[ICEknight]

To tell the truth, I rather miss the feathers on the wings and cheeks. Why did you omit these again?

Well, the original looked fine without those.

[The Growler]

Aaah, thank you ICE, I bet that'll be most helpful to Sonuw!

So it seems there was no feathers on the cheeks after all.

This post has been edited by The Growler: 28 January 2010 - 10:40 AM

[Sonuw]

Here is the REDRAWN chicken, again! This time I'm back to pointed wings, and I made two versions: one with feathers on the cheeks and one without. Please note that they are STILL not shaded, but I also added an outline to the eye so they can be seen a little better. Hopefully that's what you meant, Growler.



...is it just me, or does the chicken look...light?

[Vincent]

EDIT: Thanks to my carelessness, Illustrator stopped working, and I didn't save the chicken. So now that I lost it all, I have to remake it AGAIN! *sigh* I'll get started again.

It happened me 2 times, then I've started to regularly save every 10 minutes of work!

Before you go with shading, my suggestion is to define better the beak's aspect (it looks like a 90° rotated "O".) and the legs.
Oh, and *no cheek* for me!

This post has been edited by Vincent: 28 January 2010 - 04:44 PM

[Sonuw]

Alright, made the beak not so "O"ish, and changed up the feet a little. There is not a pic of the chicken with the feathered cheeks this time because I REALLY need to try to follow the official art than my own personal interests.

[Hamneggs]

Well if you want to get a similar look to the artwork you posted, you best get shadin'.

And also, if you look at the original sprite, the cheeks are a bit more pointy.

This post has been edited by Hamneggs: 28 January 2010 - 06:10 PM

[subsubstantive]

I think the eyes should be closer together and leave more space on the right and left side of his head, as seen in the photo. The red thing on his head should form more of a point near the front, like a Mohawk, unless you plan to work that out with shading. Also, his mouth is open too much, like a donut. It should be wide-open less, like the original sprite, and be made more open by shading the corners of the beak. The "armpit" is too "fat" and the feet show no sign of a leg. Sorry if that's a lot of criticism my sweet child.

BTW, where can one access the source where the images of the chicken were derived? I recall galleries of these official works somewhere...

This post has been edited by subsubstantive: 28 January 2010 - 07:40 PM

[Sonuw]

Oh no, it's all good. Your long criticism helped.

[Hamneggs]

Now look back at the original sprite. You have taken steps away from it with the Mohawk, and using the color palette of the illustration. Ask yourself, are we making a version of sonic where we take all the versions of the characters from cartoons and comics, or are we actually trying to increase the resolution of what was there to begin with?

Sorry for the rant, but...

[test-object]

Oh no, it's all good. Your long criticism helped.

Give it a smaller and rounder body with more emphasis on the thin legs, make the wings more worthless (like it's been plucked, but still white in colour) and add more shading. Also, rounder cheeks.

Give it a go, mate.

[Sonuw]

This will be my only edit for tonight, since I got a lot of stuff to do later on that will take me till at least 1:00 AM in my time to complete.

Hamneggs: You're suggesting to me that I try to only look at a very small pixelated image to make even smaller tweaks. The official art is used to help in terms of those tiny details that you just cannot see on the pixelated animal. Not following the larger art just creates...well, chaos! I'm sorry, but I'd rather follow more than one tiny image to get the details right.

Test object: I did everything BUT the shading. I'm wanting to get the proportions correct before I get to work on that.

[Canned Karma]

Here's a comparison for what the reference goal on the animals is art-wise:




So there is some flexibility for artistic license. Obviously the tufts of hair on the head and cheeks couldn't be shown in the pixel art, but they were in the concept art for Ricky. By all means, continue using the official art as the main reference!

[Scarred Sun]

BTW, where can one access the source where the images of the chicken were derived? I recall galleries of these official works somewhere...

I heard of some place that has them. It seems to have quite a bit of art, actually.

[Hamneggs]

Here's a comparison for what the reference goal on the animals is art-wise:




So there is some flexibility for artistic license. Obviously the tufts of hair on the head and cheeks couldn't be shown in the pixel art, but they were in the concept art for Ricky. By all means, continue using the official art as the main reference!

Okay, Y'all are right about using "official" artwork to model these remasters off, or so I concluded during my early morning history class. But are those pictures really official, those of the chicken? I mean, look at the one on the right. It looks like something I would make in paint. And the others, they look more official, but only so much as they might be a version McDonald's capitalized on for their HappyMeals in '92. So Sonuw, don't really use those pictures as your main reference. Use the actual remake of the squirrel instead. C'mon, that thing is cute!

[Vincent]

This will be my only edit for tonight, since I got a lot of stuff to do later on that will take me till at least 1:00 AM in my time to complete.

Hamneggs: You're suggesting to me that I try to only look at a very small pixelated image to make even smaller tweaks. The official art is used to help in terms of those tiny details that you just cannot see on the pixelated animal. Not following the larger art just creates...well, chaos! I'm sorry, but I'd rather follow more than one tiny image to get the details right.

Test object: I did everything BUT the shading. I'm wanting to get the proportions correct before I get to work on that.

Besides the 4x frameset this is the only in-game art related to him:


My suggestion is to focus your work on the donut beak, and give some life to his eyes expression.
After you've made those changes, cut his body shades in half and mirror it (so plumes and cheeks will look even).

P.s. Pay attention to use a brighter palette. Is your color profile RGB?

Feel free to post here your experiments!