Getting back into that groove

[Opacus]

Finally I'm starting to become a bit productive again with pixel art.
Got about time too. Anyway, here's a w.i.p that I WILL finish. (<--Not a lie)



It's for a competition on Deviant Art for halloween.
First off I wanted to do something scary but it started turning out far too serene really.
But thankfully when I read up the rules again it said spooky, not scary.
And though I don't think it's scary I do think it has a certain spooky feel to it.
Once again a 'grim reaper' kind of character makes his appearance in one of my artworks.
I hope the clothing looks better this time, though!

The colour max is 20 by the way, I think I'm at 17 currently.

[birkka]

wow
incredible
beautiful

[Opacus]

Thank you
Though it's nice to hear, please say if there's anything about it you don't like!
Even if it's a nitpick.
I know there's enough on this that could probably be improved.
Anyway here's an update:


Critique please!

[tocky]

The blade needs more contrast, it fades into the back a bit. The long chunky hands are sort of stylish but need to be more like hands, you could do knuckles and palms without breaking form, I think. Are the pointy structures in the background stone or metal? I think before I had them figured as mountains or tree branches or something, but now I'm not so sure. They don't look like natural structures - and they make the scene more interesting, but their purpose, the reason why they're there, is kind of hard to figure.

[Opacus]

Thanks Tocky.
They're actually supossed to be crystals haha. But it appears I was the only one who thought they looked like crystals.
Anyway, here's an update that hopefully adresses your issues.
(I'm still not keen on the scythe though, I'll try to fix that soon.)

[birkka]

i think the wood of the weapon is too high on the right

sorry for ma bad english

[Joseph]

why isn't he holding it?  otherwise, good stuff.

[Raytheon]

birkka is right, where the wood of the staff comes out on the right hand side it seems to be too high for the angle it comes in and goes out on

[skamocore]

*First off I think the wood is fine, if you look at the rest of the wood you'll notice it's very curvy in some areas, so I don't see a problem with it.
*I played around with the colours, I'm not sure that I made them *better* as such...I think I made it more Opacus-ish...if that makes any sense =/
**Added more hue shifting on the cloak
**tried to add a bit more contast to the crystals, especially the one nearest to the end of the scythe.
*I'm not sure if it was intentional, but the halo seems a bit square, espeacilly the right side of the inner halo.

Anyway look forward to seeing this when it's done ^_^

[Opacus]

Thanks for all the comments.
Skamocore is right on the scythe. It's very curvy. I wanted it to look asthough he just picked up a branch from the ground and
sticked a schythe on it. Just because I find a straight line rather boring.
Also Skamo: I think I'm not gonna go to overboard with colours here.
I don't think it fits the haunting feel I'm going after. I tried to fix the halo a bit though.

I didn't want him to hold it. I don't really know why.
But I just wanted him to kind of 'stare' at you. Threatening, without trying to be too threatening.
Or something like that.

I think I'm gonna call this finished:


Atleast it's done, maybe not finished. If you know what I mean.
I wanna hand it in soon because I'll be gone friday.
So hit me with any critique you got left

[Shrike]

Very nice piece, Extremely well pixeled, but there's a few things that bother me:

• It doesn't look scary.

Slightly spooky maybe, but it could be moreso. Trust me, i'm easily scared. I think to fix this, although its kind of late now, make it a lot darker colors in the background, maybe make some storm clouds or something? not just to look scary but because i can hardly tell the difference between the background and the middleground.

• Hands bug me.

I don't know why, but they look awkward and unnatural. Because i'm so awesome, i shalt (Yay for old English?) provide and edit!


Only an edit on the left hand, i'm sort of pressed for time. Hope it helps!
~Shrike

[Opacus]

Thanks Shrike. I see what you mean.
Yeah the atmosphere kind of bothers me myself. I had something far scarier in mind when I started.
But it ended up like this. I'd fix it, but I really don't have that much time to work on it anymore.
Plus I don't wanna do half of this again. I'll see if this can get entered in the competition or not. If not that's too bad.

About the hands: Though I do kinda see what you mean, I really do want him to have very long claws.
But I just don't really know how to make em look better and keep em long and creepy.

[TrevoriuS]

The main problem with the atmosphere is that the light is coming from above and that your background seems much too cheerful. You see, light coming from below feels much more 'threatening'.

[Ian]

The blade of the scythe appears to be part of the background way too much.  I know you're trying to conserve colors and perhaps even create unity in the piece but there is such a thing as too much unity and in this case part of your foreground is becoming part of the background.  Adding more contrast between the tones of the blade doesn't help you need more contrast between the blade and the background (and not just value contrast more then likely hue).  Also the composition isn't too good is fairly boring, you only really have two levels of convincing space, the reaper with his scythe and the background with crystal elements.  Try bring some of the crystals forward and pushing the others back to give a nice sense of receding space and perspective.   Looking at your image abstractly and sorting it's compositionally this is basically what it becomes:

Kinda boring right?  Your pixel rendering and sense of form is quite exceptional but I think it's time you start thinking more critically about composing your work, especially if you are going to be doing scenes such as this.

[Ryumaru]

I disagree that the composition is boring. the black sillouette you highlighted shows almost a diagonal in the composition and if he had maybe had something dark or interesting in the top left it would be a perfectly dynamic composition.

[Ian]

I agree my main point is that the upper left corner is quite unengaging and that the crystal elements don't work to build a real sense of filling space (they act entirely as negative space) so we are kinda left with two simple areas of positve and negative space.  So yeah, the reaper's shape itself is pretty interesting but I think the upper left corner could do with more interest.

[Opacus]

I agree my main point is that the upper left corner is quite unengaging and that the crystal elements don't work to build a real sense of filling space (they act entirely as negative space) so we are kinda left with two simple areas of positve and negative space.  So yeah, the reaper's shape itself is pretty interesting but I think the upper left corner could do with more interest.

Well, wouldn't more interesting stuff in the upper left corner distract from the reaper?

[Jad]

I agree my main point is that the upper left corner is quite unengaging and that the crystal elements don't work to build a real sense of filling space (they act entirely as negative space) so we are kinda left with two simple areas of positve and negative space.  So yeah, the reaper's shape itself is pretty interesting but I think the upper left corner could do with more interest.

Well, wouldn't more interesting stuff in the upper left corner distract from the reaper?

Elaboration on the color and shape of crystals can, without drawing direct attention to themselves, make them more interesting. It's the power of the subconscious you'll want to access (: