Graphic Sprite Feedback (updated version)

[$louis$]

Hey guys, I am relatively new to spriting and I've watched several videos and similar guides on how to make Fakemon sprites.
Atm I practice spriting and here is one of my creations. It's a bird with small wings. That's why it needs a jetpack to fly.
I think my biggest problems are shading and choosing colours. Also, I struggle with the outlines. I don't fully understand when I have or should leave them black and when not.

Please give me feedback on this sprite! Be critical, give me tips and help me improve my art!
Every help is appreciated, thank you in advance!!

Here is the link to my sprite:

https://i.postimg.cc/tg76NG5t/Hummpeck.png

 

[nomists]

Hey guys, I am relatively new to spriting and I've watched several videos and similar guides on how to make Fakemon sprites.
Atm I practice spriting and here is one of my creations. It's a bird with small wings. That's why it needs a jetpack to fly.
I think my biggest problems are shading and choosing colours. Also, I struggle with the outlines. I don't fully understand when I have or should leave them black and when not.

Please give me feedback on this sprite! Be critical, give me tips and help me improve my art!
Every help is appreciated, thank you in advance!!

your image is broke. discord doesn't let the display on forums for extended periods of time. if you want direct feedback, i'd recommend finding another image host or going to reddit.com/r/pokemonrmxp, where you can upload the sprite directly in your post (it might need to be approved by a moderator first)

 

[$louis$]

your image is broke. discord doesn't let the display on forums for extended periods of time. if you want direct feedback, i'd recommend finding another image host or going to reddit.com/r/pokemonrmxp, where you can upload the sprite directly in your post (it might need to be approved by a moderator first)

Oh, thanks for the answer! Didn't know about that since I can see it perfectly fine. Will reupload it with another host then!

 

[Magiscarf]

For the colors the main issue is it's a mostly monochrome sprite and pretty desaturated. Even if you want the sprite to have a plain palette overall you could try adding in a brighter color for one or another parts of the sprite such as the feet, beak, etc. If you're having trouble with colors try using any of the official sprites from older games. Like, just copy the colors directly from a sprite for now. If you look at even the plainer bird sprites like Pidgey or Spearow you'll see a variety of colors throughout their palettes even though they overall read as just brown at a glance.

And you didn't ask about this directly, but to me the jetpack doesn't stand out or read as a jetpack. This is just an idea, and not one that you need to follow, but you could try making it stand out by painting it a different color. And if the jetpack were the same color as the beak, eyes, feet, or some other part of the bird then it would make it feel more cohesive. Personally, I don't find black is an easy color to use, but the issue right now is that the jetpack doesn't look different from the wings.

How to get the shading right is a bit of trial and error. I find that the best guide is to visualize a sprite as different 3-dimensional shapes. So for your bird, the head is a sphere, the body is a sphere (sort of), and maybe the wings would be flat triangles and the jetpack a cylinder. Then you start by following the normal art rules for shading different shapes. The goal is to make the parts not look flat (unless they are meant to be flat, like wings often are), and it's okay to exaggerate the difference between the highlight colors and the shaded colors. For practice maybe try to make the colors more extreme to start with (make the highlights lighter and the shadows darker) and then if it looks like it's too much you can moderate it after. I'm not sure what program you're using, but I like to make a multiple copies of a WIP sprite on the same canvas so I can work on one and compare changes. If I don't like what I've done I'll have the older versions to go back to.

 

[$louis$]

For the colors the main issue is it's a mostly monochrome sprite and pretty desaturated. Even if you want the sprite to have a plain palette overall you could try adding in a brighter color for one or another parts of the sprite such as the feet, beak, etc. If you're having trouble with colors try using any of the official sprites from older games. Like, just copy the colors directly from a sprite for now. If you look at even the plainer bird sprites like Pidgey or Spearow you'll see a variety of colors throughout their palettes even though they overall read as just brown at a glance.

And you didn't ask about this directly, but to me the jetpack doesn't stand out or read as a jetpack. This is just an idea, and not one that you need to follow, but you could try making it stand out by painting it a different color. And if the jetpack were the same color as the beak, eyes, feet, or some other part of the bird then it would make it feel more cohesive. Personally, I don't find black is an easy color to use, but the issue right now is that the jetpack doesn't look different from the wings.

How to get the shading right is a bit of trial and error. I find that the best guide is to visualize a sprite as different 3-dimensional shapes. So for your bird, the head is a sphere, the body is a sphere (sort of), and maybe the wings would be flat triangles and the jetpack a cylinder. Then you start by following the normal art rules for shading different shapes. The goal is to make the parts not look flat (unless they are meant to be flat, like wings often are), and it's okay to exaggerate the difference between the highlight colors and the shaded colors. For practice maybe try to make the colors more extreme to start with (make the highlights lighter and the shadows darker) and then if it looks like it's too much you can moderate it after. I'm not sure what program you're using, but I like to make a multiple copies of a WIP sprite on the same canvas so I can work on one and compare changes. If I don't like what I've done I'll have the older versions to go back to.

thank you so much for the detailed feedback!! especially what you said about shading- thinking in shapes really seems like a great idea!
so again- tysm!!