You know what this forum needs? A tree!

[theorb77]

Sorry, I started this before the tree posts all happened.



This is originally drawn from a tree found here.

orb

UPDATE:

[WM]

Jesus, the volume expressed in that is amazing! 

All I can say is mess with the palette a little, because right now it seems flat. Like that darker shade of green for instance -- maybe try working a little blue into that to make it a little more dynamic.

[NaCl]

Looks a lot like a touched up color reduction, which in itself isn't too much of a problem, but you should at least mention the fact. I fully agree with WM, the palette is insufficient. Things are going to look stale if for a shadow or highlight you simply modify the luminance; you also need to play with the saturation and hue.

[theorb77]

I appreciate the (sort of) compliment, but it's in no way a color reduction.  Feel free to take the original and try it out; the shapes are off, and the shadows and what-not don't match up.  I did this with a dual monitor setup, just going back and forth between the original and this.  I'm not terribly creative, but I can also freehand a drawing of your face that's fairly accurate if you don't mind sitting for a few hours.  You can also see some of the previous versions wherein I still had the background layer if you take the URL and go back from 5; there's tree_4, 3, 2 and tree.png.  I won't post them, but if you're curious...

I went with a pretty narrow palette, true.  I'm thinking about adding a lighter green for highlights.

[st0ven]

i can notice the difference just eyeballing it, the leaf volumes are different, so its not just a mere reduction ill give you that. i think what it needs mostly is another lighter color green to splash on the top to really make those volumes pop. notice that there are some more yellowish green hints here and there in the reference image, it would do well to try to absorb that into your rendition. lastly, i feel that you could really benefit from some smooth AA work to blend in some of those dark/white collides in the trunk of the tree, particularly near its base. Dont be afraid to add an extra couple of color indexes to this piece to really make it pop

[Ultimaodin]

I agree with the comments made by stoven and NaCl.
I also think the black and white are too harsh.

Here's a very quick colour edit I did of our current pallet.



Messes up the shadow underneath and you till need highlights but I hope it can be of some use.

[Rydin]

Add a highlight color for the leafs.

Real quick edit and look what it did:

[theorb77]

I like both of these edits. I'm working on the highlights now, followed by the switch to browns in the wood.

[theorb77]

Here you go, with highlights:



Still working on switching away from black and white for the wood.