Been playing a lot of Terraria lately. The calamity waifus are 10/10. Does calamitas count as a monstergirl? Also trying out pixelart, i think it looks pretty nice.

>>88078 Nice, glad to see new OC and I like the sense of volume in your drawings. They definitely count as monstergirls so no worries there. As for critique, I recommend leaning into the darker shadow tones more, and not using grid-hatch pixels as they don't show when zoomed-out and look muddy looking at a full girl. Speaking from experience, they work better backgrounds of smaller images like monstergirl coffee below (a 100px image, but blown up x8 for easy viewing here as are my other sprites). To show what I mean about shadow, compare my sprite-scale Anubis and Hellhound to the painted Anubis kids. To capture realistic lighting, mostly from the right, we need more hair highlight and this is balanced out by more and slightly darker shadow elsewhere. On your art I'd say this is most important on Sand Elementals in general, and Cloud Elemental's hair (vs. say the MGE Wight, which doesn't go much darker, but uses a lot more shadow vs. highlight). If you're interested I can go over pixeling and colors in more detail.

>>88134 Can you elaborate what you mean with "grid hatch pixels" more? Do you mean all the dithering, or only some of it? For the colors, i was mainly just imitating the color pallette of the original sprites, but i agree they could use better contrast. >If you're interested I can go over pixeling and colors in more detail. Yeah, sure. I'd be particularly interested in color selection, color ramps, and how to get this kind of classic vibe.

>>88298 By grid hatching I mean the more extreme form of dithering on the Sand Elemental arms and Cloud Elemental breasts where the patterns are very clear 'X' or 'O' shapes supported separate with lanes of a 'grid'. The single alternating pixel dithering on places like the Cloud Elemental's sports bra blend in perfectly at the fairly large resolution. Notice that on your two pics here, neither dithers the main character. The Saya pic dithers the background, and that's generally the historic use case: it drew more focus to the sharper character while at the same time saving on background colors used when the older systems this originated on usually had a limit of 16 or 32 colors. Which leads us to capturing that classic vibe. There are really 4 parts to this so I'll start with the most immediately useful one: to teach yourself, start with a 4-color ramp of shadow > darker midtone > lighter midtone > highlight. You have a scale of 0-255. Cut off the bottom 30 or so as all pretty much black. Now ramp roughly +40 for each step. On a bright character you might start with the highlight and go 250 > 200 > 160 > 120, while on a darker character like my Hellhound above you'd start dark and go 40 > 80 > 120 > 168 > 216, the last being for the rare very bright spots. But we have three colors. What about the other two? The second lesson is about color shifting, which is fairly general. The idea is to let you ramp into multiple adjacent colors, like I do above with my Myconia. The two colors are whitish-pink and purple, and since purple is naturally darker I chose the shadow to overlap. So I start upping the blue relative to the red, which is strongest. From bright to dark, the RGB colors are [248,240,216], [248,176,192], [200,128,160], and [144,88,136]. This naturally ramps into the purple mid-dark tone of [96,64,120]. This second rule is quite a bit more flexible depending on what you want to do. The vaporwave/cyberpunk color scheme will use bright cyan as a shade on neon pink, because blue is a naturally "cooler" color, and is enough different that it stands out even if value-wise it isn't so far apart. Meanwhile, if you want an "ancient" vibe like your cloaked statue, presumably made of bronze, you add a little green to everything, which at darker tones gives the "graying" effect, but even on the highlights causes desaturation, the highlights being intentionally lower to fit the mood. So neon pink is [255,0,255] vs. cyan [0,255,255], making that brand of cyberpunk an intentional eyeburner, while on the statue even the brightest "coppery red" is [144,138,111], only halfway up the scale and creating a dark, muted ambiance. That's the third part, no longer even a rule but a question: what mood do you want, and why? Let's say that you decide on a fantasy setting where the hero will enter the Monster Lord's castle under the moonlight. Do you want to play up the romanticism and compliment her visage as an ethereally beatufil Lilim, or lean into suspense so that it's not even obvious this is a guy-meets-monstergirl situation for as long as possible? That chosen, are there other goals? If it's a playable game area, you probably want somewhat less palette unity, so the playable areas are obvious and are darker than the characters. So I'm including three examples, from Seiken Densetsu 3 and Castlevania X on the SNES, and Super Cauldron on the Amiga. Cauldron plays up the brightness, good for romance, Castlevania leans dark except the full moon because c'mon, it's Dracula, and SD3 hits a middle ground. All stick roughly to the 4-color ramps. But I think you're more interested in characters, and I chose the scenes more because it's much harder to find 3 pixel renditions of one character with such different takes on a similar scenario. So for the final part let's look at 90s Japanese Cyberpunk, before the vaporwave color scheme came in vogue. I don't even have the game title anymore, but this is art you can aspire to, and on a mere 16 colors! The lesson is how to break up the tones, a fundamental skill for pixel and anime/cel artists. We have a 4-ramp blue gray and a 5-ramp skin tone, but rather than dither, the artist makes the bold choice to switch at just the right moment. So for her breats, we get one shade tone except a little where boobs meet dress in the middle, a little at the point of deepest cleavage above that, and a bit below her nose and lips because her left (our right) is shaded more. This skill is learned by observation and practice, and while I can give some tips, ultimately you must learn to see the forms yourself. Master it and you not only master an oldschool vibe, you become a superior artist full stop.

