Clouds and purple

[eliddell]

Actually, propellers aren't impossible with medieval tech—you just have to make them muscle-powered.  So inside the dirigible, there are a bunch of sweaty slaves (or dogs or goats) running on a treadmill to get the propellers to turn fast enough to give the thing steering way, and a power train made from pulleys, leather belts, and the big wooden peg-gears you see in windmills to transmit the energy along.  Another possibility is that it's effectively on rails, guided by a rope or wire strung between two high points.  The hydrogen to inflate the gas bag is slightly more of a stretch, but not too much of one:  oil of vitriol (AKA sulfuric acid, known at least from the 13th century) + salt + a metal spoon + some bright young alchemist willing to investigate the results.

I do think that if the dirigible is important enough to be in the picture, it's important enough that you don't want people to mistake it for a floating rock, as I initially did.

As for the clouds . . .  I think you said in the thread with the wisent caravan pic that these were illustrations for some larger, combined work?  It's possible that the clouds won't ever be unambiguously interpretable without the context the larger work would provide unless you compromise your vision a bit.  It all depends on what you think is most important, I guess.

The diamond pattern could work, but not in that colour, I think.  It needs to fall in line better with the rest of the palette.

[cels]

You had me at goat-powered dirigibles! I think it's easy to handwave the lift, whether it's hot air or a gas bag. To handwave muscle-powered propellers is more of a stretch. Hm, there's a joke to be made there, but I'm too tired. I don't know. Maybe I'll end up reluctantly having some steampunk for the sake of having functional airships that aren't simply hot air balloons. And I take your point about readability.

In regards to the clouds, I'm definitely not opposed to having them clearly identifiable as clouds. I hope I didn't give that impression. I guess I'm just struggling because it's an unusual perspective, it's at night (with high contrast due to a full moon), it's a relatively small canvas and on top of that everything is inexplicably purple. So it's a combination of low skill level, weird impulses and picking unhelpful parameters, I guess. 

And even with a photograph, it can be a bit tricky to know what you're looking at without context. In this photo, I don't know that it's immediately obvious that the bottom half is clouds. The sunlight and the way the clouds hug the mountains kind of help, but it's still a bit weird.


But enough excuses! Thanks for the feedback! I'll drop the diamond pattern, it's too difficult and unnecessary. 

[fskn]

Hm, yeah. They kind of read as being "white", maybe because of the little bit of sunlight, or just because of the relative value of the "fluffier" parts of the picture in comparison with the darker mountains.

I was thinking if it would be possible to show some of those clouds being dragged by the airship as it moves, and/or a trail behind it. That would read more as something fluid rather than, say, the top of trees. But having worked a bit on it thinking "clouds" as I was placing pixels around, I "can't not" read them as clouds anymore. They're clouds for me now.
Same goes for the airship. It's not some weird thing/rock/ovni floating there, it's an airship.

You did a great job with the robes now. It looks very, very nice indeed.
I just think that some of the light that goes over the part that covers the shoulders, wouldn't be there because the sleeve of the arm that's holding the lantern would (possibly?) block it.
Maybe the face too, now that I think of it, unless it's some light that's being bounced off from the tree. If that's the case, it would reflect onto the top of the lantern/ring too...

As for the pattern, I do like it as a concept, though maybe it's a bit too busy and the colors should (?) be closer in hue to that of the rest of the robe, because it's at night, and the only two lights that are there are very strongly colored.
I thiiiink.

But I don't know. It may look very cool...
Maybe try and make the sleeves seem white, and have a pattern that's a bit subtler as to not impair our perception of what those things are...
Or not even white, but some more contrasty color in comparison to the rest of the robe. Just to separate those some.

EDIT: That would make me think different things from what I'm thinking now, that that's a misterious figure investigating or just lurking in the dark. It wouldn't look as "stealthy", if that makes sense.

[eliddell]

Seriously, muscle-powered propellers do have some history in the real world, but it's with early submarines rather than dirigibles.

The clouds in the photo could possibly be rolling surf, but not treetops.  I think fskn is right about them being more readable because of value contrast.

Anyway, the figure in the foreground looks better now than in the original version of the picture, including the mask reading more clearly as a mask.

(And if you think your skill level is low, wait until I actually get around to posting the state of my current (game) project.  I expect plenty of laughter will ensue.)

[cels]

Thanks for your help, guys! I'll make some last changes and then start my next pixel piece, number 7 of 8. And then I'm taking a break from castles and clouds for a while! 

You've been awesome. Sorry if I've been too stubborn and pig headed about certain things.

I'm really happy to see more activity on the forum these days and I hope you guys get around to posting your current projects as quickly as possible, so I can (hopefully) try to reciprocate.

[fskn]

Sorry if I've been too stubborn and pig headed about certain things.

Don't worry. In the end, this is YOUR piece. You do it however you think it's best. We're just giving suggestions here.