[WIP] Axe Staff Thing (Newbie Warning!)

[Relvox]

Well ... Hello there friendly people of pixelation!

Seeing as how I'm a regular at the sorcery pixelation channel I decided I should actually try and do some pixeling.
I've been lurking around ever since Pixelation was all "Depressing Blue" (Color Wise) but I can't say it helped me too much.

Anyway,
I found some old thing I drew during class when I was bored and decided to try and turn it into a pixel thing. This right here is the very basic, but that's as much as I can really go with my present (lack of) skill.

Here is: The lineart: the trace: the block coloring: and some more coloring and details:

I realise it is nowhere near complete, and there are a lot of things I'm thinking about changing as soon as I think I'm good enough.

Just for a reference on what my skills are, here are a bunch of stuff I did throughout my life: http://tfkyle.dyndns.org/~relvox/imagesandwords/page.html

Thanks in advance for all or any helpful critique

Have a nice day.

Edit 1:
Made a little advancement


Edit 2:
improved the lighting (I think) Changed the colors a bit and experimented with dithering.


Edit 3:
nVision's Palette and an extra color:

Next step, the details!

Edit 4:
Separated the Sticks:

Attempt at details:Redid the scarab:

[Xion]

What...is it?

[sk8m8trix]

its an axe.... staff... thingy

[Rydin]

It's not that bad.  The first thing that stands out to me is that it's shaded directly from the top, and it makes it rather uninteresting... whenever I'm in doubt, I just pic a corner... that might help a little.  And while on the shading... the middle tone of wood and darkest tone of wood are nearly identical, so it sorta defeats the purpose of shading... I'd make the middle and dark shade contrast more, and if you're feeling bored, maybe try some hue-shifting.  As for the axe things--they've got good shape to them, but they seem as if they are just floating behind the staff.  If I was you I'd add some rope to hold them... and also, if were to keep the current from-the-top lighting, the axe blades would have a shadow from the wood above them.

I wouldn't worry about the scarab yet; I think that the staff itself needs some attention first.

Right now, the piece is rather bland, but I can forsee this being much better and interesting, and I have faith that you can make it so.

[Relvox]

@Xion Night: This is just something I've been drawing a lot on boring lessons. It's a staff with two axes attached to it (Or one stick with two blade?). [Now I see how you have such a high post count ]

@Rydin: Thanks for all the input, I'm going to try and shade it from a different angle and also maybe add some texture to the wood and stone (or whatever).

Basically, I want to use this piece to practice as much as I can. Especially with lighting, texture and details. This piece is nowhere near finished and I expect it to change a lot as I (Hopefully) improve.

Here are a few advancements I've made.
Changed the colors, and lightsource. Rocks in front for shading:


Brought stones to the back and fine tuned the shading.


As you can see, I've removed the Scarab since I figured it's too early for details yet.
You'll notice that nothing is holding the rocks yet, it will come soon.
And I'm a bit happier with my new colors.

Thanks in advance for more usefull critique!

Have a nice day 

[Rox]

If you've already colored it, it's definitely not too early for details. It's looking good so far, but I suggest you look up how light tends to fall on cylindrical surfaces, and also how wood looks when light falls on it. I think there'sa bit too much contrast currently and the way the highlights only follow the edges makes it look like it's made of square-ish planks.

Again, look up highlights on cylindrical surfaces and drag down the contrast on the wood. And get those details back in there!

[SCiDT]

Did you take a photo with your cell phone to get the line art or scan it?

[Senad]

Did you take a photo with your cell phone to get the line art or scan it?

exacly what i was wondering... its just lines.. not some character or something.. :p u could draw it on pc ><

[Relvox]

Well, it has been a while. I've been direly busy with army and math lately

Anyway, I was looking and it and reading what you said and I indeed notice something's wrong with the lighting. With what I did, it looks as if the light is coming from the top right but also a bit from in front of the object. While I do think that it's wrong (it looks pretty wrong to me ) it bothers me a bit that the stones are lighted in the same manner (A little less noticeable IMHO, because of the light shades).