Looks like multifile upload is hitting a snag for me, happened yesterday as well but I thought it was a one off.So here, Myconia.

Castlevania

Seiken Densetsu

And last but not least, Cauldron

And as far as mastering the two hardest parts, first here's the bootcamp notes on light, shadow, and value. The whole right column is especially useful for pixel art.

Finally, on the note of color ramps, a common problem is trying to make a ramp by just lowering the value, so you go from say green 240 to 200 to 160 to 120. This is boring and doesn't ramp into other things well. Instead, consider blending in colors, say some reds on highlight to get a yellow-green and some blues in the shadow to make the shift feel cooler. This isn't universal, but it works great if you're doing something in nature, like a jungle that's naturally cooler in the shadows or an Alraune where it makes the ramp to a red or pink flower feel natural. You can immediately see the difference just looking at the ramp. As an exercise, try a few for different moods or characters. You could even do it with your existing elemental girls: try one ramp for the Calamity Elemental being pissed, with more reds and harsher contrast, and another that goes for a lighter feel when she's on a date with (you). You could pick any girl, but Calamity and Sand will be easier since you only need one ramp.

>>88334 >Calamity Elemental Brev, that's the brimstone elemental. Calamitas is this girl.

>>88324 >By grid hatching I mean the more extreme form of dithering on the Sand Elemental arms and Cloud Elemental breasts where the patterns are very clear 'X' or 'O' shapes supported separate with lanes of a 'grid'. I see. So in conclusion, more complex dithering is usually left for backgrounds and texturing, while simpler dithering(something like bayer) is used for gradients and shading. I understand the basics of hue shifting, shift to the blue and desaturate for shadows, and shift to yellow and saturate for highlights etc. I was more looking for what colors to select or avoid, in general terms, so that i can get that desaturated-yet-highly-contrasting colorscheme. I'll try to draw the sulphur sea elemental later and you can tell me about what i could do to the color pallette to improve it.

