House design help

[BasseBoi]

Im totally new at pixelart. So i need some help
I wanted to make a house wich would fit in a RPG game. Its suposed to look like the seccond floor is pushed forward over the first floor and the door. ( i would wawnt tips about the color and such also)
Any tips?

[drax013]

im not sure but the roof looks off to me... maybe to short and kinda forward?.....

[RetroNuva10]

Welcome to the world of pixel art! 

Firstly, the back side of the roof should be skewed, because of perspective. Secondly, it's usually a good idea to have some kind of background color. This is so you have a good consciousness of what the underlying world would look like.

With the shadow underneath the outset second story of the house, try to use more than just 2 colors, so it looks smoother.
The door and windows are fairly flat, so try to make the inner portions look inset.
You might also want path stones to have a shine to them, to look more round.

I made a rough edit that will hopefully give you an idea of how to accomplish the mentioned critiques.



With all this kept in mind, you're doing rather well for an early piece of art. So, good luck, and remember to keep working at it! 

[BasseBoi]

Thank you for your answares. It was a good idea to make the roof longer. i will try that! And the same with giving the stone some shine. i didnt think of that. And i will fix the windows and door so they dosnt look so flat.

I had a background in the pic, but i though it was easier to see it without it thats why i didnt upload the bakground in the pic (But i was wrong, it looked better with a bakground haha)

But i am not totally sure on what you mean that the back side should be skewed? I understand that  i should change it, but im not sure how. I would appricated if you (or somone else) could help me out with that   

 

Firstly, the back side of the roof should be skewed, because of perspective.

[EduardoPras]

Hello Basse!

I'll try to help you a bit.

I've struggled a bit with my thoughts about pixelart while trying to make this paintover.
I went back to study some old JRPG and Action pixel games and had to rethink some things. Like, how pixel clusters can be used.


Let me go through what I've changed here:

1)I've decreased overall saturation
2)I've decided on a light source. Your original had two shadows from the front converging to the center.
That seemed to indicate, to me, that it was lit from both sides.
Since the light seemed to be sunlight I've chosen only one direction. (Top from right to left).
3) I've made door height and window height/size that are more "usable" by your character.
A person is usually around 75% a door total height, doorknobs tend to be at elbow height. Etc.
4) I've ommited a lot of detail and this was a hard choice.
You poured a lot of work doing small details.
But I felt you were in an uncorfortable middleground. Commit to eiter go full detail or simplify.
5) I've also gave some more space to the wooden pillars in front ofthe door. They are the ones giving the volume to your second floor.
6) Your roof has a perspective error you can't see front and back at the same time, and that lack of perspective was also making the chimney a mess to read.
7) The rocks felt like noise. I removed them.
If I were to remake them I would make a tile with less noise and lines.
8 ) I've made the outlines heavier than the inside lines, sometimes even removed some of them.


I guess that's basically it.


Here's my paintover:





And here's an example from Alundra if you intend to go full detail(Take a look at the value range):

 


I've got to say that since you said you were a beginner to pixelart this is really good pixelwork.
You linework was great and there were some good ideas going on.
Nice job!

I would like some more time to think and study but that's what I got right now.
Hope I could help you a bit with a different perspective.

[BasseBoi]

Thank you so much Eduardo! Iam very thankful for these advice. It really does look more readable, and now i know a bit more how i need to think.
i took 2 lightsources because it looked so empty, haha (but it does look better with only one)
And thank you for the tips on how to get things more "usable" to my character. Really helpfull. The only thing i dont agree with is the saturn, i do like it when its much saturn, but i get what you mean, and i may decrease it a bit.
Now i can redesign my house with help of your tips and paintover, i do think i will add the stones, but this time i will do them better.   

[questseeker]

I think the attempt at perspective (the very well drawn shadows of the two front pillars, the stone path) is incompatible with the overall choice of an orthogonal view: the horizon is placed at a bad-looking height (between the ground floor and the balcony) and vague, and the roof (not narrowing in the back as it should, and implying a point of view far above the house because of insufficient foreshortening of the back half) is strongly conflicting.
Instead, you could move the light source to one side (to have pretty shadows without perspective) and add shadows for everything that should have them (upper part of the balcony, roof like in EduardoPras's edit...). You don't need perspective for a good picture.

[BasseBoi]

Heres the redesign of the house  I redesigned it with my own style, because i want it to be a bit personlized. But im not sure what i think about the purple shadow on the house. Thoughs? And any overall thoughs?

[Zanorin]

Not such a fan of the chimney thing on the side of the house : the angles look too sharp and it doesn't really feel like it's made of stone.

The purple shadow looks great imho.

[BasseBoi]

Thanks zanorin. I did think it feelt a bit wierd. But couldnt figure what. But now you meantion it, it does look too sharp. I will try to make the edges a bit rounder