Disney Characters pixelized then painted.

[redballoon]

I'm nor sure if this is the best place to put this post 
I've decided a while back that I prefer painting pixels onto canvas rather than leaving them in digital format.
Of course, I create the pixel versions first digitally. I'm liking the natural rough painted look for something that is generally so precise and perfect - by this I mean the clean lines and perfect pixel squares as well as the colour.
I am curious to see what you all think.

The look and colours are deliberately kept simple as these paintings are for young kids.

First off, here's an idea what they look like finished. Both of these are acrylics painted onto 30cmx40cm canvas with each pixel approx 5mmx5mm in size.
Scooby Doo and Shaggy



Here are the next 6 images that are ready to be painted on 30cmx40cm canvas.
(You'll have to excuse the sizings as I've had to upload them to my Flickr account which has JPG'd the digital versions).
Phineas & Ferb characters



Here's the first Tinkerbell image ready to be painted (there's another 1 to come as well as 2 Toy Story ones).


And finally, here is what I really paint and sell. The ones above I do as gifts for friends, you see.
This image is of a portrait of my best friend. I've done it in the style of a ZX Spectrum including attributes and colours (okay, I took a bit of a liberty on the dull yellow, but it looks better).
Each smaller canvas is 8"x8" making the complete image approx 24"x24".

[r1k]

this is kind of interesting.  As far as the new images go, maybe its just me but I want to see some AA on phineas' nose.  The idea of having AA in the painted image just seems interesting to me because of course AA is used in pixel art as a sort of blending between colors and it is not neccesary in a painted image because you can just blend the colors of paint together.  Also since the painting is larger than a pixel image would be the AA wouldnt really create the same sort of optical blending it does in a small pixel image.  For those reasons I feel like it would even emphasise the pixelness of the painted image even more perhaps, that is if youre willing to give up some of the 'retro' aspect in doing so.  That said however, I think the scooby doo and shaggy work fine without it.  Last thing, I think doofenshmirtz has too much information compared to the other characters that using the black outlines is making it look just a little bit messy.  You might consider making that one just a little bit larger, but then I guess he would be in a different 'resolution' than the other ones in the set.  IN the one where perry is wearing the hat I think his eyes look a little off, as does the hat I think.

[redballoon]

Hey, thanks for your comments.
I did think long and hard whether to do AA on the images but decided against it purely as a stylistic choice. The fact that it can look blocky appeals to me (as well as to children, I hope...although the Scooby and Shaggy paintings when down very well). For doind the newer ones, I also considered adding another hue to certain aspects of the painting for highlights and shadows...but again i decided on the flat block of colour for stylistic reasons again.

Yeah, I see what you mean about Agent P eyes and Doofenshmirz. I may try a version of Agent P where he is slightly larger but fot condistency i need the pixels to be the same size. Hamstrung by my size choice I suppose.

The thing is, although this is painted pixel art, most of the people getting the paintings have no real following/idea of pixel art, so to them it's just a piece of modern contemporary art...or something.

[Tourist]

I like the larger piece at the bottom of your post.  Much better than the cartoon work.

On the cartoon work:
My first reaction is that Disney is very aggressive about copyrights, so er, be careful.  

The lines could be cleaner. Tinkerbell's wing, for example, is full of jaggies.



The extra pixels scattered here and there are noisy and detract from the images, I think.

Here is where I become a real Debbie Downer....

I think you're mixing the weakest parts of each style/media (flat cartoons and pixel art).

Flat cartoon art relies entirely on the line.  Varying line thicknesses and smooth curves are used to suggest form and define the shapes.  But low resolution pixel art doesn't have varying line thickness, and has only a limited ability to draw smooth curves.

Pixel art can use groups of pixels to convey shape, or shading, or form.  Or the pixels can be used to suggest features and elements which are not actually present.  I think that using flat, high-contrast colors explicitly bounded by an outline on all sides prevents you from using these strengths.

Sorry to be harsh, but this art ends up with the weaknesses of each, and the strengths of neither.

I suggest reworking the outlines.  After cleaning up the jaggies, either adjust the outline colors to simulate varying line thicknesses, or remove the internal outlines altogether (or maybe both).  Removing the internal lines yields more pixels to use for the shapes and with the high contrast colors they are not really needed.

Just my 2 cents, I'm often wrong.
Tourist

[Mathias]

Rad.

What's your method for painting each square on the canvases? What tool(s)?