ART STYLE GUIDE

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Reference: the official Little Fighter 2 headshots and in-game sprites. Every fighter is made headshot-first — the large portrait is drawn from a parametric head spec, and the in-game sprite reuses the same spec, so the face, hair and eyes you see in the portrait are the ones on the battlefield.

1 · What the reference does

Headshots

Three-quarter anime face, looking to one side; sharp jaw, small nose, pointed chin.
Big expressive eyes with a bright highlight; heavy, angled brows give each fighter attitude.
Hair is the personality: bold, sharp-tipped strands, lit from the top-left, with a dark underside.
Hard-edged cel shading — never soft gradients. Dark outline around the whole figure.
Shoulders and a high collar, scarf or armour at the bottom; a two-tone coloured backdrop in a dark frame.

In-game sprites

Chibi proportions: the head is nearly half the figure's height; short athletic body.
Crisp pixel clusters with a 1px dark outline, no anti-aliasing, flat 3-tone shading per material.
Recognisable at a glance by silhouette: hair shape + outfit colour.
Eyes read as a white-and-dark pair with a heavy brow above; clothing detail kept to one or two accents.
Bright, saturated palettes against a bright, flat-colour stage.

2 · Head construction

Rules (head space: 1 unit = head radius R)

Skull circle r≈0.93R plus a jaw wedge; chin point at 1.0–1.12R below centre (jaw sets length).
Eyes sit on the line 0.12R below centre. Near eye is large (0.5R wide), far eye foreshortened (0.32R).
Brows sit ~0.3R above the eye line and slant inward by brow (0 = calm, 0.25 = fierce).
Nose is a small wedge breaking the face edge; mouth a short dark line near the chin.
Hair: back mass + crown spikes (top, len, swept back ≤36°) + bangs (fringe) + spikes behind the head (back).
Every spike = base colour, dark underside, light leading edge. Never leave a spike thinner than ~20° of arc.
Skin shading: shadow on the back of the head and under the jaw (×0.8), darker for ear/nose (×0.64).
Outline colour #140c12 around the finished silhouette only.

3 · Palette and tone rules

Shading ratios

Light comes from the top-left. Shadow = base × 0.62–0.8 (hard edge), highlight = base mixed 20–40% toward white.
Body tubes (limbs, torso): shadow edge, base, thin highlight — three tones only.
Shoes dark with a pale sole line; fists drawn as small shaded discs; belts/headbands carry the player colour.

Sprite proportions (art pixels, drawn at 2×)

Head radius 8 (brute/boss 9) · torso 10 · legs 12 · arms 12.
Torso 8 wide (10 for heavy fighters), legs 4, arms 3. Spread stance so both legs read.
Height ≈ 44 art px incl. hair; the hurtbox stays ~72 px.