First pixel art [C+C]

[Eiris]

First time making anything with pixel art, and posting on here.

Intended to be some kind of rock formation, used this as a reference for the palette.


I tried my hand at dithering here, not sure how well it turned out. The rock doesn't really make 3d sense to me either, and I'm not sure why that is. Any critique is appreciated!

[LeafyMystic]

Welcome and happy pixeling! I think the rock looks good in terms of color and gentle dithering, but it could use a little bit more definition to make it look like a rock. It's too smooth as it stands and could use more jagged edges and irregular points. Throw in a bit of randomness to add depth and interest and you'll have yourself a definite rock.

[rocifier]

Welcome and great start! I can see you already have some artistic strengths like colour. You are using a good value range and palette with minimal colours, which is ideal. So I don't think you will need to improve this area for some time. I like that you are drawing from reference too, and this probably contributes to why you started so strong in this area.

The biggest place to start improving your form that I see is the silhouette. Compare the shape of your outline with the reference outline. As Leafy mentioned, it needs to be more sharp and rugged. Defining this outer edge first will help start you in the right direction with form and structure to begin shading the rock with similar formations. Another thing is your reference isn't very good for art, because the values are not clearly defined in terms of light. It's better to find a well lit rock or make your own reference in front of you on your desk with a lamp. Starting with clearly lit "faces" will help you to block in a rocky form and make your art read easily. As it is this reference has some shadow faces, but also naturally dark veins which confuse the form a bit. It's not easy to read the form on the photo and the eye has to rely a lot on the outline to interpret what the image is.

Here is a better reference example:

[Cyangmou]

As it already was said, you are off to a great start.
Good work on with what you did so far 
The colors and contrast range you chose with the reference are totally fine.
But you jumped in polishing steps by far to early (e.g. dither)

Where you could improve your artwork significantly is first with the silhouette.
Try to capture the angular sharp look a rock has with a single color.

If you add more colors, always keep in mind which kind of shapes those clusters form. Rocks are mostly quite angular looking,therefore you go with straight lines and sharper angles, not with round forms.

You can add as many colors as you want.

Once you think the result is fine enough you can start with adding dither and AA, but generally those pixel specific techniques come in last, so try to get the big image right at first.

[josemwarrior]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial @Cyangmou!

[Eiris]

Sorry for the late reply everyone, I've been totally wrapped up in some other work I had going on.
Thanks for all the critique and advice, guys! It's been super helpful so far, although I've been having a rough time making a silhouette that looks "right" to me.

I'm not done yet, but this is the first few stages of my second attempt at it. I went for something close in shape to my original reference, trying to make it not too close. I'm trying to use the reference for help with lighting areas, as well.
Initial outline:
With first light shading:
With first dark shading:

I'll finish it up tomorrow and post the results here.

[Hagane]

It still needs work but you are starting to understand how it works, which is already a big improvement. The form is created by how light hits the object, so pick a light source and make the parts that face the light directly lighter, the ones that face it but not directly in middle tones and the ones where light does not reach with as much strenght as shadows.

Don't get discouraged if you struggle at first, almost everyone does till they 'get' how light works.