First Steps on Pixel Art

[Anarkhya]

severe in your graphical restrictions

I won't say "severe". It's difficult to use words to explain this (especially when you're not english) but think about how these tiny connected pixels transform/represent/metamorphose our vision. When I do digital art, I dont want to see pixels, because they represent evil, aliasing, jaggy and so on, They represent an unwanted computer flaw rendered by our screen.  When I pixel, on the contrary, I accept these dots as a fundamental part of my creating experience. Understanding this leads me to a new world, a world of illusion, where I, as a puppeteer, manipulate the molecular elements computer-rendered in order to trap human eye.

At least, this is how I feel  when I see this. Now what do you feel?

[kamol]

Well, yes, I see your point. But all this might not be as new to me as you might think. I like to play Sonic or Golvellius on my little 8 bit Sega MasterSytem sometimes, I just loved playing Zelda on my Game Boy Classic when it was released. I recently played Chrono Trigger on my NDS and of course payed much attention to all the pixelled elements and characters in those. Well, of course this is all about watching and consuming and not about creating this stuff...

But apart from that the difference might be where I come from: I am a graphic designer focussing on web design, not an illustrator. Usually it is my job to make things functional and as easy to understand as possible for others by using all the tools and possibilities one has, of course including gradients, photography, antialiasing, even filters maybe and all that crap. At best I use some very basic pixelbased drawing to make very small interface icons look sharper and crisper.

There were and are some pixel art influences on the graphic design scene of course, too, like maybe the works of eboy for example, which I allways liked. But that somehow often seems to me to be a more playfull and free way to work with that pixel style, it might be even mixed with vector graphics or photography if it benefits the result.

To me it seems this here maybe is more about the handcraft of pixel art, old school style - which is good! I like and appreciate that. I just wasn`t aware enough of that when I posted my emoticons up there. I skimmed through the board rules and definitions, though.  

As I said in my introduction I am a beginner at this kind of art. All I did up to now in this direction is some very low level stuff about 7 years ago and I do remember this was allready a challenge to me, haha:



Well, maybe I can improve a bit and learn from you all.  

[CrazyMLC]

As far as Web Design goes, vector is where it's at. The ability to resize things while keeping the same resolution is invaluable. Perhaps you want a logo on a banner, but then you want it on a business card, and all sorts of versions and sizes pile up.
Messing with this would be a huge pain in pixel art, but with vector you just resize and you're a-okay!

However, smilies are different as they rarely need to be resized, and their small size is ideal for pixel art.


Most of this sites assistance will be irrelivant, however, since this art isn't really pixel art.
Although, this community is serious about art in general, so some help can probably be provided.
It's kind of hard to critique multiple images though, as it's hard to pick one and critique it and only it. I'd recommend posting a single image and applying anything you learned to everything else privately.


The gradient is nice, but seems a little monotone, since yellow and orange are very similar colors. It's easy to recognize as a smiliey though.

Some simplification could be in order, as such a vast amount of smilies can be really daunting. If you look at the smilies on this forum, you will see that there are (comparitavely) few, but they cover broad ranges of emotion.

Also, the little guy is lovable, but he looks like a weird french fry... *shrug*

EDIT: I'd recommend changing the color to show emotion as much as possible.
Red = angry/passionate
Yellow = hyper
Green = sick/calm
Blue = passive/sad
etc.

[kamol]

Also, the little guy is lovable, but he looks like a weird french fry... *shrug*

I don' t mind this association much.  

EDIT: I'd recommend changing the color to show emotion at much as possible.
Red = angry/passionate
Yellow = hyper
Green = sick/calm
Blue = passive/sad
etc.

Would possibly be a nice thought. But those were supposed to fit in the customer's corporate design so they had to be orange mainly and not too colourfull. The large number of emoticons works fine on that supertopic-forum by the way. I guess it's just another kind of communication there - more offtopic, more privat stuff and kind of quite different subjects going from photography to art to design to illustration in general to books to films... even to cooking and gardening.

