Night sky

[Dragen]

Well, I've decide to become more active here, and hone my spriting skills as I now have more time because I left a different forum I was on.  I will just post a sprite art picture I did for an art class last year, it's the biggest thing I've done so far.  Not changing it, but I would like to know what you think is bad about it.  I don't like what I did to the moon.

[MrMister]

Well, it looks like you used the spray can tool.
A lot.

[Dragen]

Yeah, for the gradient in the sky I am fine with it, but the moon it really butchered it.

[miscdude]

things that use more than the pencil tool are not true pixel art. id say start over smaller and use just the pencil.

[sharprm]

I guess your not changing it but id say that i think the tree is really cartoony looking. If thats what you wanted fine, but if the siloutes are supposed to be realistic, the tree could've been done better.

[Helm]

Stars are in constellations, not uniform patterened grids. Check a single reference photo of the night sky for more on this. Don't draw without referencing life. Don't copy life, but have an idea of life in mind before you start something.

edit: oh wow, just noticed. Also, tree. Photo reference of tree branches in order.

[Faktablad]

On your tree, none of the branches overlap at all!  It's as if it's completely 2-dimensional.  You should definitely study how real trees work: how branches go out in all three dimensions, how long it takes for a large trunk to branch out into small twigs, and in what way boughs branch off of each other.

Here's a reference photo of your average tree

A lot of tree physiology depends on the species of tree, of course, but in general, the height of the trunk is less than half of the tree's total height.  Also a lot of people don't realize how small tree trunks usually are compared with the overall spread of the leaves and branches, such as in this photo.

[Helm]

Also, lose that huge sig please.

[Anything!]

Dithering

Onoez, you used the spray can! That's alright, some of us make that mistake at least once in our lives. Now, I picked a section of your work and dithered [semi]correctly, as you can see from here. Sure, it seems difficult, but it isn't really, after you get the hang of it.

Here's an example of dithering between two colours- in which I cheated and used a monochrome bitmap, but hey, this is just for example.



There's just so much you can do with only two colours, huh? ;3

I'll be honest, it'll seem mundane. You will want to take frequent breaks. But it does make the piece look more uniform; The spraycan does dither, but it's like... speckle dither. You don't have complete control of each pixel, and that's what pixel art is all about.

Here, I removed the section I dithered [semi]correctly for visual sake. o:



Looks a bit better, doesn't it?

Colours

I can't really see the two top colours separately, from first glance. That's not what you want, ever. >D You want to use as few colours as possible, and because of that, each colour should at least seem like different colours right from first glance. Since I did this quickly, I'm afraid I still didn't do the job correctly, but the colours do look a bit better.



Stars

As Helm mentioned, 'stars are in constallations, not uniform patterened grids'. That doesn't mean that where you placed the stars are wrong, exactly, but the way they're placed does make it look like a grid. To mask that, you draw smaller, bigger stars around it. Again, quick job, but does make it look better.



Remember, stars have different sizes and intensities.

To get this done, I had perhaps... one colour more than you? I dunno,

Now compare the section I did to the whole picture.

Jus' trying to help. Take from this what you want. I do suggest, even though you said you won't edit, to redo this piece in a smaller scale. ;3

Edit: Tried the colours again, added more stars to make me look less lazy.

[Sherman Gill]

things that use more than the pencil tool are not true pixel art. id say start over smaller and use just the pencil.

What about the line tool? Or the square tool? Or perhaps the fill bucket?
I think you're over simplifying things.

[JJ Naas]

What about the line tool? Or the square tool? Or perhaps the fill bucket?
I think you're over simplifying things.

My thoughts exactly.. and spray can was an essential tool in Deluxe Paint, which was THE original pixel art software.

[miscdude]

things that use more than the pencil tool are not true pixel art. id say start over smaller and use just the pencil.

What about the line tool? Or the square tool? Or perhaps the fill bucket?
I think you're over simplifying things.

eh, ya got me on that one. ive just seen so many people say that line it got stuck in my head
also; generally when someone uses a dithering tool, such as the built in one on gfxgale, it gets frowned upon, and the spray tool seems like just a random dither tool.

on a more helpful note: i think the moon needs to radiate some light, and think a lot of it needs to have some AA or just get a bit more smoothed out.(i.e moon, and people maybe)

[Opacus]

What about the line tool? Or the square tool? Or perhaps the fill bucket?
I think you're over simplifying things.

My thoughts exactly.. and spray can was an essential tool in Deluxe Paint, which was THE original pixel art software.

But I don't know why anyone would want to actually use the spray can though, looks horrible

[Helm]

also; generally when someone uses a dithering tool, such as the built in one on gfxgale, it gets frowned upon,

The reason. The reason it gets frowned upon is what you should keep in mind, not pavlovian-like remember that 'we hate it, so you shouldn't do it'. The reason it gets frowned upon is because random isn't controlled, and pixel art is a medium where a single pixel has so much strength, that to make good art you need to have control over every single pixel.

It doesn't matter if it's made with the spray can if you later zoom in and manually adjust until you have everything under control. What's the silliness about only the pencil tool being pixel art? I wish people whouldn't perpetuate such things.