>>88373 Shouldn't've posted when tired, I knew this, but thanks for the art >>88402 That's a great answer for 'what mood', but getting a good look will take a little experimentation depending on how you tend to approach things. If you feel confident in the stuff in my last post, the easiest path is how Wayuki did it in the angel pic: clamp the color range and hues. It's the same as with your cloaked figure statue, except instead of topping out at 150, we bottom out at 100 (the "black" is a brown of [102,69,69]), and things are red-shifted slightly across the board. If Sulphur Elemental is up next you can try the same but green-shifting. I personally am partial to the more Japanese approach used in your Reina pic or my cyberpunk one, which is to desaturate all but 1-2 colors, and when you need contrast rely on hue. Grays are safe dark-midtones to transition between two colors, 'gray' being anything where the RGB difference is 40 or less between at least 2 of the 3 colors. You differentiate light-midtones by letting them be a different color and have RGB difference of 50+ even if desaturated. Any color except the complement is usually fine (so pinkish-red to gray-blue is great, but gray-blue with orange, complement to blue, will still look janky). At the same time shift all highlights towards an off-white, which helps unify the piece and will stand out against any color. The risk is that if you don't use an off-white (say manilla) or desaturate to gray, it will feel like an overexposed photo, the one weakness of the otherwise evocative Ogre Battle Sprites. This is now common in the west and you can find several general palettes with mid-grays to challenge yourself, I'm including one here. I contrast those rules of the Japanese desaturated style with the more European one, seen in many Brit & German Amiga games. Rather than using anything BUT the complement as a dark-midtone and switching freely, they embrace the complement, but do it in wide swathes and with enough desaturation that you don't get eyeburn, by which I mean raising the complement by 30-40. A great large-scale example is the badass cutscene hero in Gods: Into the Wonderful, where what should be bronzed skin gets +40 blue, and the sky near his shoulder (also used on the axe) gets +60 red vs. an actual sky blue. Your cloaked statue is a nice guide for how this can work on a darker scale: the darker red "fresh copper" tone is more saturated, but they then never let it touch a green or black, using the light-midtone which is reddish, but with maybe +30 green, and the gray-blue to separate the respective absolutes. It's still hard to give general advice for this since the color and feel you're going for affects a lot. So the Wayuki angel rule of thumb is "stay away from anything green", because the feel follows the pinkish background, but as a global rule that would deny you the Reina pic. The closest I can give is that if you have one ramp that remains saturated, like possibly the green for Sulphur, then desaturate the others. They already did this somewhat with the purple in her arms, but some extra gray and/or greenshift on the highlight may capture the feel you want.

Other Euro example, this more on backgrounds but the portraits in the two Chaos Engine games are a lot of fun too.

The Japanese approach, with plenty of examples.

Japanese example #2 is Sharon from PC98 Wordsworth - finally a monstergirl, at least if you count elves!

Last, the promised palette. This gives a lot of freedom on the highlights while keeping the challenge to stick to style.

As a bonus round for Japanese style, otnweo is just awesome in general, 100% vibe, and hopefully gives you some inspiration for various offbeat color ramps.

If this thread is also for art advice then I want to hear about what you guys think makes for good character design in monster girls? I know it's kind of subjective but I'm curious if anyone has some interesting thoughts on this.

>>88771 Character design advice is most of the time unhelpful, vague, and nonsensical. If you want to create a monstergirl with an idea, just do that. The key to creating good characters(in general) is intentionality and storytelling. Add whatever is necessary for your character to feel like they are someone with a story. Each element of their design has to tell the viewer something about them(Where they come from, what battles have they fought, their aspirations, etc.).

>>88771 I'll second >>88772 that for a comic visual storytelling is paramount, but if you just want to do a cool monstergirl I think we can be much more specific. There's a hierarchy to this, see pic. But that's really the start, since like the other anon said your intentions will direct the process. I consider four things...

1. What's the monster part? If you're starting from a rarely-used myth like the penanggalan you get this for free (a vampire who can detach heads like a dullahan). If you want a unique spin on a common type like a catgirl, you need specific design like Ocolomeh having an Amazon bikini with Aztec-looking jewelry so people instantly "get it". Sex plays into this and often requires you to get creative, but if you can get a flash of inspiration like Manticore tailpussy you'll make an all-time great. There are also whole fantasy lores you can pillage for this if you can't think of anything fresh on your own. For one, Shogs have been a hit but other Lovecraft beasties like the Mi-Go get no love. I have seen several "Hastur-chan" variations but not usually in monstergirl circles.

2. Where's the appeal? This can be personal to you, and I've known two different art anons who were partial to very different appeals - one loved the "Venus body", the other lolis. You balance this against being monstrous. If you want to set yourself apart, go as monstrous as you can while keeping the appeal since that's rare. If you're eying commissions, get good at perennial fan pleasers like kitsune and hellhounds. Beyond just "she's hot", appeal can be rule of cool stuff for differentiation. The Pyrow, for example, is really just a succubus gyaru.

