Critique for an Old Column

[fxJoan]

Hello, I decided to do yesterday's theme for Pixel Dailies for twitter, the theme was "column". Here is my entry and some points I would like to check, aside from that any feedback is welcome, thanks.

Image used for Twitter:


Image used during the initial to final phase of the drawing:


Point for critique:

• Was dithering overdone or underdone, and was it done in a correct way?

Note:

• I ended up using layers with dropped down opacity for shadows beneath the plants.
• Background Sky was done last so least effort went in it as I was already few hours in it and it was late so I was exhausted.

[eishiya]

Where is the light coming from? The shading feels inconsistent.

The dithering may be a bit much, but that depends on the material/texture you're trying to convey. Dithering creates a rough, textured look. Dithering also takes up space you could be using for details and better-defined texture, so that's something to keep in mind.

The sky is usually lighter near the horizon and darker higher up, yours is backwards xP In addition, one of the colour boundaries tangents with the top of the column, making it look attached to the column rather than like a background. In any case, the column appears to be seen from above, so it's not very likely we'd see a sky at all, unless the column's at the top of a mountain xP

[fxJoan]

The light is supposed to be coming from right. Although I see your point, I should have put more shadow in left side of the ground tiles and grass and less on the left side.

Regarding dithering, this is my first time trying to do noticeable amount of dithering and I got so in to the mood of it xD, I'll keep what you said in mind, regarding balancing dithering and textures, thanks.

Honestly, I was not prepared what to do with the background, but I was running out of time so I did what first came to mind ( regarding the sky and lighter grass on the sides ), regarding the sky, I wanted to make it seem like day was ending and night was coming out kinda, to validate the lightning and to blend the border of the mysterious hill the column was on.

In addition, one of the colour boundaries tangents with the top of the column, making it look attached to the column rather than like a background.

I am not getting what you mean, not sure which parts seem attached to what and how.

Thanks you very much, eishiya. I'll keep in mind what you pointed out, and will spend more time in the sketch period and get a better Image of what I want to draw before going too deep and finishing it. I probably won't be doing any edits on this at current time at least.

[eishiya]

With my comment about the light, I was actually thinking more about the vertical position. Is the light coming from above, or below? The top of the base is lit, but the top of the column is in shadow. You have some highlights in the middle of the column, but what's creating them?
A centre light source (same amount of shadows on the left/right) is a little dull, but it's physically plausible xP


This is the tangent I was referring to:

That colour boundary and the top of the column align almost perfectly, making it feel like the pillar is contained within the darker blues, and the lighter blue is a separate object on top. It's generally a good idea to keep boundaries away from any other boundaries, unless they're almost perpendicular. When a shape overlaps another shape, it should do so decisively, try to avoid slight, ambiguous overlaps.
Even though the sky is a single object, the individual colours still form their own shapes, and if these shapes interact with other shapes in weird ways (e.g. tangents), that can cause the sky to read as a bunch of different objects rather than as a single gradient object.

[fxJoan]

Light is coming somewhere from the mid range from the right side. The top side wasn't supposed to be list, that "light" was supposed to add texture / indicate it was not a flat surface, but could have done that with actually texturing it.

Oh, okay, I understand now what you mean, kinda.
The sky could have had more things in it, just clouds or even a sun or a moon ( on the lower right / left side ) or some birds.
Will keep in mind everything you told me about.
Thank you, again.