AuthorTopic: A Tree  (Read 3715 times)

Offline Cdaddr

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A Tree

on: July 29, 2010, 03:15:43 am
This is my first pixel drawing:



(There's no reference.  At first I wanted a bonsai-type tree and looked at lots of pictures of them, but I ended up with this instead.)

I have serious trouble with color.  My art background (if you can call it that) is pencil drawings, so I'm used to drawing in black, white and grey.  Color is hard.

I need help especially with the trunk.  The colors look too dark or there's not enough contrast or something.  It looks OK at 2x or 3x zoom but when I view it at 1x, it looks washed out and the detail is gone.  When I try using a brighter brown or orange for the highlights, it looks unnatural.  Suggestions welcome.

Offline Smash

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Re: A Tree

Reply #1 on: July 31, 2010, 08:37:43 pm
I think the key to sucessful pixeling in this size is recognition of basic elements, along with the relevance given to them. You seem to be putting up too much detail and stray pixels everywhere that compete with the basic shapes, making the whole piece lack depth and look busy.



Simplified elements along with light and shadow help alot when defining shapes, and most of the time can be enough to make something look good. Some details can also be implied to the eye by altering the main shapes slightly, without having to waste more pixels.
Technique wise, something important is to avoid using lone pixels to define textures like this, as they alter them always in a negative way, and grab unwanted attention.



Here's my take of it. Light and shadow mostly on the trunk, different leafy layers for depth.


There were a bunch of tree threads here some weeks ago filled with excellent examples, btw. I recommend a quick search.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2010, 09:08:18 pm by Smash »

Offline Cdaddr

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Re: A Tree

Reply #2 on: August 08, 2010, 01:21:06 am
Thanks.  Your feedback was very helpful.  I looked up a few tree-related threads here and came up with this:



I tried to do more simple surfaces and fewer stray individual pixels.  I think I'm inching in the right direction.