AuthorTopic: Hello and asking for Opinion  (Read 2266 times)

Offline Ronivan

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • Ronivan
    • Ronivan Fontanez
    • View Profile
    • Rune Projects

Hello and asking for Opinion

on: June 27, 2018, 04:31:53 am
So hello everyone! I'm new here and also new to pixel art. I've been studying it some time now and I'm trying to make a proper white birch tree. I've made this one here:


But I'm not happy at all with the tree trunk nor the branches. Can someone draw at least a birch tree trunk for me have a sample on how to work with it? I'm more worried about the trunk, for the branches I can follow the same idea. I would really appreciate any help to get on with this.

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: Hello and asking for Opinion

Reply #1 on: June 28, 2018, 02:27:46 pm
Birches aren't white throughout. You got the darkening of the trunk towards the bottom, but you missed that the thin parts of the branches are a reddish black.
Look how little white there is in this photo.

Birches also usually taper much more slowly. A birch with a trunk that thick at the bottom would be much taller, and a birch of this height would have a thinner trunk. Trees with thicker trunks also usually have a more substantial dark area at the bottom.

Birches are also structured a little differently, and structure contributes a lot to whether a tree looks "right" in a drawing. Their branches usually grow more upwards (higher then 45 degrees, often higher than 60, but it depends on the environment, e.g. how many trees are around it) and then bow away from the tree because of gravity, and sub-branches are usually also not angled that far away from the main branch.
The branches are usually not so straight, either. They "weave" a lot, as do the trunks. In birches, every substantial branch causes the trunk/source-branch to grow away from it a little, so overall the branch remains "balanced":

(This pattern is common in many trees, but it stands out in birches because birches are particularly prone to splitting into two almost evenly-sized branches, instead of only having smaller branches. This happens with trunks too, there are many twinned+ birches out there.)
Your birch also has a very gradual reduction in branch size. The thinnest branches are all attached to slightly thicker branches. Real birches have many thin branches growing directly out of thicker ones, including out of the trunk.

With the texture of the bark, I think you've done pretty well! I'd put more and larger dark spots towards the bottom, but I think the main thing holding it back is that the branches are white instead of dark. Once you fix that, I think your existing texture will look pretty good! If you want to push it further, you could add more broken-up small spots, and ones that don't go full-dark.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2018, 02:32:29 pm by eishiya »

Offline Ronivan

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • Ronivan
    • Ronivan Fontanez
    • View Profile
    • Rune Projects

Re: Hello and asking for Opinion

Reply #2 on: June 29, 2018, 02:27:09 am
My thanks for the great tips, I'll take them. In this meanwhile I studied more some birches and I came with this scratch:



Its just a piece of the trunk. I have doubled the number of color to create some more dept. I'll work more on stains the birch has and in the branches.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2018, 02:29:54 am by Ronivan »

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: Hello and asking for Opinion

Reply #3 on: June 29, 2018, 02:37:52 am
I don't think you need so many colours, the amount you had before is more than adequate. This larger palette is just harder to work with, makes for a lot of banding, and doesn't really add visual appeal, in my opinion.

Consider adding some/more colour to the greys. Birches aren't perfectly grey but have warmish colours, and they're affected by light from the environment.

Offline Ronivan

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • Ronivan
    • Ronivan Fontanez
    • View Profile
    • Rune Projects

Re: Hello and asking for Opinion

Reply #4 on: June 29, 2018, 03:51:40 am
Thanks and indeed  I didn't liked that lot too. I reduced with 4 main colors for the trunk and two small side colors to each side, and three colors for the stains. I'll also use these stain red colors for the branches later on.

Offline Ronivan

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • Ronivan
    • Ronivan Fontanez
    • View Profile
    • Rune Projects

Re: Hello and asking for Opinion

Reply #5 on: July 04, 2018, 08:53:09 pm
Made this one using a Photoshop Indexed Color mode, how think it's worth to continue to the branches and leaves?