~*Miranda's pixeled dolls*~

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

I think it looks good One thing that is bugging me in the final white stripe on the doll's dress should be more rounded.

[spirit_queen]

AWW! If you fixed the hair a little, it'd be cute! i want that color for my hair... T^T

To make an objest 'shiny', you need LOTS of contrast. Use a lot of the dark, only a little medium, and a lot of the light. CONTRAST and not light is what makes an object shiny. remember this, for it is your friend. (seriously, though...)

[Miranda_]

XD I might get it, eventually. With practice.

[Miranda_]

Contest doll, don't like her as much as I liked Candy. CC please, but if you're going to CC the tail and ears, give tips and/or tuts not just criticism. XD I know it's bad shading, but I didn't have a clue how to do a tail.


Base: T h e ** D o l l e r y ****

[spirit_queen]

KITSUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!! *steals outfit and runs away...*

[Miranda_]

I love kitsunes, which is why I decided to do one; despite the fact that it would be harder than a neko.

[Miranda_]

With this doll, I tried to draw clothes and hair freehand, instead of using a tut like with my previous dolls. I don't think she's as good as some of my previous ones, but I'm happy with her cuz I think the clothes and hair look pretty good for freehand. ^^ She isn't wearing shoes cuz she's dressed for summer; we never had a real summer over here so I thought it would be fun to doll a summer themed doll. XD And yes, I saw the base that Hayley used and couldn't resist. XD


Base: http://citronrouge.com/

[spirit_queen]

The shirt is a little too shiny, but the jean-shorts are good!

Is the hair supposed to be messy?

[Miranda_]

Yup; my hair used to be long and be like that. XD One of the reasons I got it cut to jawlength instead. XD

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

Since you asked me nicely, I suppose I will comment on them

The Kistune:
First off, your palettes are all very nice. You got that perfect mixture of light and dark going on, which helps loads when shading to make it look nice and smooth. As for the shading itself, allow for the darker colours to come out with the folds. They aren't just lines on a shirt, so you want to add more darks underneath and more lights on top instead of outlining it.
The hair itself is nice, you have a good shape going on and the strands also are shaded nicely. For strands sticking out, try to keep it to the sides instead of on top. This makes it look a little less like a broom gone crazy. Also, when you are doing strands you want to shade the strand too. Het paars konijn: a pixel doll site That's a helpful site which helps to describe what I mean about the strands.
I know you wanted critique specifically on the tail, so I'm going to try to give the best I can since I've rarely done anything like that on a larger scale. Tails are similar to hair. You want to get strands in it and also you want to shade it from the top downwards. As for the shape itself, you either want to make it go all down or dip is downwards first. You could even try to shape it around her legs. Really, all you need to do is keep playing around with it and eventually the right shape will show itself to you.

Summer Doll:
This doll is a huge step for you, especially since you decided to use absolutely no tuts. Overall, your attempt was a good one and I'm certain the more you step away from tuts, the more you'll start to develop your own style.
First off, when you shade folds in, you need to shade around them too. As I mentioned above, they aren't just lines in a shirt. Go ahead and look at it in a mirror and you will see what I mean. Also, don't be afraid to deviate from the outline. No folds or shading goes perfectly along with it, so mix it up by making shades shorter or longer than the original outline.
The hair itself is also good and there is a huge improvement on the mesy strands. When doing the stranding in the hair though, don't forget to shade them too. Also, you want to mix up the ends by making them different lengths.
Jewelry also needs to be shaded. Your shape is great, especially around the neck, so you just need to add the shades. I know Watermelon Bubblegum has a section about it in the full doll tut.
Finally, your highlights need to be reduced in the clothes. Enless it is a metallicy fabric, you don't want the lightest shade blidning anyone

Hope I don't sound too harsh, I'm a little sleepy and am stalling on writing a college essay.