hi guys. this is my challenge entry for this week. just for ur info: This piece has a story. Its about new beginnings. The reef as shown is still new, with very few species, but as it grows it will become a whole new world. It was meant for dogmeat for his new development. It was also meant for trying out a new style.

my problem is this. Since we are using a palette that is not quite harmonic with itself, i am finding difficulty with blending the colors with only slight dithering.
can u guys help, ill give u a cookie ( unlike A.B in the chatterbox)

thats my reference. first page on google when searching clown fish.

ill give it a try.
until my next update then.

i was planning on finishing the fish in the end, right now i have a lot of background to cover, i just need it now to feel happy with my work

This is a nice start so far However, the scale doesn't feel right to me in this picture, the clownfish seems awfully huge... is that a lobster in silhouette?  I suggest losing the treasure chest, which I think is adding to the scaling issue and doesn't fit your theme of new beginnings that well.  If that is supposed to be a lobster, I think the size is way too small.  I'm finding the orange clump below the clownfish difficult to decipher.
Looking forward to further progress!

updated the lighting: time to blend



btw. my inspiration for this piece came from my favorite artist, Christian Lassen check his site.

I am thinking of making a series of ocean based pixels using this palette.

btw im thinking of not dithering the front stone,, just refine the highlights. What do u think?

because the area is too small, i might do more levels of dithering in the saand,its a bit difficult in the rocks.

honestly, the aspect of the rock sucks. it doesn't show any kind of lighting and it resembles more a mass with lots of folds. I would try to, instead, use less saturated highlights not as bright as the ones used in the picture  (the ligth purple at the bottom rigth corner). considering that the rock is suposed to be in the background, using a highlight as bright as that distracts the attention of the viewer from the main focus(wich I can asume is the clown fish).

also, try to use less dithering to blend yor colors. dithering is not always the best answer for color trasition. try to pick your colors more wisely instead. a good tip migth be to watch your picture from a considerable distance... that will give you an idea how how good your colors blend. not to mention how much a good photo reference can guide you.

Slight suggestion - I like the latest update best so far, but I think you could probably add a darker shade within the currently-darkest blue on the rocks, to give that side more depth. Because the side(s) with the highlights are more dynamic than the darker parts are. Maybe the darkest gray they give, or the black. :)

I like very much so far! :)

Almost done, still have the chest and the pipe like coral, removed the small rock at the back, and added a shark.
Everybody, the palette is limited, i dithered only when i needed to, and besides i cant run away from dithering forever.

here it is,

the color limits are a problem. i will finnish it as soon as possible for the challenge, and then remake the whole thing with my own palette with a max of 32 colors. i want to finnish everything first before optimizing it.

this is the final update for the challenge. sorry guys i know i have one more day but i cant pixel in it.



this piece will be reworked hopefully with out any dithering.
thank u all for ur advice even if i didnt apply it .


Edited by spartan_117 - 01 December 2007 at 10:40am