Must be moved to pixel works in progress for crit I think. I like the 2nd one better but it could use more of those bumps on the icon so it resembles the ref.

btw tounge should be darker.

The Tank piece is most readable or atleast it's more clearer then the rest. It seems alot of people have improved their line art since last year but have a problem helping readers identify objects. In other words the piece is flat. The first step would be to actually pick colors that actually have a difference (Theres no contrast here). Then there's the biggest step which would be to actually establish the volumes and shapes. Even if you do have high enough contrast it does no good if shading is done in a wild manner, you'll just end up with some camouflaged effect. That being said shading is all about establishment and "definition", define what you want. You shouldn't have to "outline" when you're "shading"...same goes for muscles, If you simply just think about two things, depth and light things will come out right. Hell any "outlines" or "lines" in general you make INSIDE the piece should be by accident caused by thinking about those two essentials.

You mainly just mirrored it. At the start of the picture you have to think of where the light source is comming from and think about where it would hit, and where shadows would be cast down upon. Flipping images is nearly the same as pillow shading(Just a less radical form). Look in the new tutorial links on shading in the front page for more details on it; Mainly I just did a small edit with the current pallete to show what shades might be where.

He didn't have another shade lower, so I made the edge that way to produce a darker outline on the right(Trying not to use the outline color that much). Also it was just a simple example shading. He can add in the details ^^

Look at my edit again for a bit, that left arm would cast a shadow down on the chest; it also looks like you have some lighting issues in general on the arm. If you look at the middle, the top, and the bottom, it looks like the light is being cast from teh right a bit, alot from the left, a bit from the top, and a little bit at the bottom.

Akto wrote:

Update:

I like this one, just continue from here. The newer edit (mainly left side) got messier due to blurriness and of course...The definition was lost.

I thought this was fine for a "game". But if you really want that light source coming from the right. Just imagine there's an object and you have a flash light; then you just start tilting the light at an different angle. Maybe this will give you a better visual. Post [link]

EDIT: Amons edit is pretty badass in terms of how to tilt a light source so take a look at that.

Bakasensei wrote:

He didn't have another shade lower, so I made the edge that way to produce a darker outline on the right(Trying not to use the outline color that much). Also it was just a simple example shading. He can add in the details ^^

In a case like that, the outline would be best to use for the definition.



EDIT: Oh wow...i didnt even see the other edits after bakasenseis. Yeah, id go with amons in terms of how to work the lightsource and definition.

Akto wrote:

Update:

Quick update before I go to school. I think I kinda went toward hue shading/shifting/coloring (Lol forgot which one)... IDK but I'm starting to like it more.

You actually handle hue shifting quite well. But on both sides your dark tones aren't dark enough (contrast is low, compare it to Amon's). Your darktones and outline should look natural and it doesn't on that right side, I call that color imbalance. When colors ranges are balanced out well (be it a consistent pattern or whatever) they flow better in transition.

And the outline has problems, it's not really established; there's leaks all over (Amon does it in a way where it's not really a problem. He "implies" there's an outline). If you leave leaks on this character and he's going into a game it's going to look bad, the only time when you should have leaks is when you're working on some picture that has a background.

Review (numbered in importance):
1. Be drastic about contrast. (Drastic as in REALLY make it shift from light to dark...Right now you didn't have to think about this so much because hue shifting helps you with this effect.)
2. Fix that outline, either make a real one or do a better job "implying" there's one that follows through all the way. Be gentle when it comes to modifying the color of the outline, make sure it doesn't change too much that it doesn't even look like an outline anymore like your left arm. See: Softening Outlines

One quick edit the right arm should be closer to the body, because I always try to do everything that matches the reference. Also edited the shading on neck(above head thingy) , it looked all like shading, so edited that.

Make his jacket a little darker and more purple, it will give it a spookier look. The highlights you have are too contrasted compared to the rest of him, make them a tad bit darker, though the dark shades on his hands are barely different. So fix that up first.