Graal Forums - Pixel Art Tutorial #3

From the fine folks who brought you the first and second pixel art tutorial...
This is third in a series of tutorials
aimed to help aspiring pixel artists better their knowledge of this (somewhat)new craft.
Today we're going to make a pixel graphic character from the
following concept drawing.

Step1: Building the manikin,

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may01.gif
First we lay down the basic skeletal drawing just so we can get the feel
of the pose. When setting up your manikin you need to think about the game you're
making it for. In the case of Graal, the player is about two heads tall and
the manikin would probably be a ball with arms and legs sticking out of it.
You should also consider what PART of the character the player is going to be
focusing on, in Graal the main focus in on the head, mostly because the head
is the largest part of the player's body. So when designing a Graal character
you need to focus most of the character's costume design on the head.
In a side view game, you'd put the focus on the body, and in this tutorial
we'll use a fighting game style manikin in a boring old standing
position for the sake of demonstration.
If you don't feel confident using the mouse to draw then do your
drawings on paper and scan them in.

Step 2: Putting some meat on it,

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may02.gif
Next we want to add some bulk to our character,
This is the same "Ball and cone" stuff they'll teach you in art class,
and in quite a few books. The trick is to always use three dimensional
objects so that your figure will have mass and dimension.

Step 3: Clean up,

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may03.gif
Now we take our eraser and remove the construction lines,
leaving only the lines we want to keep.
Note:
I also made her legs longer, so that she would be at least seven
heads tall. When drawing humans, the most common unit of measurement
is the head. Average people are about seven heads tall, ideal people are
about 8 heads tall and Super Heroes/Greek gods are about 9 - 10 heads tall.
Remember, Ctrl-Z is your best friend.

Step 4: Add surface anatomy,

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may04.gif
Here we build some simplify muscle groups on to the body, this isn't that
important to characters who wear lots of cloths, games where the body
isn't that big or Graal where the character is a round lump that looks like it's
had too much cake. If your character has their covered then you can skip this step.

Step 5: Add stuff,

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may05.gif
http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may06.gif
Now that we have a basic plain model we have to put things on it to make it unique.
If you're working from a concept drawing then make sure you have that somewhere where
you can see it. You can start adding details anywhere you want, we're just going to do
the face and hat for now.

Step 6: Put some goddamn pants on!

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may07.gif
http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may08.gif
Drawing naked people is fun and all, but now it's time to graduate our nudists into the
wonderful world of cloths. The most important thing to remember is that cloths HANG off
the body, they don't cling to it like spandex...
Unless you're drawing a character in spandex... ...Ew.

Step 7: Finishing touches,

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may09.gif
Clean up all your lines, add extra details and get everything looking the way you want it to.

Step 8: Add color,

http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may10.gif
Now it's time to add color! Use the colors specified by your concept drawing, or if you're
designing the character, try to use colors that look good next to each other and fit the
theme of your character(You wouldn't want a pink and green reaper of souls now would you?).

So that's mostly how it's done. Next week we'll look closer into the world of rendering to
make the final result:
http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may11.gif
http://www.hybridzero.net/~kyle0654/pixeltut/may12.gif

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