This is the type of stuff im trying to teach you to draw.

MY OWN PERSONAL TECHNIQUE

its my first tutorial so be kind!
im great at sprite art, but not so
much at explaining how i do it :P

remember... this is MY OWN PERSONAL TECHNIQUE

first thing first: ask questions

what will our character look like?
he looks sort of like an alien,
he will have long blades extending from bracers
and he will be wearing golden armor. he will also have
long hair flowing in the wind. on his armor
will be a cloth hanging behind him, and he will have a
cloth tying his hair.

how big do we want our character??
96 wide 64 tall, since the way the character
is standing with his arms spread out and
long blades calls for the extra width.

what colors do we want to use?
the armor is gold, the cloth holding his hair
and decorating his armor is purple, his skin
tone will be teal, and the blades will be
an extra bright shade of teal.

where is the light coming from?
the northeast.

by asking these questions to yourself and planning
ahead, you will know where you are going with the character
and you can breath life into each pixel. every pixel counts!!

just take 3 seconds to think about this stuff because it will save you time.


step 1: stick figure

ok, you will save a LOT of time by drawing a
stick figure of your character. it will give
you a good idea of how the character is
standing, and what he is doing.
this character is leaning
forward with his back facing you.





Step 2: outline

I drew this outline over the stick figure.
You could use layers in graphics gale but I dont.
in ms paint, just use a different shade of color over the old shade.
thats why the previous image is grey and the new one is black.

Notice: the thick black shadows under his heels
since his heels are elevated from the ground





Step 3: coloring

FIRST OF ALL!!! remember light is coming from the northeast.

we're only going to use the lower part of his
right leg in this example. what's important
is to set up your colors. i used 19 colors in this
picture. thats 9 shades of teal, 5 shades of gold
and 4 shades of purple.

we outline first, using the darkest shade of gold
for the back (where the light can't get to) and just a
little bit lighter shade for where the light can
get to it.

then outline the inside once more with a lighter shade, fill with a lighter shade
than that and highlight it with an even lighter shade and you got it.

I used this shading technique for the whole sprite,
visually segmenting the character into portions
and shading each portion individually.



step 4: finishing up... some things to look at

I used this technique to color the
whole character, while considering
where the light was coming from. (notice
how light the top of his head is, and
how dark his feet are.)

now we are done and have the complete character
and he looks cool.



I hope you learned something from this
and i hope i didnt explain anything wrong
to give you a bad habbit or anything like that!!

practice and common sense is the best way to learn.
if someone tells you to how to do something, you dont
have to learn all of it, just learn what you need and let
your common sense teach you the rest.

u r really good but the shin guards look kinda pillowed

This is an ok tutorial, but 1. lots of people use this technique, and 2 you have pillowshaded and your selout probably needs some looking at.. but fix that and this qill be a good tutorial

I made this tutorail at 4 in the morning hopped up on coca-cola after not being able to fall asleep guys, sorry if any of it is bad i kinda regret making it lol

i developed the technique myself by practicing and not by people telling me how to do it which is why i call it my technique even though im not the only person who uses it. its not like i patented it or anything :P actually i invited people who dont use it to use it and poorly told them how

about the leg it does look a lil pillow shaded but lots of things look pillow shaded when u zoom in u know??


again it was 4 in the morning i wanted to make a good impression when i stumbed on this great site by accident lol

sorry bout the tutorial

I use this technique... sometimes

I like it.

Nice pixel of the Protoss Zealot. The psi-blades could be a bit more lightsaber-ish, and the bottom of the legs is like a chicken and most of it is armored, only the tip of the foot is unarmored. Just a lil Starcraft trivia for you.