Focusing on pixel art on my post.
Jalonso
Probably the first pixel artist I came across that was a step above the others that I had seen at the time. I especially enjoy his pieces based off traditional art/artists(
1,
2).
Cyangmou
I remember first coming across his pixeljoint gallery and just seeing a full page of mind blowing pieces and thinking to myself "how is this even possible to produce with this medium?" He is one of the artists that I can look at everyday and give myself motivation to improve and try to get close to his level of skill. Furthermore, seeing some of his older pieces compared to his newer ones and seeing how he is constantly improving offers addition inspiration to improve my own work. Studying his work especially helped me learn the importance of clusters and limiting dithering.
Jinn
Jinn was the artist that helped me see the distinct styles of pixel art. I'm sure many can tell a piece by him when they see one thanks to his distinct style. His ability to create caricatures through pixel art and create a cartoon likeness of a person is unlike any I've seen in the pixel art community.
A3um
Generally helped me by producing great art to study. A solid, artist who produces quality art.
Big Brother
The first thing I think of when I see something related to him is what he can do with 16 colors. He inspired me to take the initiative to try to reduce the color count of some of my pieces(though not as of late as I am experimenting with some other things).
Sneep29
Nobody can dislike Sneep's pieces emulating hand drawn cartoons that have a next level animation quality. Sneep's art showed me that simple art can often be leagues better than large, complex art when the simple piece is paired with top notch animation.
Mrmo Tarius
Another amazing artist in general, He is especially notable for me for his machine-esque pieces consisting of mainly horizontal, vertical and 45 degree lines.
Mathias
His pieces are truly unique from others. The smoothness of the pieces give them a digital art like quality and Mathias's ability to use colors across the entire spectrum in a single piece without a hint of any ugly clashing is unfathomable to me. Extremely high quality pieces on an above average scale signals and extremely talented artist and is a great inspiration that implies that the boundaries and limitations of pixel art are greater than what one would initially assume.
Albertov
He is pretty much what I wanted to be when I was younger, an artist for games. Having downloaded all of the apps that he has helped worked on, I can play his apps and appreciate the clean sprites smoothly moving across the screen and think "this is what I am working toward." Albertov serves as a constant motivation for me.
Cure
His technique of pixeling over pieces he painted in real life seemed odd to me at first. Then when I saw the results, there wasn't anything I could complain about. Truly just flat out impressive.
Fool
Not sure what else can be said about him for those who know who he is. The artist that can make me extremely excited and sad. I would gawk at his piece in awe and excitement and then read "for a canceled project." Able to create "ideal" pieces of pixel art on such a grand scale with such great textures and colors that his pieces do not seem possible to have been created by a person.
Junkboy
The mock-up man! Awesome sprites and backgrounds. How I had wished that those mock-ups had been real games.
Delicious
His cartoonish style showed me that professional video games don't necessarily have the best art possible. His creatures have a hint of the Pokemon style, only far more polished and refined. Not only is studying his art extremely informative, he also taught me that almost no art should be immune to critique, including my own.
1up
1up taught me to stop putting all the emphasis on details and see that sometimes, a few well placed clusters can make a piece.
PixelPiledriver
Master of animation. Does things that I didn't even know were possible.
Indigo
Art is disgustingly good and extremely imaginative(plus he is some sort of photoshop wizard).
Mandrill
Awesome art overall.
Dawnbringer
The palette man! Also nice, smooth, clean art.
Drazelic
Absolutely breathtaking art.
AlexHW
Amazing use of colors. Really like his ability to make more realistic pieces.
St0ven
Great style. Great art
Pix3M
Nice and smooth AA. Maybe I'll get to meet irl since I'm moving to Seattle soon.
Ryumaru
Great technique. I'm genuinely excited everytime I see an update to one of his project threads. Awesome designs conveyed perfectly with awesome art. Does absolutely stunning things with limitations. Limiting space or color won't stop Ryumaru from creating a masterpiece.
Probably left out a lot but my microwave meal is getting cold :\ You can probably tell I started typing less and less.
