No Problem! I look forward to seeing future renditions ^-^

Originally Posted by ghostPastry

workin on a couple bags! first up i've got the Smiley Face & the Welcome over the shoulder bags, both using the Welcome palette (with some tweaks). i think i'm gonna make one with a Yumeh face too, like the welcome balloons. i'm open to any constructive critiques



---------- Post added 01-27-2023 at 03:37 PM ----------

oop, added one more! here's an x_x smiley for the emos.

I feel like the straps need to be more on the sides of the bag? They seem to be attached to the front of it.
I'm surprised we don't already have a Yumeh bag! I'd love to see that~

oh that's a good point, Kent! thank you!

yeah, it seems like something that would fit with the welcome set, right?

i found a bag Mene has that looks pretty close to what i'm working on! it was tucked away in a Halloween EI from 2010, the Green Goodie Bag

so i updated my base sketch to make them match up better-- how does it look so far?

I had not even considered the strap, omg, good catch Kent! I think the new placement looks pretty good though ^_^

The edge being on the top is also much much better.

i think i still need to scootch the edge a bit, to the left side. i looked at a couple other refs, and they're all more towards the side. and the straps still need to be further to the side too, and the circle should be narrower at the right side for perspective, since it looks like it's floating. so it looks like i should go with something in between my original ball and the skull *chinscratch* mostly just thinking out loud now

Originally Posted by ghostPastry

i think i still need to scootch the edge a bit, to the left side. i looked at a couple other refs, and they're all more towards the side. and the straps still need to be further to the side too, and the circle should be narrower at the right side for perspective, since it looks like it's floating. so it looks like i should go with something in between my original ball and the skull *chinscratch* mostly just thinking out loud now

All this sounds good.

Aaah, how lovely~ This makes me want to pick up pixel art again, too.

Lovely work so far, Ghost! I really like the placement of your current project. Also like that you used a female & male avatar layered on top of eachother to work out how to make it work for both masculine & feminine frames.
Are you using Paint or another program?

you absolutely should!! i'd love to see what you make.

thank you i'm using Photoshop CC with the pencil brush

We've found PS and GIMP are the best programs for da pixels ourselves hahaha. I use PS.

Oooh, good to know! I've only ever used Paint before, so it's always interesting to learn that other people use like... actually decent programs for it.

Paint isn't bad if you only pixel for fun, but it lacks the ability to use Layers, which is so so so handy.

Aah, good point. Which is absolutely needed for actual use on something like Mene. Alright, guess I'm redownloading GIMP.

I should have a look and see if I can find my old mene-related pixels again... last thing I remember I was trying to make a platform boot with see-through platforms - and trying to figure out how to make it look like there were fishies swimming it.

Oh that is a super neat idea! I never would have thought of it, plus you could make variations with all sorts of things in them

Originally Posted by Cora

Oh that is a super neat idea! I never would have thought of it, plus you could make variations with all sorts of things in them

Haha, thanks! I think I was inspired by..euh...early 2000's fashion, probably?

But true enough! Like a heart-candy filled one for Valentine's day. ;)

That would definitely fall in like with early 2000s, they had some very unique fashion choices. I think the clear bottom shoes are making a comeback lately though. At least they showed up in a youtube video I watched

Ooooooh, good to know! I mean, I have noticed a ton of those fashion trends resurfacing so I truly shouldn't be surprised, haha.

Originally Posted by ghostPastry

.

Omg! I found an album on here with some pixels I did.
If you want to have a look: link.

oh wow, those are all so good!! i'm extra impressed that you did them all in paint your shading looks so soft and smooth, it's really nice.

Originally Posted by ghostPastry

oh wow, those are all so good!! i'm extra impressed that you did them all in paint your shading looks so soft and smooth, it's really nice.

Haha, don't be - 'tis all I know how to do. But dithering is my friend, for sure. On the contrary, I'm impressed that you can do that in photoshop. Wouldn't even know how to begin.

I'm gonna rework my quest thread first, and then see where I end up~ <3

it definitely helps that i've used Photoshop for other types of art, the controls are like second nature to me since i started when i was 14. really you can get away with just using the pencil tool and the color slider and just ignore the layers when you're first starting out on PS, then it gets a little more like Paint in functionality. you just have to have a really tiny canvas and zoom in until you can see the pixel boundaries.

i struggle so much with dithering, i have to try playing around with it more. i love the textures it can create, but i just haven't gotten the hang of the patterns yet. i think Photoshop has a dithering brush? but idk i kinda like to do stuff like that by hand. i don't really like to do tool shading either, which is when you use the non-pixeling/anti-aliased tools for pixel/aliased art.

