[WIP] Lake house

[Ninety]

Hi all,

Working on a large canvas landscape piece. I'm not at all experienced with this kind of thing (more comfortable with tiles) so would appreciate feedback. I'm having second thoughts about the composition, as well as the overall cohesion.



Some areas haven't yet been rendered, obviously; I'm planning to do a subtle colour grade when finished to get some more sunset-like colours. The top area is also getting some trees/vegetation, though my first few attempts were pretty bad.

Cheers!

[Chonky Pixel]

I think this looks really good! I love the impressionistic feel of the rocks and the water is a great effect.

Trying to find some critique:

 - Sometimes it can be a good idea to "suggest" detail rather than render all detail, especially when the detail is regular. The wood slats in the hut for example. You could put more detail around the edges and in patches, so you don't have that hard grid pattern throughout.

 - Composition-wise, I understand that putting the focal point in the centre of the image isn't the most effective. Then we get into phrases like "creating a story" and "drawing the eye" to the important parts of the image. Oh and the "rule of thirds". To be honest, I don't really understand all that stuff, but I would probably try putting the main component of the image off-centre and using your handy shoreline to draw the eye towards it. Then you can make sure viewers take in the bathers (both water and sun) on the way.

But honestly, I'm no expert.

Anyway, yeah, great work! I love it.

[fskn]

Looking pretty good! So much so that it's hard to give any sort of critique. Maybe a few nitpicky suggestions...

Great use of color, and I love the detail of the sunlight going through the slits of the deck and hitting the water down below.

I think you could make the roof even more uneven (that sounded kinda odd...).
The lines of shingles, and the ridge in particular, could be a bit more wavy, perhaps?
You could also add some detail to the side of the house to make it less like a square block. Something coming out of the house, dunno exactly what... Window shutters, maybe...

Some more detail to the bottom of the vertical boards, where they meet the deck..?


I may have gone a bit overboard, no pun intended.

EDIT: Shifted the hue a little bit too:



The girl lying on the beach, It seems that we're seeing her too much from the top and the perspective makes me want it look like the camera is a little lower.


Hope that came through.

Composition-wise I have nothing to add.

[Ninety]

I love the impressionistic feel of the rocks

Thanks but they're not rendered yet lol... I might stick with the "looser" feel though and not get too bogged down in small details. One of my pixelart weaknesses is focusing too much on fine detail and neglecting to design the bigger picture.

- Sometimes it can be a good idea to "suggest" detail rather than render all detail, especially when the detail is regular. The wood slats in the hut for example. You could put more detail around the edges and in patches, so you don't have that hard grid pattern throughout.

Good call on that. I've reduced the detail a bit, particularly around the sitting girl. I think it reads a lot better.

- Composition-wise, I understand that putting the focal point in the centre of the image isn't the most effective. Then we get into phrases like "creating a story" and "drawing the eye" to the important parts of the image. Oh and the "rule of thirds". To be honest, I don't really understand all that stuff, but I would probably try putting the main component of the image off-centre and using your handy shoreline to draw the eye towards it. Then you can make sure viewers take in the bathers (both water and sun) on the way.

I've tried a few different cabin positions - nothing I quite like yet. Since my post I've sketched a deeper part to the water, which I think balances the shoreline better, and I'm starting to come around to having the cabin in the centre (might make some adjustments to the vertical position so that the upper roof isn't as close with the shoreline).

An update:

Maybe a few nitpicky suggestions...

Good suggestions - haven't done much with them yet as I haven't had much time for pixels today, but I agree that the wall needs darkening in particular.

[Chonky Pixel]

I love the impressionistic feel of the rocks

Thanks but they're not rendered yet lol... I might stick with the "looser" feel though and not get too bogged down in small details. One of my pixelart weaknesses is focusing too much on fine detail and neglecting to design the bigger picture.

This is totally a taste thing, but I've been enjoying pixel art like this recently. For areas of background, a lower-detail feel can help focus the viewer's eye on the parts you want them to look at. If you put detail everywhere, then everything is competing for attention. Or so says Some Random Pixel Artist On Twitter. (Honestly, when I stopped using Twitter for politics and started following pixel artists, it became a much more pleasant place. And there are some astounding artists on there.)

Here's an example of what I mean:

https://twitter.com/Franrekkk/status/1279393666549735426

In the older image, while everything is rendered well, it's hard to know where to look. With the new one, the eye is very much focussed on the important part. And in that part, the detail is still there.

This stuff is way above my pay grade, but I find it really interesting.

Back to your image, the low detail rocks and vegetation look great to me. I'm a massive fan of that kind of watercolour feel you get with large clusters like that. There's probably more work that could be done, like blending the grass into the rocks more smoothly in some areas, but this kind of style makes me happy looking at it. But like I say, it's a taste thing.

[Chonky Pixel]

- Sometimes it can be a good idea to "suggest" detail rather than render all detail, especially when the detail is regular. The wood slats in the hut for example. You could put more detail around the edges and in patches, so you don't have that hard grid pattern throughout.

Good call on that. I've reduced the detail a bit, particularly around the sitting girl. I think it reads a lot better.

Awesome! That looks so much better to me! I mean, it was good before...

[InfinityExperience]

I like really like what you did here, especially with the water.

However I'd pay extra care to shadows because, to me, it looks like there are 2 light sources. People shadows and those under the cabine seem to be projected from a zenith sun. The shadows of the trees, instead, are more stretched towards the horizon as if the light source was lower. That's just my opinion though.