The real probelm is that I've been trying for over an hour to improve the lighting it but somehow nothing looks good. maybe it's a bad choice of colors, I dunno but I really can't manage to get it to work :/. I would really appreciate it if someone could give me a few specific pointers (Maybe even a relevant reference) how to get this done ...

@SCiDT & Senad: I scanned it with my scanner, I just had this drawn over many notebooks and I tried to cram them all in at the same time. While I do agree that this is not a very complex piece to require scanning, I'm not skilled enough (in my opinion) to do that transition without the scanning.

Edit 1:
I decided that maybe I should at least post my latest attempt.


Edit 2:
I gave it another shot, this time with some dithering ... is it any better?

[Relvox]

Well, I spoke to nVision and he suggested a new palette and an addition of a color for AAing the lighting.
I decided to keep my previous lighting scheme and incorporate his suggestions. here are the results:



I'm fairly happy with with the lighting and colors now, I shall advance to details now

[Rerg1]

Doesnt look like a weapon.
I sketch a cool concpet mfor you if you'd wish.

[Larwick]

The problem with this i think is the lack of any source of interest in the image. You could add texture and secondary lighting all you wanted, but it would still be rather boring. I think sketching out a drawing of this is enough, so you know what it looks like, but then you could add it into some sort of scene or onto some character, give it an interesting perspective or such.

Good luck. 

[Relvox]

Well, this is more like a tutorial for me. I'm going to try and add as much details to this as I can... slowly I hope to improve and maybe even add a source of interest

[Relvox]

Okay, I took a little break from math to add some more minor details to this piece:
First of all, I separated the Staff from the Axe (thing):
a: b:

I wonder which looks better...

And in the effort of getting some more details, I added the scarab back, slightly recolored and held by vines:

(I added a redo of the scarab)

Obvious TODOs:
Recolor the damn Scarab. Done
Add something to hold the Rocks to the stick and the sticks together.
Moar details!

Any c&c would be much appriciated.
(I know this pieve is qutie boring but this is my way of learning ... )

[skeddles]

i love the new one with the scarab! give the wood some texture.

and if you didnt know, thats called an ankh or somthin.. egyption version of a crosss...

i think i would like it better if you removed the axe and shortened the arms. also, have a rope wrapped around where they meet, to hold it together.

[am_pm]

I'd suggest adding some wood grain when you get the chance to work with it. It looks a lot like a kind-of totem/idol to me. Note this is when you feel comfortable, but make the wood a lot more bent and gnarled.



OTHERWISE:

It looks good as is. Keep it up!

[Tremulant]

I think the major problem here is that the image consists almost entirely of perfect geometric shapes, and the simplicity of the forms makes everything, well, kinda boring to look at, frankly. The concept is fine, you just need to make your forms more interesting. I made a small example of what you might try for the poles:



This is obviously a very exaggerated, unrealistic-looking example, probably to the point of being over done. That said, I think it's more interesting to look at, and while you shouldn't necessarily take it in this direction, or to this extreme, I think you should experiment with your forms and find something that's both more visually appealing and looks good to you.

I dunno, just something to think about, I guess. Best of luck with it, regardless.

am_pm posted while I was typing and stole my gnarliness. Sorry for any repetition.

[Relvox]

@Skeddles: I know what an ankh is and while this might be slightly influenced by it, it is by no means supposed to be one. So, the axes are staying It is actually a part of my original plan to break the circle of the staff in a way similar to this:
(Very old work)
Ropes are details I'm planning to add as I progress.

@am_pm: Textures are planned, it's just that this is the first pixel piece I've put more than 10 minutes into and I'm just taking my time with it. Trying to make the most out of every step, learning wise.

@Tremulant: First of all, thanks for taking the time to make an example, as soon as I have the time I shall study it and see what I can incorporate into my piece. Second, I see what you're saying about the boredom. As you must've read me write a million times already, all those details and modifications are coming up. The important this is that you've mentioned what I should improve and I'm thankful for that.

I'm studying around 8 hours of math today, I'll try to throw an update on one of my breaks
Any further detail suggestions are much welcome.

Have a nice day. ^^

[Tenshi]

- I think removing the axe blades (?) would really help. They just seem to unbalance the image to me, but that's probably my weird sense of balance.