As many have said before: The different approaches of the various materiality in the image, the clouds work very well against the background and foreground. I do believe the green color work well against that off-red tone. It's not quite Brittish perhaps, but gives a certain flavour to it nontheless.
I like how there are so many different styles in this piece. To me it does look well together.
But I do think the green is too intense.
Actually now that I look at it, the grays in the stone are fine. It's really just that green that needs to be browner. Also, the red highslights may be a bit too red. You can add me on MSN at t.redmer@live.com if you have it and I can help you out there. I really love your work and your capability to pay attention to detail. You have a great start as a pixel artist and I cannot wait to see where it takes you :)
Seperately, each part of this piece is fantastic, but they just don't groove well together. The clouds look really cool but the rest of the image is much more cartoon-looking. The tower and grass for the most part look great, but again they don't mesh well with the rest. As said by Drazelic the green is far too saturated for the context of the rest of the image. The crystals on the ground could use some work, they're pretty messy and unclear. I like the red lighting happening everywhere. Also, not sure what's going on with that little grey patch in the middle bottom of the clouds. The texture on the tower is pretty cool, but the perspective on the top of the tower is off.
This piece has a lot of potential and a lot of it is really well done, but these things are holding it back. Slym has some really good points, he articulated some of the things I was thinking better than I did.
Why are there so many negative comments? I would not consider this a place for negativity, especially when the pixeling here is some of the best that MrBeast has done. Constructive crits are one thing, but they don't have to be said so harshly.
I really love how you did the clouds. I do agree that the watchtower itself could have used more detail. And I can tell from your previous work that you are very capable of this. A common struggle with detail is that it's hard to achieve when you aren't completely certain of what the object you are creating is made of. Take some time to look at actual outposts/watchtowers. Using them as a reference you'll find a lot of details that you may have missed when you had the idea originally in your head.
The direction of this piece is great. The clouds promote a mystical feeling to it, that the watchtower has some supernatural sense to it, along with the great movement they create. If you were to replicate this movement with the watchtower itself, the piece would be stronger as a whole.
One thing to consider when creating a strong atmosphere, such as this piece is fighting to do, is that each environment has its own color capabilities. For example, in broad daylight the clouds typically appear to be white a fluffly (using the stereotypical view of a clear and pretty day :P ). At sunset the clouds do not appear this color. Often times they will have red or purple tints to them. The hues change, just like they should in this piece. By giving such a powerful concept of red to this piece, the very concept of using a pure green is going to be difficult to pull off. Imagine that the whole piece has a red light source. The green grass would appear more yellow-brown. I believe by shifting the greens in this piece to more of a yellow, the overall atmosphere of the piece would be much clearer. Another thing to consider with color is the concept of gray tones. Gray color ramps are often imagined as the purest form of lacking "color" (by color I am referring to saturation). Grays are the quickest colors to conform to light sources. In such a red atmosphere I would expect the grays to have much more of a red tint to them.
I appologize if this is too word-y, I'm really not too great at explaining. I hope this helps!
Man, I love that background so much. But the tower is just too cartoony, and it's the focal point. Weakens the whole piece.
My goodness, that saturated green clashes poorly with the rest of the desaturated palette.
I don't like them at all... It doesnt look organic enought. Nice use of colors, but those cristals and this tower need more improvement.
Thank you for your detailed critique, slym.
I will leave this piece as is for now, but will pay more attention to the points you mentioned in my next pieces.
Cheers!