New to Pixel Art
 

I've been working on pixel art for a while but it seems like everything i do looks so old fashion and always look overly shaded. It seems like everything on graal (most classic) have this new way of shading and i kinda want to get into that. But i just cant seem to understand it. It looks usually like there's only like 8 colors being used and they don't look pixely at all but more cartoonish which now what i really like. So here are some questions:


How many colors are usually being used?
Where's the light source coming from!!?
What kind of shape is all those shading "layers" (circles?)
How are colors chosen?
What order are colors used?.

Don't worry about color count, just as long as you dont have so many it looks like a painting its so blurry :o When using colors, try to use colors you can -easily- see the difference between, so you can look at it and say "This is normal, this is the darker shade, this is the highlight", not "This is red...this is sorta slightly darker red...this is a slightly lighter shade of red...."

Don't worry about light source, just have overall light.

Dunno what you mean by shape of shading layers.

Colors are chosen like I said before, make sure you can easily see the contrast ( difference between shades/colors). When choosing Anti Alias (aa), use a 50% mix of the colors you're aa'ing. An easy way to do this, is if you can set your pencil tools transparency, set it to 50%, and eyedrop one of the two colors. Then use the 50% trans pencil tool on the other color, which will give you a good AA color.

No real particular order... Usually go with regular colors, no shades first, then darks, then lights personally.

I'm not sure, but I think he's referring to Classic's shading style, and how the shades are used, such as dithering etc.

In this case, Classic is pretty simple, for the most part. The most iconic way of shading on Classic is probably the Coco/Dusty style. If that's something you'd like to try out, just make sure you don't overcomplicate your shading, and be minimalistic. Try to use soft colors, not too saturated, and not too dull. I'm sure you can find a Classic palette somewhere. I'm not quite sure if I helped, but at the same time I'm not quite sure what you were asking :\.

Thanks helped a lot. And by layers i meant the colors next to each other and by shapes i just meant the shape of the shades so like a round shape would have round shades (but nvm about that)

P.s Any specific name for the kind of shading or nah

A piece of advice. If you want to learn how to shade a particular way then you should study that style from pieces already made and work off of it. I'm not saying copy it, but you'll create your own branch (style) and see the magic happen. :)

Can I see some stuff?

Weeno's lmao

Oh my bad. He has some threads somewhere.

here you go, nothing really that creative and I cant seem to find the style of my shading D: hope I can improve!

My favorites are the crystal and blue/red hat.
Don't worry, pixel art takes time. You'll get better, and when you do you can explore your choice of style.

I think someone should make a general Classic shading tutorial on Graalians

http://i.imgur.com/c688peW.png I'm going to admit this is not my most original art but I was really getting into making gates for some reason

Dude, good to see another pixel pusher! Great work so far, I like how you show interest in pixel art and then you go and actively try and learn how to do it.

Since you are new these three bits of information are going to be the most important for improving quickly.

1.) This is the most given advice and most ignored advice, practice. If you are up to the challenge pixel at least on thing a day. Do this over and over and I promise you will begin to see improvement.
2.) Draw and learn the basics of art, I began as a pixel artist. At first I wanted to have nothing to do with actual drawing and my work sucked because of it. If you understand the basic principals of art (perspective, form, lighting, etc) your art will stand above the others. For examples of this look at Elk, Aeko, Coco, Fae, and Dusty. They all know how to draw and their work shines because of it.
3.) Imitate, but don't copy. Imitation is super super important when learning any type of art. Don't straight up copy other peoples work but zoom in real close and study it. What makes it good? What gives it this effect? Why does this work? Try and understand why something looks the way it does and then try to find a way to put it into your own pixel art. Observe other people's styles and try to mimic them, don't worry about your own style because that will develop over time.

I hope this helps, this is information I would give myself when I started. If you follow this you will see improvement a lot faster than you may expect. You have an amazing community of students and teachers at your disposal, we are here to help you succeed. And finally, the reason you don't see more great pixel artists is because many of them get frustrated or busy and quit along the way. Understand this and know what this means, what type of artist will you be?

http://i.imgur.com/2REi7nl.png Something I made. It was intended for grail zone but then I chose the wooden color so I guess its for era, but then I found out era already has one so I guess its for ol west and it really fits the theme. I also am aware of the top views they look really weird but I don't think any players would actually care (not that it'll ever be added :blush: ) oh and also i'll try to animate the chainsaw part so the points are slowly moving and also the lights may be flashing

okay nvm updated the front view so its more chainsaw like

not a pokemon fan or anything but I thought a poke bouncy ball would be cool.

But I'm pretty sure someone probably made something like this and its copy righted soooo:P

finished product.