[WIP] Absolute first try at pixel art. Help! Floundering! :)

[zaphyr]

Well, after being registered for months, I finally decided it was time to have a go myself...
This is my first ever attempt at any pixel art, about an hour diddling around in photoshop, I made this horror:



It's too dithered, the scene is too cluttered and the colours suck, these things I know... But what to do about it?

C+C desperately sought! Where should I go from here?

An excellent site, btw, both inspiring me to even try this, and then making me inflict it on your poor eyes... I'm so sorry...
Thanks guys!

[Sohei]

I personally think that grass and trees are the hardest thing to make in pixel art, because they don't have regular structure. And to make  it irregular, chaotic and good looking is the top skill of an artisan.
It's not the best choice to pick as a first step.
Major disadvantages of given pieces - lack of adequate lighting.
Square artificial objects may be a better decision.

[kitty]

That's mean Sohei! :[  You can pixel whatever you want zaphyr and you get better when you do things that are difficult.

Your latest version is the best version so far.  You could straighten the horizon to be perfectly straight.
Also think of the power of each color because you have some colors that are almost exactly the same.

[zaphyr]

Major disadvantages of give pieces - lack of adequate lighting.
Square artificial objects may be a better decision.

Yeah, I think you're right there Sohei.  Also, after adding the detail on top of my blocked out cheesy shading, i'm finding it pretty hard to re-light stuff and not wash away the details...  Thanks for the feedback and, I have to say, your trees are awesome , I really like how the sunlight almost shimmers through them.

Kitty, I feel guilty since I'm using 6 shades of green, and I wanted 4... Maybe I will try to desaturate the image and recolourize it.  Sohei is right though, I just sat down and started pushing pixels around without much thought, and while I'm pleasantly surprised how it turned out, I probably should study lighting and perspective a bit more for my next go. 

Thanks for the feedback peeps!

[LuckwithinFavor]

I like it, It looks great for just beginning!

For myself, I suck completely when it comes to making Turfs (grass, cliff-sides, ect..)
But I have gotten a lil' work when It comes to trees.
Here's a Tree Hut I made for a Zelda RPG I've been working on. (its the kokiri shop house)

For the base trunk of the tree, you could try giving it some definition on the roots, here's an example for you I drew up.

[zaphyr]

I like it, It looks great for just beginning!

Thanks 

I like the cracks in your shop, especially the ones that run vertically, although the red bit over the door seems a bit asymettrical? Anyway, good job!

I tried to add roots at the beginning, but it ended up looking like some mutant octopus.  I tried following your guide, and yeah, I think it's working now.  Not entirely sure about the one behind the tree on the right, i think i made it stick out too far. oh well. Thanks for pushing me to add them back 

I am really quite happy how this is progressing now.  Thanks again everyone!

[LuckwithinFavor]

No problem
Anyway we could see where it's at now? 

[zaphyr]

there you go.  Progress is slowing down.  The rock needs redoing, and I still think the tree bark looks quite wrong, but I need to figure out how to bodge it into the style of the leaves now that I added the highlights (too much like plastic? hm, not sure).  I'm not happy with the way the landscape darkens as it goes further from the camera, either. I'd like to haze it out, but I need to figure out how I'm going to make that happen without too many tears. 

Uh oh, looks like the real world is beckoning, but I'll carry on with this in a bit.  See you soon...

[LuckwithinFavor]

Try giving the Backdrop (the blue) something to look at, like a mountain ridge in the distance, I'll give you an edit in a minute
and as for the rock, try putting a few grass blades standing infront of it, so It looks as if its in the grass, not layered over it. 
good job on the roots by the way! 

[zaphyr]

Well, I had a go adding the mountains and a few other trimmings, and here's what I have now.  I think the mushroom is a little, um. bright .  Also I have no idea how to texture the mountains nicely.  I think i'm going to have to study some reference images for that one. 

[LuckwithinFavor]

I think that looks awesome! 
Just make the mountains colors a little darker to make them seem as if they are in a distance

[zaphyr]

Thanks for keeping my motivation up
Okay, so here is the mountains darkened, which definately helps.  I added a little something else to fill the gap, too.

[LuckwithinFavor]

Looks Good 

The butterfly was a good filler, gives the eye something to focus on 

[zaphyr]

It was a bit wonky though, so that is fixed now.  And I made the sky a flat gradient because I didn't like the way it was at an angle.

So I guess the major remaining drawbacks are still lack of shadows, and gaudy colour scheme.  Any more crits much appreciated.

[LuckwithinFavor]

No problem 
Keep at it! You'll be an awesome Pixel Artist

[VictorR]

The leaves need more depth, so does the trunk. Add more shadows and brighter highlights. Looking good though!

[zaphyr]

Aha, yeah, it IS still to flat.  I added YET another green (that makes 8 now :/), and then twiddled the palette for the trunk, which i think I will probably redo.  I think my biggest mistake at the start was not being brave enough with my palette- everything was too clumped together giving that flat look, and now my colour usage has skyrocketed. Next time I will restrict myself to say, 16 colours and try Helm's suggestion on another thread of chromatically blending several lighter hues into the same darker hue to compress the palette better.

The leaves look a bit like a brain now , but at least they are more 3d...  I'd love to try adding foilage detail but I have no idea how to go about that convincingly, especially while retaining the overall shape of the clumps.  Maybe the current style works, or maybe it highlights my technical incompetence? What do people think?

[zaphyr]

And here is the trunk re-done.  Not 100% happy with it, but it seems to be an improvement overall.  Maybe I am done with it, but if anyone has any suggestions they'd like me to try, offer them!  Thanks all for salvaging my initial attempt into something I'm relatively happy with (I know it's not great, but it turned out ten times better than I thought it would ).