3. What is your setting? If it's just MGE, or "modern MGE", then you know how this affects things. If you have ideas for something different though, go for it! But this will influence designs. Maybe you keep that all monstergirls are technically succubi, but that means all of them have a "lewd crest", or at least manifest one after falling in love. This is also where you can indulge your inner worldbuilder or fashion designer. Think how the iconic plugsuit design helped keep Evangelion on the doujin circuit for years, or how there's a whole thing with Ammit as monstergirl meme goddess by way of kek and some chan Egyptology.

4. What besides a monster waifu do you want out of this? You don't need any other answer, but I tell you that I've personally made some true breakthroughs when I attach a "pure art" goal like capturing a certain emotion, scene, or even just a glimmer of realism like how snake scales or falcon feathers can be beautiful in themselves, which then enhances the appeal of the Lamia or Harpy. If you're doing a commission or something for a friend, the added goal is simply to consider their tastes so it's a better gift.

My unsolicited #5 is that I personally love it when a monstergirl is specifically fit to her husband/BF, but in a way that there's a little conflict to help them grow. Most commonly this is a reluctant or beat-down anon with a girl who takes initiative to win him over, but there's a ton of untapped potential here. Monstergirl comics by Jun or Nakamura Legra are great at this, or in text IronBeast's Monstergirl Roulette series and Seafoam's 'Pretty Human'. You can actually convey a lot of this with even a series of one-panel comics, so the implied story here doesn't have to be a big commitment on your part.

Last but not least, just have fun with it! Nothing can force anons to like your monstergirl, but if you enjoy it you can keep doing it, and odds are good at least one will resonate with other people.

>>88815 >>88816 >>88817 >>88820 >>88821 >>88822 >>88825 >Jethro Tull-style art guy is here You have no idea how happy I am to see you here and still kicking. I sincerely hope your muse has been kinder to you than mine has with me!

>>88987 Thanks, nice to be remembered and I hope things go better for you going forward. I've had my ups and downs but lately I've been on a roll after I decide to branch out. Maybe this'll help you too, so here's a look at my even sketchier than usual stuff. I've done some concept art, comic outlines, and study of the masters (the hand is by Sal Buscema, from the old Marvel Conan comics, which I highly recommend). Concepts are nice for hitting stuff you might not get to otherwise, like Gail here using mean-girl tier sass for a good cause. The comic stuff especially has been good because it demands retries for even a single bad panel. Here the center panel was subpar even for a rough, but putting in the effort for a serious fix got to *2, which I think even as a rough has a little of that Hellboy/Sandman spark. Panels are also fun for visual effects like centipede-as-page-border (would be on a different page but came out good enough to include here).

Also dipped into poster graphic design, this was a fun one. I was planning to do a finished paint before posting but a friend pulled me in on another project now, so have the sketch.

Alright, here's the (non-canon) Sulphur Sea Elemental, in all her green glory. It's always quite fun to research on the color palettes stuff i draw. A very interesting thing i discovered here is that the hue shifting didn't follow the normal curvy diagonal pattern, the artist here used more of an S shaped selection, which lets them reach more varied colors, making a more varied palette. It's more visible on the brows, where it jumps to a very obvious red. Let me know what you think.

>>89283 Nicely done, meshes well with game's art style

>>89283 This is easily your best one yet, you picked a tricky perspective and did a good job of it. I especially like the way you darken the scenery going up and how we can just see her eyes glowing beneath the mask because of the angle. The biggest thing that would help the overall impression of the piece is to make the lighting consistent. On her fists, bones, nose, and in the background it seems to come from below and slightly in front, but on her boobs, stomach, and chin it seems a more normal front and slightly above. I did this quick and dirty edit using the former since it's a cool effect. This meant boob highlights move down, stomach lighting and shadow flip, and the chin below the jaw gets highlight to match the bottom of the nose. This isn't perfect, but getting it 100% fit to perspective and source would take longer than I have now. If you wanted to do front and slightly above, you'd still get more shadow around the eyes, and the boob highlight would instead move up towards her collarbone, leaving a bigger shadow region on the lower boobs and the stomach beneath them, plus on the bottom of the hands.