I've used Photoshop for photo manipulation and such, but that was only for a class... so most of that knowledge is POOF gone. If i were to actually start pixeling a bit more seriously, tho, I would absolutely make the investment. The layers are invaluable. Also way more flexibility in fixing mistakes, lol.

But whoa, since you were 14? That's awesome!

Aaah, same regarding the tool shading. I like crisper lines. When it comes to dithering, personally I just used a lot of examples of similar pixel art to help me figure things out. And then of course there's a loot of zooming in and zooming out, lol.

i bet you'll be surprised how much became muscle memory once you start again though! i feel like the neural pathways get formed when you're taking a class even if you can't consciously remember. or at least that's what i tell myself to feel better about all the money i spent on school

definitely really flexible with mistakes! and transparency really becomes a breeze, there's a little slider for it both on the layer and on the brush.

oh yeah, i'm always zooming in and out. PS actually has a little floating window that will show me the whole canvas zoomed out while i'm zoomed in on the actual canvas, it's so helpful. i still zoom out on the real canvas too, but it's nice to be able to always look at it zoomed out. and yeah, somehow i feel like crisper lines can still give a very soft illusion, and tool shading ends up looking more blurry to me.

definitely smart to look at others work! i love scrolling tumblr and zooming in on pieces i like to see how they did it. it's a lot easier to see someone's method in pixels than in anti-aliased art, for me. and it's so cool to be able to reference old video games!

Originally Posted by ReiyukaE

Ooooooh, good to know! I mean, I have noticed a ton of those fashion trends resurfacing so I truly shouldn't be surprised, haha.






Omg! I found an album on here with some pixels I did.
If you want to have a look: link.

You did that in paint? That's really good!

Originally Posted by Cora

You did that in paint? That's really good!

Aww, thank you so much for the compliment!
But yeah, I'd like... watch anime on YouTube on the left side of the screen, and then be doodling little pixel people in Paint on the right side. The good ol' days.

---------- Post added 02-14-2023 at 01:06 PM ----------

Originally Posted by ghostPastry

i bet you'll be surprised how much became muscle memory once you start again though! i feel like the neural pathways get formed when you're taking a class even if you can't consciously remember. or at least that's what i tell myself to feel better about all the money i spent on school

Whatever makes us sleep at night. But no, I do wonder about that. I did enjoy mucking about in Photoshop, but it's SO EXPENSIVE that I've not been able to justify getting it again. Tho at some point I probably should.

Originally Posted by ghostPastry

oh yeah, i'm always zooming in and out. PS actually has a little floating window that will show me the whole canvas zoomed out while i'm zoomed in on the actual canvas, it's so helpful. i still zoom out on the real canvas too, but it's nice to be able to always look at it zoomed out. and yeah, somehow i feel like crisper lines can still give a very soft illusion, and tool shading ends up looking more blurry to me.

Oooh, that is extremely helpful, the little zoomed out thing. It's pretty valuable, to be able to look at it like that... INTERESTING.
Crisper lines is what makes pixel art so lovely, I feel. <3 And you can do so much just by changing the colour of your outline. Absolutely agree with you on that preference.

Originally Posted by ghostPastry

definitely smart to look at others work! i love scrolling tumblr and zooming in on pieces i like to see how they did it. it's a lot easier to see someone's method in pixels than in anti-aliased art, for me. and it's so cool to be able to reference old video games!

As much as twitter is a big red flag, there -are- a lot of pixel artists very active there. So that's like my go-to for admiring pixel art. But true, the tumblr pixel art community is also pretty big... but then, tumblr on my phone... eurgh.

it's so expensive i could barely justify getting it, and i use it every day

yes omg changing the color of outlines was totally game-changing (lol) for me, it gives the art so much depth! i add a lot of shading on my lines too, and i want to do better at doing inner highlight lines to give a glowy appearance, but i'm not there yet. i started doing it in my anti-aliased art too, although it's a lot easier to change the colors of pixels once they're down since their boundaries are so distinct and not fuzzy like AA.

i struggle so much with Twitter! i can never find the art, it's all text posts even on the artist twitters but i've seen some great stuff from there, and if i was ever looking to commission someone that's where i'd go. Tumblr has a nice little pixel community too, and it's really visual based so it's good for me. urgh i agree, Tumblr's interface is so annoying, and mobile completely trashes all my tiny image files i have such a love/hate relationship with Tumblr, i actually only just came back there from like a 6 year absence.