my edited swordsman

[Caiyln]

So, this is my first unit I've made on GIMP, and it went fairly well, seeing how I've only started editing as of yesterday. I made this one very quickly, and roughly, in about five minutes. Note: If you are not using GIMP, I suggest you do, because it's great for easy shading and has lots of useful tools. Any suggestions, and comments on this will be appreciated.

Cheers!

[BloodIssyl]

Well, i can't say much for your art skill because you just basically recolored a swordsman into less realistic colors.

Sorry.

[Caiyln]

Hah! Well, yes, that was the basic idea. I'm trying is all, I was never a good art student, cut me some slack, bro. Whatever, I'll try and make it different from the average swordsman, thanks:D

[Blueblaze]

Might be a better idea to make a unit from scratch, then we can help you out. Recoloring sprites (and even editing/franken) really doesn't give us much to work with. Make a unit from scratch, and then people can help give you advice, otherwise, there isn't much we can/will say.

[Caiyln]

I'll try.. but I really can't do much as I said. I'll see what I can come up with. Thanks.

[Caiyln]

I have about as much artistic blood in my veins as a cow does.

[Jetrel]

Art isn't an inborn talent, despite what everyone says. Anyone with basic intelligence can go from being absolutely [censored] at art, to being amazing.


Your big error here lies in saturation; Saturation is one of the basic properties of color, of which there are three - with these three you can scientifically describe any visible color, exactly. They are:
- Luminosity describes how bright/light something is; for example, a white shirt is far more luminous than a black shirt.
- Hue describes which color something is; hues make different colors like yellow, red, blue, and purple. Purely gray/black/white colors have no real hue, because they have to have some saturation to show more of the hue they'd be at, than all the others they're not at.
- Chromasaturation, or Saturation, for short, is how colorful the individual object is, as opposed to how gray/faded it is. A purely gray object, of a certain brightness, is completely desaturated. Saturated colors often look more lively, and more bold, however due to the fact that strongly saturated colors are extremely rare in nature, using colors in a drawing that are too saturated will make your drawing look like crap.

Even cartoons will look awful with their saturation brought up too far.


That's the problem here, your saturation is at an absurdly high level - near 100%. It needs to be reduced by at least 40%. Your highlights also have too low of a luminosity.

[irrevenant]

I have about as much artistic blood in my veins as a cow does.

Cut yourself from slack! Noone starts off being an awesome artist.

There's such a thing as talent, and it matters some, but nowhere near as much as interest and practice.

Did you have a particular concept in mind when you did this edit or did you just think "Let's muck around with the swordsman graphic"? There's nothing wrong with the latter, but you're likely to (a) come up with better work and (b) learn more effectively, if you have a particular purpose in mind when you're working.

Probably the #1 problem with this picture is that the colours are oversaturated. He looks like he's made of plastic. He would look better with more muted colours, but I would suggest starting a new edit with a particular concept in mind.

P.S. I agree that the GIMP rocks.

[EDIT] Apparently Jetryl posted while I was in the middle of composing this post. As per usual he put everything better than I.

[Caiyln]

Thank you both, really.

[Sabata]

Try taking a look at normal swordsman, study his colors... whatch the transition from dark to brigth.
Take a look where the dark colors are placed and where brigth are... this will help you a lot.

And I wasent a good artist myself.