'Heya.

 

I've been interested in pixel art for quite awhile, but I haven't had the confidence to try my hand at it until recently. However, my time on the Website Crew has changed the situation for the better, I'm happy to say; I've gained some much-needed experience through mapping and image manipulation for Tip.It. So yes, I'm new to digipainting, but hopefully my first attempt won't be too disappointing. :pray:

 

Anyway, I chose to draw the Caduceus of Mercury/Hermes - a mythological, winged staff with twin serpents entwined along its shaft. I thought it would make for an interesting test of skill, but I completely underestimated the task, as it turns out. :-# I spent probably 8-9 hours working on this, all in all (although about half of that was time wasted from having to start over on the wings and serpents a dozen times apiece :wall:). I can only hope that I can draw a bit faster on future projects, heh.

 

[hide=Transparentized Image:][/hide]

[hide=Untransparentized Image:][/hide]

 

This is the final product. 'Your thoughts?

 

I don't know anything of technique, I'm afraid, so I had to make due with throwing time at the project and hoping it'd look alright at the end. Any C/C you can offer me will be greatly appreciated, and I'd also be grateful if anyone can point me towards a good, up-to-date tutorial which I (as a complete beginner) would be able to follow. Thank you in advance. :)

 

 

*EDIT* Made a couple changes.

Edited March 8, 201016 yr by Rien_Adelric

Thats pretty cool, I would go back now and add more detail like scales on the snake. Overall though pretty good job. :thumbup:

Those wings are very nice. You definitely nailed the shape there.

 

If I had one advice to give you, it would be to think about which colors you are using. Right now, they're way too saturated and also quite generic (i.e: green grass, blue sky...). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes experimenting with new colors can lead to great outcomes.

However they're definitely too saturated, try adding more gray into them.

A bit more contrast wouldn't hurt either, but it's very common that a drawing will lack contrast when the artist isn't fully confident. I'd say give it a try, but don't be too disappointed if it doesn't work out at first. It will come with time.

Thats pretty cool, I would go back now and add more detail like scales on the snake. Overall though pretty good job. :thumbup:

Thanks. :) And yeah, I'm not very happy with the snakes; they detract from the rest of the image as they are now, imo. I definitely need more experience drawing animals/other living creatures, heh.

 

 

Those wings are very nice. You definitely nailed the shape there.

 

If I had one advice to give you, it would be to think about which colors you are using. Right now, they're way too saturated and also quite generic (i.e: green grass, blue sky...). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes experimenting with new colors can lead to great outcomes.

However they're definitely too saturated, try adding more gray into them.

A bit more contrast wouldn't hurt either, but it's very common that a drawing will lack contrast when the artist isn't fully confident. I'd say give it a try, but don't be too disappointed if it doesn't work out at first. It will come with time.

Thanks, unlike with the snakes, I'm very pleased with how the wings turned out. :thumbup: It was certainly worth the time drawing and redrawing the outline until it looked alright. :)

 

Mhm, I think I see what you mean by the colours being "saturated", though. I tried to vary the tints/shades of the colours I was using (to create some form of quasi-shading, since I've no idea how to do it properly otherwise), but it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Without being zoomed in on the image, the colours blend together and the quality is lost. :( That's probably my biggest problem with this, tbh. Perhaps it'll get easier with practice; I'll have to do a bit of experimenting. :o

 

----------------------------------------------

 

'My thanks to you both for the C/C. I'll work on what you've suggested and see if I can't manage to improve a bit. :)

Very nice, transparent > white.

 

Keep doing more of those, I'm very interested to see what else you come up with.