[WIP] Flower Pot

[Xer0bot]

Hi fellow artists,

So I edited my post since it was probably seen as an art dump which I apologize for, I'd like some critique on this flower pot.

The part I dont get here is how to make the plant appear as if it's entering the soil ? 

[SmashAdams]

Here's an edit I made of your flower pot.


some things to note in no particular order:
- I reduced the number of colours used for everything. Notice how many colours (7+?) you used to form the gradient on your pot. I only used 3. but you can see how dithering (really messy) can help form a decent gradient even with just a few colours.
- I added a bunch of miscellaneous plant growth at soil level.
- I drew over some of the plant growth with soil to make it look like the plants are coming out of the soil, not just sitting on top of the soil.
- I made the colour of the soil more grey/brown, so it would stand out against the red/brown pot.
- I varied the direction and look of the plants heads. notice how all of your plant heads are looking up in the same direction. almost copy-paste. it's un-inspired.
- I googled "clay pot" and fixed the shading and lighting on your pot. not everything needs rim lighting. however i was too lazy to AA my edit.
- I changed the perspective on the actual pot. less of the opening is showing. this was one of my biggest gripes with your picture. the perspectives are off between the plants and the pot. in yours, you're looking down into the pot with 3D perspective, but the plants are drawn flat with no depth.

I hope this helped, keep on practicing!

[Xer0bot]

Well damn. 
What I gather from this is that I used way too many colors, also dithering is a great way to blend shades.

Mine just looks ugly tbh where yours looks cleaner and more comprehensive, there's no what's this light/shade with it.
The plant's also really great damn.

Well I'll work on this, If I think about that plant and how i'd draw it, it'd come out way differently.
Thanks for the reality check.

[MysteryMeat]

Don't be too down on yourself! You made a hearty attempt, people not versed in art and most people who are could still respect that go.
Good rule of thumb is to apply the "normie scale" to figure out if you're beating yourself up unnecessarily with your art, if an average bystander would look at it and go "hey cool thing" then you're still doing ok!

[Xer0bot]

I gave it another shot  ,




Tried to give a more clean feel to the pot, how ever I messed up the shape of it a bit. Ill spend some time looking at pots online to get a better idea of how they look. But Im going for those plastic ones but the brownish/orange color.

Tried a different plant, the idea is that the fruit attracts critters ?
Used less colors, the palettes visible on the top left. Gave the dirt two colors for lighting, something i learnt here was to take a walk now and then (yeah i spent a couple of hours on this hahaha so i needed walks). Uhm and I'd see objects where there's dirt and stuff, it made me ponder whether or not I'd add details like that to sprites, I realized it's not possible for smaller art, or perhaps it is but if it's not going to give an impression of what it is without having to think about it then it's not worth adding, especially when it's a small sprite.
One last thing hehe, instead of using a white background I went with purple, Darker colors made it much more pleasant for my eyes.
Any thoughts ?


Also thanks very much for the thoughts MysteryMeat. Its value was equivalent to a morning cup of coffee.

[SmashAdams]

Much better! although if I didn't know this was a plant monster thing, I'm not sure I would have read the orange part of the plant as the inside of its mouth. especially when the fruit is the same colour as the mouth, like it is in the purple background image.

[Xer0bot]

Hmm yeah maybe if it's animated. xD with the mouth snapping, and slowly opening. the fruit in the mouth and then retracting just before the mouth snaps closed. Might try animate it some day.