[miscdude]

aright aright i was wrong, theres no need to continue arguing about it, seeing as i was the only one who thought it wasn't pixel art.
my bad, and I understand what you guys mean now, thanks ^^

[Dragen]

things that use more than the pencil tool are not true pixel art. id say start over smaller and use just the pencil.

I know this is true, but I don't think I would have time to explain small pixelling things, I just wanted to draw something in ms paint that looked good.  It is made with pixels, hence the pixel art.  Also, I feel like a total newbie here, and thats a good start at getting better.  I now see what you mean about the tree, and the stars I have been told are too gridlike.
As for dithering, I just didn't think that the sky is ever one shade perfectly blended into another, so I didn't want to create a perfect gradient.  Thanks for the criticism.

[AdamAtomic]

I feel like this topic is straying a bit.  Anything! posted some very nice edits and advice for you, Dragen, which I would definitely study and consider.  I have 2 other pieces of advice that don't adhere to this piece in particular, but have been very helpful to me as a pixel art beginner:

1 - Start by working on a smaller canvas.  As multiple members have already stressed, pixel art is about controlling every pixel in the entire picture.  This becomes exponentially harder the larger your image gets.  It's pretty natural, when you're starting out, to attempt a pretty big piece; one of my first pieces was 640x480!  But I used a lot of repeating elements, and it still turned out like crap, because I just didn't have the technique and fundamental practice I needed, and the piece was so large that it was impractical to do major edits.  If you start with a smaller image, like 128x128 max, then you can repaint the entire image in a matter of minutes if necessary; this will allow you to test out big changes more quickly, and it will also force you to recognize how much a single pixel can matter.

2 - Start by working with just a few colors, like 4 max.  The major advantage of starting this way is it will help you master the final values and contrast of your image long before you start working with the colors or palette, and by limiting yourself to 3 or 4 colors you can again make drastic changes to how your subject is lit without having to redo your AA or your dithering etc.  It is very common for traditional watercolor or acrylic artists to do charcoal value studies before embarking on their final painting for exactly these same reasons.

3 - Look up references.  Even if you are drawing a cartoon submarine-squid monster from outer space, something with next to no bearing on reality, it can be a huge help to look up references (squids, submarines, space shuttle, etc) just to make sure that you choose the right details to stylize or emphasize, and to refresh your brain about the basic forms that you're going to be trying to render.  In your case, I think if you examine some photos of the night sky, the moon, and silhouettes of trees it should be pretty clear what corrections you need to make!

So, my advice is to put this piece on hiatus and do some experiments with smaller images, working from references (not tracing or copying photos, but making informed artistic decisions based on observation), so you can fine-tune your pixel manipulating skills, then return to it.  You may find that you don't even need any critique, the errors of the piece will be clear to you, and you will be able to push it to the next level.

It is important that you think of this as taking a break from the piece, rather than quitting.  Ambitious artists sometimes have to do this - there is something you really want to accomplish, but you're not quite ready for it yet, so you do some studies, and return to it when you're ready.  This is totally natural and learning to embrace this process will make you a much better artist.  Good luck!

[Anything!]

As for dithering, I just didn't think that the sky is ever one shade perfectly blended into another,

Stars don't spell 'make a wish' either, XD

You're contradicting yourself a bit. :>
Because you did create a gradient. Imperfect or not, it's a gradient. That makes it so one shade is blended into another. o:

But I get what you're saying. It looks careless, but I get what you're saying. How about next time you ditch the spray can and do that speckle dither you want yourself? ;3

[BG]

I liked the setting in this piece so i made my own version.
Here's an example how this kind of scene could look on a much smaller scale. I'm not done with it, but I hope it gives you an idea. Also, this is how I think a moon should look like.

[Dragen]

Yeah, I did look at the real moon, and you can kind of see that in where I sloppily applied the spray can tool, but I really don't like the moon I made.  It's pretty bad.

[TrevoriuS]

regardless of that, your colours were better because the moon does not look that yellow

[AdamAtomic]

O RLY?

[TrevoriuS]

So then why did you have to google on yellow moon and not just moon; if I google on moon I get actual pictores of the moon; yellow moon could refer to a modifier on the actual object/image. Regardless of that, it may look good, or at least a bit warmer regarding the actual 'theme' of this image. This really cold moon would more fit in a dark/threathening scene.

[JJ Naas]

The colour of the moon of course depends on whether you look at it from space, through the vacuum of space, when it appears less grey and less saturated than seen through the atmosphere. The closer it is to the horizon, the thicker layer of atmosphere the light will have to travel before reaching the eye. The closer it is to the horizon, the yellower it appears.

[Faktablad]

JJ Naas is right.  The sun's rays move more to the red end of the spectrum when it is closer to the horizon...the same happens with the moon.  I've been on a plane and seen a moonrise before--it was practically blood-red, it was cool.

Which reminds me: technically, in Dragen's picture, it shouldn't appear to be the middle of the night.  It should appear to be just after sunset.  That's because in the picture, there's a full moon that has just risen.  Full moons always appear directly opposite the sun, so that means that the sun should have just set.

[end astronomy rant]

[TrevoriuS]

Yeh, you can always go in depth about this
Actually I should've known because I had enough physics to clearly know how light works (and why dusk sometimes appears pink xD)
Thank you for refreshing my mind on this =) Who knows what it might do to scenes that have yet to be made up and drawn.