ok dude i'll help ya out...

It looks like you shaded the trunk and then drew the facial features right on top and then did no more shading. The face is going to look extremely flat unless you shade in some of the depressions and protrusions such as eyesockets, lips, and nose.

Take a look at Fool's masterful mushroom for inspiration: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/16441.htm

EDIT: Typo, URL tags.

Edited by Hatch - 10 July 2007 at 8:00am

I'm no less of a noob than you, it just sometimes takes another set of eyes to locate a problem. Best of luck with this piece.

http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/2659.htm take a look at that sedge mushroom by sedge monkey...

Well, the trouble is that I think this could greatly benefit from more contrasting colors and/or a hue shift, either of which is difficult to do without a carefully managed palette. I personally think that palette management should be part of pixel practice (hooray for alliteration), but you know what they say about opinions.

EDIT: Typo.

Edited by Hatch - 10 July 2007 at 8:33am

I'll try to change the shading into dither. *Goes in search for a dither tutorial*

Edited by Club Beuker - 11 July 2007 at 1:48am

Take a look at this veteran pixel artist's recent post about dither; I found it extremely informative: http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4557#68975

He goes on to talk about sand and water and stuff but the point is there. You have no reason to use it at the state your piece is in. You don't really need new shades and your color count is through the roof anyway. Also, dithering should only be done in the finishing stage.

You said yourself the light source is wrong, which means you're going to have to redo the lighting, which means you're going to have to destroy all your carefully laid dither to reshade. Dithering is one of the last things you should do, if you do it at all. I was extremely stubborn when people were trying to teach me this lesson, much to my detriment. And I'm still struggling with it. See me being a stubborn douche for yourself: http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4478

Having said all that, and not addressing the top at all, the face still looks very flat. I think it's largely due to a lack of contrast (don't be afraid to use DEEP shadows, especially on a spooky piece like this) and a lack of shading of the facial features. Just because it's a mushroom doesn't mean it shouldn't have humanoid features like lips, eye sockets, brow, etc.

Here's another reference. It's not a mushroom, but it has a similar vibe to it: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/17941.htm

Note the spooky lighting, deep shadows, well-defined facial features and so on.

Edited by Hatch - 11 July 2007 at 5:44pm

A few hours later I tipped the hat over, and color dithered that too:

Ofcourse C&C is still welcome

Edited by Club Beuker - 12 July 2007 at 7:10am

I see what you mean, it looks a lot better with the darker contrast. Gets more depth. So I changed it (same with the lip highlights and the eyes) but now it seems it's losing something.

Edited by Club Beuker - 12 July 2007 at 8:04am

Did some edits, including the lips. Also recolored the eyes.

Edited by Club Beuker - 13 July 2007 at 12:44am

Thanks for the directions you gave me, I kinda stole/used some of your palette ;)

Edited by Club Beuker - 16 July 2007 at 2:22am

With the hints and tips taken and changes made, it would end up something like this:

Fantastic

If you wanted to take this piece further, you could put a texture or pattern on the top of the cap, and perhaps make the texture on the bottom continue all the way around into the shadow, but I think you could submit it as is and be very proud.

Whatever you decide, I strongly recommend that you post a link to Lawrence's evil tree piece as inspiration when you submit it.

EDIT: This is the piece I'm referring to. And it's actually called Tree Monster. Sorry Lawrence

Edited by Hatch - 16 July 2007 at 7:57am

Wow, great job on such an improvement, kudos, Club Beuker.