[WIP] My First Attempt at Pixelation

[Magides]

Hello everyone,

I just joined yesterday. I have always been fascinated and inspired by the
SNES games I would play as a child, (mainly Secret of Mana) and finally found
a nice website and community to join to practice and hopefully improve my skills.

Enough intro.

Here's my very first attempt at this beautiful style of art.




I would like some info on what I did wrong, and different ways of making this look more professional.
Thanks in advance

[Ultimaodin]

First off:
welcome.
Second off:

Carrots don't typically curve back to the green stem thingy bush stuff. (yep I can't think properly atm I'm a touch crook)
See how you have those weird little half circles, the end should have the same shape as one of them with the green just sticking out.
Next off the stem thing has highlight midtone and shadow. The orange veggie part however doesn't have a shadow. It has a third darker shade but you don't utilize it as a shadow. Add some shadow underneath for more Oomph.
Next thing you need to do is research hue shifting. Try leaning the highlights closer to a yellow and the shadows closer towards a blue/purple colour. Starting simple like you have is a good idea.
Oh and more contrast between the brightness would also be a good improvement. I also tend to make the midtone main shade colour the highest saturated colour. Only when working with grey shaded items do I ignore this concept and instead reverse it.

Nice o meet yah
 

[Cure]

agree with the comment about hue shifting and contrast. if you want it to look more like an actual carrot, it'll have to taper more towards the end and the stem should be much longer. also i wouldn't worry about dithering, isn't really adding anything to the piece and the rule of thumb is to only use dithering when necessary (it's not as useful a practice as it was back in the days when CRTs were king)

[Magides]

Thanks both of you for your quick and constructive replies.


Progress Update:
First I fixed the back end of the carrot (you both were right. It was odd). I tried using a more yellow hue for highlights and added more shadow using purple hues. I also tried staying away from dithering too much, however, I think it looks good on the leafy green area.
Good idea, or bad?

So here's the newest version (top) compared to the very first one (bottom).




I can totally see an improvement.


Thanks, and again - Are there any techniques that I am using incorrectly here? Steps I can take to improve?
I'll start working on my next practice piece soon.

-Mag

[Cure]

i still don't see the purpose of any dithering at all really.
edit:

carrot is a root, so keep the irregular, organic shape of a root in mind. it is slender and tapers to a point. the green stalk is sufficiently longer (though nothing wrong with shortening it for a stylized carrot). the stem section of the green leafy part should be more slender, and the end of it should be a bit wilder and leafier. just google pictures of carrots and emulate what you see basically. colors could use more contrast as well.

[Magides]

Wow. 

That looks amazing.
I'll study this and try to mimic the techniques used.

I appreciate the help.

-Mag