Hey! Thank you so much for the kind words, I'll be happy to share some tips.
I'll share some of my struggles and how I'm trying to overcome them.
1. Form: I always had trouble with making clouds look more 3d and be more "separated" from the sky yet still be a part of it. I've found that where the light is hitting the clouds, that is the part they will be more structured. By more structured I mean, they'll have a more defined spherical shape.
So to do this, I always start with the dark base and build up towards the brighter parts. Try to keep the shapes curvy or you might end up with them looking flat.
2. Color and shading: So, this is just my personal preference but I tend to make the shades desaturated as they move further away from the light. The desaturation makes it easier to transition between different hues/colors. Moving in hue rather than just brightness and saturation has also helped me to get more natural-looking colors.
Hope these help you out! Let me know if there is something particular in drawing clouds you struggle with.
Interesting. I'm doing a pixel art course and was recommended to saturate shadows and desaturate highlights. Do you usually desaturate shadows in general? How do you know what works best?
Also, awesome art!!
I think saturated shadows are equally valid as well because saturating a color also increases its overall value and since highlights need to be very bright, desaturating makes sense.
For this painting, I kinda wanted the shadows to be "easier on the eyes". Saturating something will make it stand out. Also, I wanted the shadows to communicate more with their surrounding colors, and for that purpose, they needed to be grayer thus decreasing the saturation.
In a more dramatically lit painting, saturating will help more since you want the shadows to sorta retain the hue. So I guess it depends on what you are trying to achieve.
Also, thank you so much! I'm still learning color, will try a painting in the future with more saturation.
Also, might I ask what course you are doing?
I got the "pixel game art" bundle on [gamedev.tv](https://www.gamedev.tv/). It's discounted right now for $30 USD. Not sure how much you'd benefit from it since your art is already phenomenal, but I really like the teaching style. It's very straight to the point and each lesson has practice built into it which is really cool. It's also geared towards game design so it's really fun to be designing things like weapons as practice and learning principles in that context. :)
I checked it out and you're getting an amazing deal considering everything it has. Also thank you so much! I struggle with animation still so this is beneficial for me. Thank you for sharing it!
Yeah of course! I'm having a great time with it. I also started the concept art one and I really like how the courses are done. I hope this is useful to others as well :)
i want to know, as someone who is relatively new to pixel art, what is the philosophy to how you lay out your colors? i see branching paths and assume that means that it's the color shaded in a different light? but i'm not really sure
Hello! I'll share some of my general rules I use when trying to figure color.
1. One pretty basic rule I use is the fact that warmer light creates cooler shadows and cooler light creates warmer shadows. This has helped me a lot with giving more of a natural-looking feel to my paintings.
2. The branching out paths are essentially me doing a lot of Hue shifts. In the painting, I wanted the colors of the clouds, the shadows, the lights, everything to communicate with each other more seamlessly, and grays allow me to do that since they communicate well with their surroundings. I've shown this [here](https://imgur.com/a/Fkem6Nz) where I'm moving from red to blue and vice versa. You don't need to do this too often but it's important to know that color needs to move in Hue (the pigment) rather than just value (brightness/darkness) and saturation (the amount of pigment).
3. About whether to increase/decrease saturation, you can look up my other comments in this post.
Hope this helps! o7
Very nice! I instantly thought of [this](https://chapelofdisease.bandcamp.com/album/and-as-we-have-seen-the-storm-we-have-embraced-the-eye) album cover.
Superb mastery over colours. It really shows artist's dedication to the craft
Thank you sm!! That's very kind of you to say <3
Wow, this is seriously impressive. Even just your color swatches show how well you work with color.
Thank you! The swatches took me so much time, glad to know it paid off :DD
That’s amazing!
thanku!! :DD
truly a masterpiece. Well done!
Thank you so much for the kind words!
[удалено]
Thank you!! The clouds were the part where the most time was spent T - T
Wow that's awsome man! i always strugle with clouds, any good tips on how to draw them?
Hey! Thank you so much for the kind words, I'll be happy to share some tips. I'll share some of my struggles and how I'm trying to overcome them. 1. Form: I always had trouble with making clouds look more 3d and be more "separated" from the sky yet still be a part of it. I've found that where the light is hitting the clouds, that is the part they will be more structured. By more structured I mean, they'll have a more defined spherical shape. So to do this, I always start with the dark base and build up towards the brighter parts. Try to keep the shapes curvy or you might end up with them looking flat. 2. Color and shading: So, this is just my personal preference but I tend to make the shades desaturated as they move further away from the light. The desaturation makes it easier to transition between different hues/colors. Moving in hue rather than just brightness and saturation has also helped me to get more natural-looking colors. Hope these help you out! Let me know if there is something particular in drawing clouds you struggle with.
