Foggy city in rain

[cels]

So the idea is that this is a city very far up, above a thick layer of dark clouds. There are still some clouds further up (otherwise it wouldn't be raining) and a bit of fog creeping into the city. But the land far below is invisible due to the heavy blanket of clouds.

Some things I need help with:

• Does the perspective look alright?
• I don't feel like I'm getting the clouds right, but I don't know how to improve them
• I want to animate rain, occassional thunder and running water. Can I do that in GIMP or do I need some proper pixel art software?

Any other critique you may have would also be welcome, of course.

[Willabee]

I like it! ('Like' of course being an understatement.) Something SOMETHING, and I'm not sure what exactly, feels off about the lowest perspective line on the right. I'm not a well studied artist, but something doesn't feel right about the slope of that-  I think it's a ledge or waterway -which runs along that lowest line.  Beyond that, I really am loving this Thank you for sharing!

Edit:
I looked at it a little further and I realized what's bugging me... the perspective seems a little off because it's the same width all the way through though there should be a slight taper; the further bit should be just a tiny bit thinner than the closer part. Working on this small a pixel level, though, I don't know if you'll be able to work that in. It might be worth testing, though. If you could widen the closer bit just a little, that might make it feel a little less awkward.

But again, I bow before thee on hands and knees in awe ^u^

[Decroded]

i like it too 

compositionally i dont think it feels as high as it sounds like u want it too.
perhaps drop just some of those house roofs in favour of some fog and consider some more vertical elements to suggest the height.
so...a tower or 2, some mountains or a cliff or something maybe?

[Night]

I feel like the main problem is the fog, it implies that the horizon is much lower (almost as if the fog is actually mountains), I'd suggest to add faint lights and building silhouettes in the fog to show that the city still continues even there up until the horizon; additionally, if you're keen on making the city disappear into the fog - try and make it more gradual, so that it doesn't just suddenly disappear.

(ignore the part on the left, attempted to block it out a bit)

Also, with the perspective there's one thing I can note; that you don't restrict yourself to pixel-perfect lines (like; 1 pixel steps, 2 pixels steps, etc.), otherwise it'll look weird. Even if the change is small, it is the small things that make up the whole piece, and if they're wrong the whole piece will look wrong.

[Cyangmou]

the problem here is that the horizon line should be below the mountains.
But this is only the effective horizon line, since the viewer is at a place high up at a building, it feels like you look down.
If one looks down either the horizon line isn't viable at all (means no visible sky/mountains - if you take the red one as your ref)
Or you have kind of an fisheye grid going on, where you stretch the view to get everything in place

However you have to consider that you will see the houses below from a much higher angle than the tall building which lign up with the viewer view.
Currently all of the houses feel like they are seen from the same viewing angle. 

[Willabee]

I just noticed that the perspective issue is also visible in the rooftops in the front layer. They're meant to have depth, but the lines are perfectly vertical the whole way across. At the right and left, they should taper in a bit.

[tim]

I feel like the main problem is the fog, it implies that the horizon is much lower (almost as if the fog is actually mountains), I'd suggest to add faint lights and building silhouettes in the fog to show that the city still continues even there up until the horizon; additionally, if you're keen on making the city disappear into the fog - try and make it more gradual, so that it doesn't just suddenly disappear.

It's a really solid edit. Much better perspective & atmosphere.

[cels]

Thanks a lot for your feedback, guys! Much appreciated.

I feel like I'm getting closer with the city view, but I think the building / aquaduct on the right side is very unrefined compared to the rest.



@Willabee: Fixed the waterway a little bit, as suggested. Not sure what you mean by the rooftops in the front layer though.

@Decroded: I understand. It's hard to give good visual cues when it's such a tiny image and fog and rain is a central element. I guess I'll just abandon the idea of trying to illustrate that this is at very high altitude.

@Night: Thanks so much for the edit, it made a huge difference! I've tried to fix the issues where I understood what you were getting at. I also made a few changes, such as letting the light from the doors reflect more towards the viewer (vertical line) while also illuminating the road outside (horizontal line)

@Cyangmou: Well, that's because those are clouds and not mountains! But I can understand why you'd mistake them for mountains. That's why I wasn't happy with the clouds. I wasn't able to make them look like clouds. I mean, I know how to draw clouds, but my normal technique didn't seem appropriate for this particular piece, due to the weather and light conditions. I did try to extend the rooftops of the closest houses vertically though, to adjust their perspective.