Yesssss, I'm in.

Likes: Fantasy, mythology, baroque, renaissance, and romantic art, Alphonse Mucha, owls, soccer, landscapes, trees, dragons, giant creatures, anything imaginative and adventure-inspiring. But essentially I'm happy just to get a gift, so whatever makes you happy and enjoy the art you're making!

@PPD, I feel like the wording of the rules this year was a bit off too, I was almost completely late on mine due to it...

Anyways, I love the likes/dislikes system. It always pushes me a bit outside my comfort zone, and I have to make something that I definitely haven't made anything similar to previously. I usually try to make something fairly large, too, in order to push myself even further. It's a great way to force yourself to finish a piece!

Having a few people pixel some general "Christmas-y" gifts that relate to someone's interests in the event that they do not receive one is also a great idea. I definitely feel like starting a bit earlier would work a lot better-- I think that is how a lot of other online Secret Santas are being done in recent years.

Despite that, I'm thankful that you're taking the time to run it this year! I think with a few minor improvements we can ensure that not too many are left out next year.

Helm, you'll always be one of the most iconic people in the world of pixel art, you've done so much to push it ahead throughout the years and you've inspired all of us in a ton of ways with your deeper levels of thinking when it comes to how we design pixels and the in-depth examination of various techniques that can be employed. Thanks for making Pixelation what it is and I hope you'll continue to design various analysis-based pixel art threads in the future-- they're very informative, helpful, and usually very fun!

As for the state of the forum-- I remember back when I joined I would peruse the old challenge threads and other various activities to see some of the fantastic ideas that came out of small challenges with restricted palettes or dimensions, etc, etc. It was fascinating as a young artist to see those things, and they certainly inspired me and pushed me towards where I am today, and I thank Pixelation for a lot of that. So, more of those kinds of community activities where we can actively discuss, create, and participate could probably help to draw activity.

We certainly all should start posting more and providing more in-depth critiques for the userbase here. I myself haven't posted a proper thread here in a long time, and that's a shame, too, because the insights from this forum have helped me tons in the past. For some reason I find that pixel artists like myself who have been pixeling for a good while now and that tend to work on a larger scale aren't as likely to post WIP threads, and as such I'm going to try and involve myself a bit more with the community here in the coming future. Though I cite college art classes (along with all of the other classes involving mass amounts of work) as one of the factors contributing to my forum complacency, I still find that I have the time to browse every few days, so why not post critiques and discuss things more often? This is something I need to do.

I am excited to see a new skin-- it was a staple of the old forums, and it definitely made the place feel a bit more home-y and less drab. I definitely think we can work as a community to pick up the pace that Pixelation had in the old days-- the talent is here, the userbase is here, and the knowledge is here as well-- hopefully we can make things better for the future.

Complete and utter agreement with everything you've said in that post. I definitely agree that the question at hand seems more in the spirit of inquiry than anything else, but hey, that is a point I thought that should be brought up, lest anyone get confused with the intent. Helm and Cyangmou are both very respectable and their questions are surely just ponderings, but I thought I would bring up the other side of the spectrum and question the... questioning in a sense?

I also agree with your perspective on the intent of asking "why was this created with this medium when it could have just as easily been created with this other medium." I believe I've seen both cases, honestly (asking out of curiosity, or asking out of "smartassitude") and thus I suppose it is entirely up to context. I think we should be careful, then, how we go about asking that particular question.

But yeah, you've essentially answered and addressed everything I've said quite well. I guess my next real question at hand is this: does this exercise in working with eliminating single pixels seem to be something that should be incorporated more often and on a regular basis, or is it just truly an exercise-- an excursion into a different way of thinking about the pixels?