Rennaisance house
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26095
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 6:18am
Topic: Rennaisance house
Posted By: Siskan
Subject: Rennaisance house
Date Posted: 22 December 2017 at 9:00am
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Hello everyone.
I'm going to use this for an RPG and since I'll recycle parts of it I'd really appreciate if someone could offer some critique so I can be confident enough to get some more work before Christmas. I'm going to add a chimney, but other than that it's more or less finished unless you point something out. I probably messed up in one way or another! 
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Replies:
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 22 December 2017 at 9:29am
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Although it's full of detail, it feels a bit boring. The silhouette is very plain. I think there should be bits sticking out on the sides, the bricks should not be so perfectly even, etc. Buildings, especially pre-20th century, tend to have visible divisions between floors or some horizontal visual elements. The arches around the windows should probably stick out a bit more (=cast more of a shadow), they're nearly invisible. The rocks at the base look odd to me, they're very large but also very flat, so they look painted on. Give them more volume and a more interesting silhouette, perhaps, or use smaller ones? Add in some irregular bricks! Even if you're using tiles, having some variants would help a lot. Bricks aren't always perfectly uniform in colour and shape, even if they're coming from the same workshop. The door is the one place with a good sense of depth, but even that's weakened by the highlights within the shadow on the left. I think making the highlights there much weaker would make the doorway feel deeper and more 3D. The windows have nice deep shadows, but I didn't notice them at first because the unshadowed parts are still dominates by the dark panes. Maybe make those a little lighter and lower-contrast? I see they're already lighter than in the shadows, but I feel like more lightness is needed. The roof has a lot of contrast on the shaded side, making the shadows a lot less obvious. Maybe eliminate some of the lighter colours? In general, people discern less detail in shadows, so don't be afraid to lose some of your detail in shaded areas, it might actually help the piece feel more 3D rather than less! Edit: Made an edit for you with some of the tweaks I suggested:  Changed the window lattices to be lighter, and removed the highlights from the shadows (what would be causing those?), I think these changes help the windows look better. Added some breaks between floors, which also help break up the boring sides a bit. Darkened the highlights on the left side of the door a tad. Removed the brightest colour from the roof shadow. Made the window arche shadows a bit bigger. Lastly, I changed the brick colours a bit to make them less boring - added some hue-shifting, so the bricks look more like they're illuminated by ambient skylight in the shadows. I didn't change the rocks at the bottom of the building because I wasn't sure how that should look, but I do think they warrant some research. Thoughts I didn't have time to put in the edit: - Rain gutters? Even old buildings had some way to channel water away from the walls. - Consider moving the bulby bits on the roof closer to the edge, so that they help break up the silhouette on the sides. - Brick variants ): Didn't get to play with that at all. Have some more orange-coloured bricks, maybe some crooked bricks, etc. - I think the highlights on the door in the shadow should not be as dark, but I couldn't find a good colour to use that didn't also ruin the windows, which use the same colour. Maybe add a new colour? - The shadows cast by the anchor plates should probably be the same colour as the darkest brick colour, rather than brown. |
Posted By: Siskan
Date Posted: 22 December 2017 at 11:52am
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Hi Eishiya! You've helped me out once before (elsewhere) and your input is amazing. Thanks a lot for taking your time!
I started editing a bit after your first post already and will make similar edits to what you did and also address some of your other points like the foundation that I agree looks a bit odd. There is one issue though, the low brick contrast was an attpemt and striking a balance between visibility and not looking like bare bricks, because they weren't meant to be (though I certainly intend to make bunch of those as well for other buildings). They are meant to be covered in paint and that's also why they are so monotone. http://www.matsmedeltid.se/Medeltida%20hus,%20Gamla%20stan%202.jpg - Here's an example of what it looks like for real (this is an earlier building from the middle ages but updated with 18th century windows). I could of course simply give up on conveying that and go for bricks all the way, but I'd like to have the variety. |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 22 December 2017 at 3:46pm
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Bare bricks would have the mortar between them, which would likely be lighter or a different hue, rather than shading of the same colour as the bricks, so I think my edit still works. The paint doesn't cover up the dips all that much in your ref, the individual bricks are still very visible except in those places where they've been worn down and then painted over. If you want a more obvious painted look, consider making the paint thick enough in some spaces to completely hide the gaps. I don't think you need that though. It might be your bare bricks that need work to make them look bare, instead xP |