Need coloring suggestions for this bg sample

[IvkeBG]

 Hi,

I' making an adventure game with a kind of southpark-esque characters, and I am completely new to coloring and somewhat new to drawing. I did a sample bkgnd with two sprites and I would like to change a few things I couldn't get the hang of so if you have any suggestions... feel free to write any comment...

A few things I'd like to change (don't know how):

- Sky and clouds look bad and kinda flat
- The doors look flat also, don't know how to give it depth
- Roof looks flat as well

[InCreator]

Contrast. This is definetly too high. Start there.

[Phemar]

Add a frame to the door. Also outside-doors aren't usually patterned like that: With those two inner frames.
I'm not too crazy about the tiled pattern you used in the path.
Yeah, and start with contrast.

[Daz]

if you want to add depth use a graidient on the sky and make it lighter towards to bottom, also clouds are mostly not blue.
and the contrast has been mentioned. i also agree with the tiled path

-Daz

[Chicky]

nooooo not a gradient. If you have to use a gradient use a very subtle one, ive already learnt that lession and they can be pretty time consuming to get rid of.

[InCreator]

Actually, your sky making style is pretty cool.
It's not good yet, but cool.
Do same thing, but -- try to be careful. use less different (contrasty!!) colors, a bit smaller brush size, antialiasing, and whatever else to make this sky more calm, less aggressive and more beautiful.
But for these clouds... NO. Try something different.

EDIT: Okay, I tried to edit your pic a little too. Contrast went down a bit too much, but it does look more calm now.


- redid sky (yellow sun still sucks somehow)
- smoothened road tiles
- contrast on everything else than sky down 20% (definetly too much)

My edit didn't turn out very good...
But maybe you'll get better idea from it what to improve or how.

[IvkeBG]

 Thanks for all the comments! I redid the doors in a hurry, I hope you can comment on the new stuff as well. Thanks a lot for the clouds and sky info it really helped a lot. As for the cobbles, I want them to be sharp, but I'll have to redo them in a different color, this way they just look like tar.

the doors:

[IvkeBG]

Yes, and the contrast of the first picture practically stabs the eyes, now I see it as well. I turned it down a bit, you can see it on the door sample. I still want it to be sharp and very colorful though...

[prowler]

i love your style dude  8) maybe you could try losing the outlines on the clouds.

increator's sky looks too blurry to me

[IvkeBG]

 I redid the sky as per you instructions, the clouds turned out OK, but I can't get the sky to be more colorful...
I also redid the roof, looks more 3D now?

[Johnny Odd]

Hey! Looking good - the roof and the sky look 10, 000 times better now - the only major problem is how 'white' the walls of the house go on either side of the door - TOO CONTRASTY! (imo)

[Ali]

I have to disagree with Mr Odd, I preper the sky in the first picture. It's too close to cyan/turqouise in the update - The sky is blue and very rarely blue-green.

The first pic looks like an illustration, it's stylised and dynamic, so there isn't a problem having an outline round the sun. It looks terrific. It's impossible really without making the sun white to make it look bright and not like a raw egg yolk.

I say stick with a kind of cut-out style - your influence was South Park after all, what does it matter if the sky looks flat?

The roof in your most recent pic does look better though!