[Anarkhya]

There were and are some pixel art influences on the graphic design scene. But that somehow often seems to me to be a more playfull and free way to work with that pixel style. To me it seems this here maybe is more about the handcraft of pixel art, old school style.

This is also a thing I wanted to emphasize, I make a difference between pixel style (eboy and co.) which appears to me as a graphical trend/fashion treating pixels in a lousy/unmistakable/stationary way in order to run a business, on the other hand I see pixel art as a medium/disicipline trying to evolve and assert its existence outside of ephemeral trends.

[kamol]

Nevertheless they are related, don't you think? I see that what you call pixel art is somehow limited in its restrictions and it can be fun to work with those and see how you can fool ones eyes to make them see sceneries and creatures that actually are just made of piles of little squares with only a small number of colours. And on the other side I know the pixel style thing was kind of a graphical trend a few years ago and, yes, it was annoying sometimes to see all the graphic designers and illustrators copying each other (like we allways tend to do...   ). But on the other hand I think both topics could benefit from eathother - as long as you are willing to give it a try.
 
Or to say it clearer: From a distance you might think "aw, pixel style is simply a trendy and useless way of making things look somehow interesting from and to some people who haven't got a clue about where this all came from." And from a distance I might think "aw, pixel art is only some highly developed handcrafted but nerdy way of illustrating some random manga characters, aliens and rpg/fantasy stuff over and over again without a deeper meaning to form, statement or concept behind. " But both thoughts are not true really, I guess. The bounderies are fluid I would say in German, which means there are probably no strict bounderies in art and design at all as long as you are not stuck to a tool/handheld/screen/whatever that gives you the restrictions we are talking about. It's all just a matter of where your main focus is by creating something.

Oh, and by the way, as I am new here on this forum I am not sure if this kind of discussion is welcome at all or if maybe everyone is hacked off by all the slipslop I am going on about without presenting any pixel art worth to be shown at all. Please tell me if that's the case. But as far as I'm concerned I do enjoy this discussion with you and the others, so thanks.  

[CrazyMLC]

As long as posts don't break any rules, they're usually allowed.


To me, pixel art is being able to control your piece with the utmost precision. You have direct control over how your art looks.

And, I'm not entirely sure what that last post was about, but I think I agree. As I get better at pixel art I see myself improving at sketching and other art forms. They work off of the same principles, really.

[Moribund]

Hey I know I'm not really at the level where I can be giving sprite advice, but here's a small edit with a darker outline and an attempt at AA. If the place it's going to be used has one consistent background, anti-aliasing on the outsidde would look good as well.

[Anarkhya]

From a distance, "pixel style is a trendy and useless way of making things look somehow interesting from and to some people who haven't got a clue about where this all came from."
From a distance, "pixel art is only some highly developed handcrafted but nerdy way of illustrating some random manga characters, aliens and rpg/fantasy stuff over and over again without a deeper meaning to form, statement or concept behind. "

Well, IMHO, pixel style can't be anything else than a trend. Because I think that only the output (and I suspect there is a clear populist intent behind this) is desired. If ,suddenly, the "wow it looks like an oil painting" became a fashion, most of graphic designers (and their not so educated clients) would try to reproduce the same effect within digital field. But, would it be oil painting?
Don't know if my example is the best one but I think you'll catch the idea.

The bounderies are fluid, there are probably no strict bounderies in art and design at all as long as you are not stuck to a tool/handheld/screen/whatever that gives you the restrictions we are talking about. It's all just a matter of where your main focus is by creating something.

But I see pixel art as a medium stuck to computer rendering... because there is no electronic pixels, no animation, no RGB colors relating to each other that can be viewed or created outside of our monitors... don't you think?

[kamol]

Well basically you are right of course. But one could also say that the actuall idea is not so new at all - its just another tool and a different medium that defines the restrictions.