swear. And this one will need as much feedback as I possibly can:

Should I go with A (which I think is too pillow shaded), B (which I made after a growing hate of A, but I still feel like pillow shading is still in effect), or I can start all over with C? This is my first time using an overlay-type of shading (I desaturated the green into black/grey). I really need help finishing this.

I really like B, especially the palette. It's part of your Spidey sheet, right? Anyways, the lighting can be improved, but personally, I find it way better than A, because of how much clearer the light source is.

Your sprites in reality are extremely good! I think what holds you back is the way you shade.
B is the best one out of all of them, now the issue is the colors you used for him are so bright and the contrast in between the shades is almost little to none, but then the darkest tone is extremely dark.
It may sound funny but, picking the right colors can change a sprite/pixel art A LOT on it's own.

I look forward to viewing more of your stuff bud.

That is some real talent you got there.

Someone likes SJS' Brawl csps.

He literally posted that image and other images he used to trace like 7 posts above yours.

Your Dr. Mario, Luigi, and Falco sprites are really well made. I know that's probably because you edited Mario and Fox's sprites, but they still look like they could really be in the game. They're pretty good!