The question of art "fundamentals" and "style" is a difficult discussion.
The problem is that it's very loaded words for many people involved in the arts.
There are many negative examples and experiences, that made you conclude a certain way that works for you.
And when I try to see things from your point of view, I agree with you folks a lot, and your work speaks for itself.
But I also want to try make you better understand what this means for me, and how it connects with my work.
What kind of discussion I am really trying to have, and that I believe there is something good in it for you.
My involvement in pixel art is very special interest, it's not always directly relevant, but give it a chance.
I'd like you to appreciate that I took care in observing art work, and that I have often argued in your favour.
But in my own work, many weird things are happening, things that make me very curious, wondering.
I think the biggest problem is the question what kind of artwork we are looking for in this.
I mean, it's not just a question whether you do pixel art or pencil sketch.
What is it you want to create concretely, and what creative experience you're after?
A typical mistake I see in many newcomers to art is, that their subject matter far exceeds their current abilities.
Whether they start out on a way too large canvas, or that they go in with the expectation to draw convincing objects of real life, it gotta be recognizable as a real house, an actual person, or an animal you know. And they approach it as any other drawing. without knowing drawing.
But to accomplish that you need a kind of studies in the art that is indeed beyond the scope of pixel art.
When you try that without training, it's so easy to look so bad, because people know well how it's supposed to look.
Everyone has references in their head they compare it to and qualify in that.
There is a thought that's kind of nagging away on me for some time now, that the subject matter and style have a relevance in pronouncing the art form. And whether there is an artistic creativity that is beautiful, yet free from other conception, that you cannot train and study in other art forms but pixel art. A visual language, from design to execution unique to pixel art. In my experiments, I've seen remarkable mechanics innate to pixel art, a surprising power.
So for example, consider: Does Pacman look bad to you?
Please, for the purpose of this exercise, try best to assume distance to yourself, try not to burden it or yourself too much with your own motivation and conception.
For just a moment, lean back and try forget about yourself, and ask yourself, does Pacman look bad to you? Do you feel the need to criticize it?
Do you believe it would have been really better in a different approach exercising the art,
how much meaningful is drawing in informing Pacman, instead of just doing it as pixel art straight away?
In many ways you can call it an unaccomplished art work. It probably wasn't even made by a person that would identify as an artist.
And Pacman inspired many much more accomplished interpretations of how it could look more elaborate.
Wait a minute... it inspired? Pacman? huh? you gotta be kidding, right?... but it did. hrrrrm.
Pacman is visually striking, and burned into our cultural conscience forever. Its interpretations much less so.
Strange. this pixel art.
Again, try not to think about yourself. That this is unfair, how much work you put into studying anatomy.
There are plenty artworks that left a greater impression on humanity, your effort is not for nought.
But right now we're looking on the meaning of pixel art, forget the rest for a moment.
So we got something that has no shading, no anatomy, no gesture, no this or that.
It doesn't use pixel art technique to implement and accentuate any of that.
So what's left after that? Is there left anything meaningful? fun? creative?
Maybe we have something that is just pixel technique for the sake of looking beautiful by itself.
We have patterns in the grid. mesmerizing patterns. beautiful patterns, mechanically unique to pixel art.
But even in these patterns, we may recognize forms and even concepts, and a feel,
very loosely, but we can't help start seeing them, it's how our mind works.
And an artist knowing more about art, may be tempted to hint at that more.
So if you don't know much art yet, and maybe you're not certain you ever really want to,
why don't you just embrace having fun with the patterns of pixel art.
Even that by itself has infinite potential and brilliance.
Look, this video is not pixel art, and it is not made by an artist even.
But it is done by a dude who likes to play with patterns.
It's procedural, code meets art. Science and art always had an especially close relationship in computer graphics.
A merry go around of inspirations and requirements. But there are manual ways to doodle fractals like this too.
But even before computers, and millennia back, cultures worked with patterns in art, with close ties to what would become geometric math.
This video has an incredible atmosphere, provoking imagination, it's a mysterious world by itself.
It got jack shit to do with the real world. It's not a classic tree, a rock, or a rabbit.
You don't save a princess, defeat a dragon, and learn more about good or evil.
You don't need to know anything. Just look at this world, it has its own rules, you don't need to know anything else but it.
It is your all, this is your study, this you try understand, and from that you take your clues and build your imagination, in audacity.
Try to think how an inhabitant of such an environment could look like, what a house could mean there.
What else could this life there be about? How do even physics work there?
Don't be afraid of not looking how it's supposed to be, don't be afraid of being weird or making a mistake.
Being intimidated is a mistake and makes first for bad visuals. If you don't know traditional art, be bold to be different.
Don't make concessions. Don't "try" to be what you're not ready for, when you need to look good meanwhile.
Exercise that, but also dare experiment wildly with creative "non art" in your gaps when you need to make do.
I'm no artist, I'm not good at art.
But look at this scene I made.Look at the wall and the roof. I simply didn't know what to do.
So I started to embrace the pixel grid mechanic of patterns,
I could have done anything, it's amazing to play with.
Did I skimp out on doing real art there? did I cut corners in my work?
Maybe I should have done something else? Maybe you could have done something more amazing?
A real castle interior maybe. Personally, I felt I put effort into it and enjoyed myself.
I felt creatively engaged, but differently. But do I grow as artist like that? hrmm.
what artist? what art? and is any creativity that's different a waste of time, no progress?
Over time, I felt I get better at something. I don't know at what. is it relevant?
To me at least, it looks cool. You don't look at it thinking or feeling immediately that it's wrong art.
Maybe at some point, I'd look at some real things, and step the line, and mix and introduce real elements
into my grid patterns.
maybe it looks like this? That doesn't try too hard, but it's going somewhere already.
Who knows what your journey is, what you're most into, where you start and where you end up.
Let your visual cortex run wild. fuck the system. break the rules. be free to dream. be unafraid.
Is that an advice to upstarting artists?
trying to become like your idols as fast as possible?
No. No advice, no recommendation, no anything.
If you're worried about wasting your time, stop reading me.
It's just my personal curiosity, trying to find things out for myself.
no matter where that leads me, if it is useful, and who likes it.
It's another perspective on this art with different motivations.
TL;DR
So what else is this thread about? Maybe discussing more patterns, and what it means for pixel art.
Even in traditional arts, ornament patterns often played an important role.
What examples do you have for artwork featuring patterns prominently in beautiful and influential ways?
Cross culture, Western, Chinese, India, Africa, millennia back or just yesterday. Show some patterns. What can we do with it?