Simple is hard - Polluted city

[coffee]

Oi oi

My weakness is that I use too many colours much too often.

So, I have started trying to Simplify my art a bit. I always tend to get a bit picky when i've done too much for too long and I need to start doing basic stuff again.

Wanted to get a scetchy feeling to it with few but good colours, but at the same time give it a nice feeling.



[Closest layer with pines is very much not finished]

However, it still feels a bit flat to me. Havn't got a clue why, my guess is that it lacks another layer just before the planetary one, but as I said I cant really figure it out by myself!

[Gamer36]

I love it, only bad thing is the pines, but as you said, they aren't finished. Really I don't get what the problem with lots of colors is, yeah it loads a bit slower but really whats the big deal with them?

[coffee]

I guess you choose colours after the style your after to achieve. I think it's really interesting how colours work and how many times you can use 1 single colour for a loads of different things in the picture. I have a bad habit of picking a new colour for each shade or light I do, when it's not really necessary.

So its both to break my habit and to challenge my eye for choosing colours that fits for many different things, tho this might not be the ultimate goal

[It started as a background for a sidescroller game, also explains the few colours]

[Konrad]

Lovely picture . You got enough layers IMO, though. As I interpret the picture there are already six layers.

As english ist not my native language I'm not good at explaining what I mean. I think the problem is your choice of using the colors. For example, you use the yellowish color for highlights or the water (I simply guess it's water , I mean the yellow bar) in the foreground layers, but also for fading the building in the background. Then again you use the same color for the planet. They seem to be on one plane.
The colors definately should help separating the different layers. You should use the colors (more) exclusively on the different layers. As you want to keep the color count low I'd recommend reducing the number of layers.

On a side-note: The red sticks out too much. But that's just personal taste.

[coffee]

Cheers bud

Yeah, I think you might be right about using exclusive colours in the layers but then I would have to get more layers to acheive depth, could have a try!

yes it's supposed to be water, was not done with it when I posted so it looks a bit wierd

The Bright white circle in the middle sort of, is the sun and it highlights the planets and buildings, thats why a lot of it is yellow

Working on an edit

[Konrad]

Three layers would be enough to achieve the feeling of depth. I don't think you need more.
I made a quick edit. I know it lost alot of detail which I like in your picture. But perhaps it can help you with the direction you're going:

[zi]

I think that sky must be with dark colour compared with the flare on trees and buildings.



just remove lighter color and think that you must use him very carefully in some areas.

[coffee]

Sweet!

I really like both of the edits.

Konrad - Sun and planetary layer in just white is a very good and simple idea, made that layer almost exclusive

Zi - Really nice, changed the feeling of it to the better I think, looks more dead and polluted, brown smoke is a nice idea

Still going on with the edit, will take both of ur ideas in concideration!

thanks