It does not seem like you guys understand Dusty's point. Look at the celtic pattern for example. It's made almost completely of 2x2 "pixels," even the AA. This need not be so.
It was less of a critique and more of a curiosity thing.
No no, that's a great observation, I'm glad you brought it out. This is why I post here, for the insight. But, it's just one of those things you can't get around, I know it looks a little wonky to us that know pixeling.
And being new to pixel art, I find it wise to operate within strict standards at first, like wide-pixel & C64 palette (the hammer uses 13 of 16 colors). Reminds me of learning to drive on a beat up old '85 F150 standard, once I was able to drive
that, i could drive
anything.
First, this is really beautiful. I'm massively impressed by how... solid it looks.
That said, I think the energy-swooshy things don't quite complement it as they could. They don't seem to quite read as movement, or an enchantment, or a glow, or even a solar eclipse in the background. It ends up being a bit distracting with the bright colors and confusing readability. I dunno if it's just me, but that's how it looks to me.
Yeah, they hog a little too much attention, I really tried to not use white to help in this area, but it didn't work. This weapon is part of a series of weapons I'm making that have strict themes, this one is blunt and uses electricty. I considered making the
electric energy effects more realistic and less abstract/cartoony but ended with what you see instead. I don't see how one wouldn't read them as some sort of radiating power or energy, but I agree that it could be better.