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[robberguy189]

Posted here back in april and since then I've developed a bunch of new mockups.  Recently I came up with a pretty good one - by my low standards that is:


And here's the full size image: http://i.imgur.com/TnbPonE.png

Off the top of my head, I think the character is bad and the coloring feels off.  I've no idea how to improve this though.

Thanks.

Edit: ayy lmao drew a decent character: http://i.imgur.com/GMa1e1x.png

[flyingmangoes]

I love how it looks, especially the nice dirt tiles.  However, I think that the mountains should be tweaked a bit (maybe a little more cracks and rocks, and snow at the top).  The tree should have a third, base triangle, since the other two are really high up for a pine tree.  Finally, I actually prefer the first blue sprite instead of that new one.  Hope I helped In some way. 

[7Soul]

Looks pretty boring. Brown dirt, green grass, gray rocks and blue skies... Check out some concept art sites, it helps a lot

What really caught my eye is how it looks like that tree was made in 5 seconds. I love this little tree building mini-guide, it might be useful to you too.

Your blue guy looked more interesting than generic soldier, mainly because it adds some contrast to the image (there's already a lot of green and brown, so I don't want a character that is also green and brown)

[davemakes]

Areas of high detail are going to draw the eye. Right now, there is a lot of detail and contrast in the rock texture, so it's grabbing more attention than it deserve. As for colors, you should do some research into color theory. James Gurney has a lot of good stuff on his blog. Think about value (brightness) of colors and how you can use contrast to make important elements pop. Convert a screenshot of your game to grayscale to see the color values.

Also, I think you should work on what you're trying to do here conceptually. There are mountains and some dirt, rocks, grass and some kind of coniferous tree. That's not a lot to go on. Add elements to convey an actual sense of a specific place. Think about the environment and justify the level design beyond "there are piles of rocks shaped like this for some reason."

[robberguy189]

Is there any general use color palette I can use?  It's tough for me to focus on drawing as well as colors.  Only been drawing for 4 months in total over the past year when I first started.  Not an excuse for sucking though, I guess.

Also, it might be troublesome finding artists whose style is within reach for someone like me to emulate.  Maybe newgrounds?

[davemakes]

Don't worry about sucking! Everybody sucks at new things. I've been doing this professionally for years and I still suck at tons of things. I work with people who are mind blowingly amazing and they still suck at stuff. They just have the diligence and patience to work on their craft until they don't suck as much. Art is a road that never ends, and the trick is to realize that and enjoy the journey.

Anyway, on the subject of color, check out James Gurney's posts about gamut masking:

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.jp/2011/09/part-1-gamut-masking-method.html

Like I said, I know full-time professional artists who struggle with this stuff, so don't worry about being perfect, just work on doing your best and improving over time. The more you work on it, the better you will be. Think about how you could paint the exact same picture at different times of day during different seasons, and you would use completely different color schemes. It could be warm, cool, dark, light, barren, verdant, etc. Think about not just the colors you want to use, but the colors you aren't going to use. Limitations are weirdly freeing in art. You can work wonders by picking two colors and just using different variations of saturation and brightness of those two colors. Watch Gurney paint with just red and blue:





When I've tried to emulate a style in the past, if I copy someone else's style exactly, I don't feel like I've achieved much. It makes for great practice, to figure out how someone did something cool, but I only do that kind of stuff for personal studies. Really interesting things can happen when I try to take ideas from art that is way beyond my skill level or interest, though. I had a lot of fun recently on a project where we took a lot of inspiration from rococo furniture, which is super ornate and takes unbelievable craftsmanship to create. When that inspiration was filtered through my own perception, limitations, and all the other inspiration I've accumulated over the years, something unique came out.