I find the easiest way to figure out correct lighting is to get a bendable desk lamp and figurines, with flying anime girls on a strut being the easiest to light from below or the side. To see how a building casts shadows you can use Warhammer terrain if you play, or make the basic form from cereal boxes, shipping packages, and the like.

Did >>89414 and >>89416 for the /mge/ thread and wasn't sure if people follow it here. This was my first trial of a pencils-inks-cleanup process and I'm pretty happy with it. Will need a new eraser or more time in the digital leveling next time, and more time spotting the blacks in any serious comic, but if you have other crits have at it, always looking to improve.

>>89350 >The biggest thing that would help the overall impression of the piece is to make the lighting consistent. On her fists, bones, nose, and in the background it seems to come from below and slightly in front, but on her boobs, stomach, and chin it seems a more normal front and slightly above. The lighting was supposed to come from above(more or less in the same direction as the POV), as in, the upper part of the image. The brighter parts of the islands in the background are supposed to be the flat surfaces facing the light, and the darker parts are angled and reflect less light, so i'm a bit confused on why you'd get the impression that the light comes from the bottom(the little yellow thing at the bottom of the pit is its own luminescent lightsource, but not strong enough to be something other than a bright spot). Same for the fists and bones, darker parts on the bottom and closer to the body, ligter on top and facing the POV. I did quite struggle with the breasts, and your version looks a lot better in that regard.

>>89422 You're right, by bottom I was thinking as in the film term "bottom lighting" (from her feet, er, tail), but I should have been clear. The only parts that give the wrong impression were the ones I touched up: the stomach and chin bottom had light seemingly from the picture bottom, and the breast "headlights" were closer to pure front lighting. That was what made me doubt, because they're so prominent, but you're also right that they're harder to get right. Practice from some reference is the best teacher here, so keep at it!

Talking with friends about Castlevania, I was reminded just how good Circle of the Moon was for pixel art and monster girls. You had succubi, alraunes, arachne, and even living dolls. Those in particular used a great trick: you need to use browns and grays because they're supposed to be Japanese-style wooden dolls, but the devs gave them bright blonde hair and made the foreground very bright, and background mostly not-yellow, so they'd always show.

Of course Camilla is the best monstergirl here, giving us as much succ as late 90s Nintendo would allow. I also really like how they use dithering as a way to show the texture of rough stone, and artistically chose to keep the whole background blue-green, not just the wet parts, because it unifies it will making playable platforms stand out. Going to stop here since it's not OC, but if this inspires there's lots of other pics on oldschool sites like Spriters' Resource and Castlevania Dungeon.

>>89839 I'm quite surprised by the amount of color shades being used here. Looking around in spriters resource tells me how good the art direction in this game was. It's also interesting to compare the different "strategies" when it comes to displaying characters, depending on how big the sprite is. They don't just scale stuff down, small sprites like the living doll only have shapes enough to make them recognizable, while stuff like Camilla is allowed to display more detail like the face.

>>75673 Anyone?

>>90624 Cool, didn't realize this was still open. >Personality: Serene, likes to chill and gives good advice >With a guy she likes this means cuddles, him missing her obvious signals is the one thing that really frustrates her >Random: mushroom girl spores only give her a light buzz, and she can gift this ability by a ritual

>>85556 Sorry for the late reply. Thank you for the feedback and doing the line stuff. Yeah I'm trying to get better at drawing sexy, one day I'll draw sexy monster girls with less mistakes. Here is another heco-hound drawing I did and a hellhound that I copy.

>>90960 Looks pretty good. You still have some work to do on symmetry and line control, but otherwise looks fine.

>>90965 Thanks. What did you think about the heco comic, pretty funny right

>>91047 It does have a certain 2010 humor that i greatly appreciate.

Smoking mouse girl with a gun i made. Waddaya think?

>>91309 Pretty good, nice touch with the ears twitching

>>91309 She looks like a mafia boss. Pretty good.