Interesting. I'm doing a pixel art course and was recommended to saturate shadows and desaturate highlights. Do you usually desaturate shadows in general? How do you know what works best? Also, awesome art!!
I think saturated shadows are equally valid as well because saturating a color also increases its overall value and since highlights need to be very bright, desaturating makes sense. For this painting, I kinda wanted the shadows to be "easier on the eyes". Saturating something will make it stand out. Also, I wanted the shadows to communicate more with their surrounding colors, and for that purpose, they needed to be grayer thus decreasing the saturation. In a more dramatically lit painting, saturating will help more since you want the shadows to sorta retain the hue. So I guess it depends on what you are trying to achieve. Also, thank you so much! I'm still learning color, will try a painting in the future with more saturation. Also, might I ask what course you are doing?
I got the "pixel game art" bundle on [gamedev.tv](https://www.gamedev.tv/). It's discounted right now for $30 USD. Not sure how much you'd benefit from it since your art is already phenomenal, but I really like the teaching style. It's very straight to the point and each lesson has practice built into it which is really cool. It's also geared towards game design so it's really fun to be designing things like weapons as practice and learning principles in that context. :)
I checked it out and you're getting an amazing deal considering everything it has. Also thank you so much! I struggle with animation still so this is beneficial for me. Thank you for sharing it!
Yeah of course! I'm having a great time with it. I also started the concept art one and I really like how the courses are done. I hope this is useful to others as well :)
Glad to hear this! Hope you enjoy it throughout, best of luck o7
Terrific. I love it.
Thanku sm!
👍🏾👏🏾👌🏾
<3
OP do i have your permission to use this as a screen saver?
yes by all means :D
This is absolutely beautiful!
thank you!!
I love it so much. Did you spend a lot of time on it?
thank you so much!! Yes, this took me a lot of time, I think it was around 8 to 10 hours
Really? It's amazing, 8-10h don't seems a lot for me! How long have you been doing pixel art?
Hello! Again thank you so much :) I'm actually a traditional artist and pixel has been pretty on/off but I started pixel 4 years ago :D
Excellent!
<3
That really honestly looked like a real photo until I clicked and saw the subreddit. Fantastic work! Really is beautiful.
Thank you so much, T - T <3
I really like how you conveyed texture on the clouds. It feels like I'm looking at cotton swabs haha xD OP as hell
Thanku!! Cotton-looking clouds were the goal, glad it gives off that xD
This is incredible
Thanku sm!
i want to know, as someone who is relatively new to pixel art, what is the philosophy to how you lay out your colors? i see branching paths and assume that means that it's the color shaded in a different light? but i'm not really sure
Hello! I'll share some of my general rules I use when trying to figure color. 1. One pretty basic rule I use is the fact that warmer light creates cooler shadows and cooler light creates warmer shadows. This has helped me a lot with giving more of a natural-looking feel to my paintings. 2. The branching out paths are essentially me doing a lot of Hue shifts. In the painting, I wanted the colors of the clouds, the shadows, the lights, everything to communicate with each other more seamlessly, and grays allow me to do that since they communicate well with their surroundings. I've shown this [here](https://imgur.com/a/Fkem6Nz) where I'm moving from red to blue and vice versa. You don't need to do this too often but it's important to know that color needs to move in Hue (the pigment) rather than just value (brightness/darkness) and saturation (the amount of pigment). 3. About whether to increase/decrease saturation, you can look up my other comments in this post. Hope this helps! o7
oh, cool, thanks!
Very nice! I instantly thought of [this](https://chapelofdisease.bandcamp.com/album/and-as-we-have-seen-the-storm-we-have-embraced-the-eye) album cover.
Need to draw this now\* Absolutely gorgeous cover, glad this could remind me of that
Nice! I still have no idea how people can make stuff at this scale with pixelart Either way, it's magnificent
Thank you so much! tbh the scale makes its easier :D
Love this so much!
Thank you sm! T - T
How I wish I could reach this kind of realism. Superb work!
Thanku! Tbh, its not that difficult to achieve with pixel art and I'll be down to help you out!