Coltrane: I LOVE that rock texture + the back lighting. I'm gonna see if I can work that into the piece when I get back to work. I could knock the color load down to 16 colors, but my aim isn't to restrict unless it adds to the statement, and I think that might be too far of a restriction in this case. Never-the-less, I'll see if I can give 16 colors and the palette change a try to see if I can really get the low-res nostalgia feel without detracting from the warm, cross-processed feel of the original. I really like your edit, but I think the mood of the colors is getting away from the mood I wanted to portray with this piece.
Cels: You're absolutely right about the tree touching the edge and it's been bothering me this entire time, but I'm planning on using this piece differently once I'm done with it, so I haven't bothered to scootch it out a few pixels (It's a square, so scootching the sides means scootching the top or bottom). So, I guess the exception is that the current frame isn't the final frame. I should probably fix it before I get too much farther, but I'm a lazy goober who's too excited about the progress to worry about it
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As for the weird why-is-the-tree-slightly-right-and-the-dirt-slightly-left thing that led to the bad framing, I intended on making it off-balance to make the viewer feel put off a bit and make it a bit organic. Technically, there wouldn't be a tree suspended on a tiny patch of dirt in the sky, but if there were, I doubt it would be centered very well. It's driving me insane, though, because if I center the whole thing, the tree isn't centered and the dirt isn't centered. I sort of have to choose one or the other or neither, never both. I really do think it portrays some sort of feeling I want the audience to feel, though, so I'm probably not going to reposition the tree compared to the dirt. If that makes you uncomfortable, then it does what I want, see?
Here's an example of an idea I had that I worked on before I saw the above comments (so none of them are incorporated). I have more ideas like this that I want to try, especially with the font and size. I'll use the feedback from these last couple comments before I get into those, though.