Critique > Pixel Art

Clouds and purple

(1/4) > >>

cels:
Well, it's a bit quiet around here so I'll just keep posting.  :-[



Of course I'm open to all crits, but I'm mostly concerned about the robe, the tree and the lighting. Which is to say that I haven't found a good reference for either. I'm trying to recreate some kind of flaky, chunky oak trunk, when it looks kind of like dinosaur skin. But I'm still experimenting with different ways of recreating that with pixel clusters.

Anyway, open to criticism. This will be my next project for the coming weeks.  ;D

fskn:
I think the stuff surrounding the lantern should be brighter... Maybe I overdid it, iono.
Made the light shine inside of the sleeve and tried to make it kind of like there was some subsurface scattering on the outside of it.
Put the hotter colors where I thought the light would hit it more strongly.



Tried to make the robe a bit smoother there too. For no reason other than it was getting too shiny when I added the lighter/warmer colors. EDIT: to clarify this, it was getting too many hot spots because of all the folds, so I decided to simplify it.

On the other side (his right) I tried to have the rimlight more on the edge of the robe, thinking again that there would be where the light would hit it... But again, not sure if I did the right thing.

The flaking on the trunk that I did looks too repetitive, yours look much better.

Do keep posting, though. I enjoy seeing your stuff (and of course enjoy overpainting when I think I can improve it), and that keeps this place alive and going.
Lovely piece, btw.

eliddell:
I agree in general terms with what fskn says about the lighting:  the lantern should be throwing more light on the objects closest to it (it needs to be brighter than the moonlight for there to be any point in carrying it).  Not sure I would make the light on the tree as strong as it is in the paintover, though. ;)

The figure's eyes strike me as too dark, like they should be picking up some reflected light from the lantern and aren't, maybe?  Right now, they almost look like empty sockets.  Or is the figure supposed to be wearing a mask?

The ground in the middle of the picture is difficult to interpret.  Looks almost like a mass of cloud or treetops with a rock hovering in the middle, where that one bit has more contrast.

I'm also not sure that having the faces of some of the taller background buildings exactly the same colour as the sky quite works.  Run a bead of highlight partway down from the roof right where the corner should be, maybe?

SeinRuhe:
Yeah, thing's have been so quiet that is sad to see...

Don't take my word like true when it comes to advice this piece since you seem way more well versed than me in this kind of pieces.

Before saying what I would do I want to take a little time to say this piece is quite sick, I wish I could have this kind of ideas. :'(

Anyway here's what I would do:

- Make the character the focal point of this piece by softening the contrast and details on the background

- Merge some shapes of the character, specially on the hand that carries the lantern since it's the one that has more contrast, this to make it look sort of dramatic

- Get rid of the harsh speculars on the robe, make it looks like leather wich makes me think of kinky stuff instead of something dramatic. :-[

- The town part looks beyond perfect please don't touch it ;)

- Lastly, always check your values by making the piece black and white (this can be achieved by putting a new layer on top, fill it with white and put the layer blending mode on color) this helps to spot errors like crazy

Here's a quick edit I did, sorry for butchering your piece.

cels:
@fskn: Thanks so much for taking the time to edit and for the words of encouragement. After a five year hiatus, I'm hoping to be more active in the PA community.
- You definitely made the lantern brighter than I had intended but I think somewhere in between is ideal, so I am working towards that. Thanks for giving me a better idea of where the light would hit.
- In regards to the robe, I just have to admit that I am handicapped by not really doing any real practice on drawing / painting cloth. I want it to be rippling a bit in the wind (notice the direction of the grass), but my brain simply shuts down when I try to model the physics in my mind. Ultimately, I just need to imitate references for hours until I get a 'feel' for how fabrics work. But for now, I'm just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.
- Good idea about the moonlight on the edge.
- Your trunk looks a bit flat, perhaps, but I think you nailed the texture. I will try to emulate this while trying to find a way to make the trunk look like a cylinder.

@eliddell: Thanks for the feedback!
- The figure is supposed to be wearing a mask. Ideally something like a venetian mask (without a mouth) but I'm struggling to make it readable without making it comical / cartoonish.
- Thanks for your comment about the middle. It was indeed supposed to be cloud.
- I'll need to think about the most distant buildings blending into the sky. I don't really have good intuition when it comes to atmospheric effect at night. Adding a highlight doesn't make sense to me, because then the building is brighter than the background and has more contrast than buildings that are closer instead of having less contrast and blending more into the background sky. This feels wrong. Of course, there may be other issues I'm not considering.



EDIT: Now SeinRuhe has gone and posted another great edit while I typed this and so I have to reconsider everything, including my life. Fack. To be continued.

EDIT2: Here we go.



@SeinRuhe: Thanks so much for taking the time to help out with an edit and thanks for the compliments!
- Unfortunately, my idea was to show a fictional setting of a medieval city above the clouds. So while I love your idea of making the character stand out, I'm not sure how to do this while still getting across that the plains are made of clouds. On the other hand, I may have already failed, since nobody seems to read them as clouds anyway!  :ouch:
- While you suggested I should merge shapes on the right side of the character, I've gone ahead and added more shapes to make the character more interesting. Now I feel dumb and very conflicted, because I like your design.
- Interesting point about harsh speculars on the robe. I was trying to use the highlights to make the character stand out more, but I guess I went over the edge and made it kinky. I will play around with this. Wait, that sounded wrong.  :-\
- Great advice to check my values. This is one of the disadvantages of being stuck in the 90's and pixelling with MS Paint. But I'll do that in the future!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page