this brought on by helm's ramblethread, but these ideas seem basically out of place there, this is nothing really to do with pixel art as techniques.
(my claim is that) success in art is making stuff that is:
representational - that clearly presents your view of its subject, and
compelling - that affects opinion about the subject, for some targeted group.
Of course, swaying opinion is only a secondary goal, making compelling stuff that does not truly represent your views is failure. Making stuff that represents your views but which does not affect opinion is a form of success, somewhat limited by the fact that nobody else knows that you have been successful.
Looping back to pixel art.
I think pixel art is a very effective medium. It enforces a strong aesthetic, and is inherently compelling. But to some extent it's popularity is linked to video games, and also video games don't much use pixel art any more. What does that mean?
I believe these things about pixel art:
-it is compelling.
-in most people's minds, it is inherently linked to video games.
so people can draw either of these assumptions:
- pixel art is inherently compelling, because the techniques employed are inherently pleasant.
- pixel art is compelling by association, because it is linked with video games.
There are other factors that exist, surely - but I am convinced that both of these statements are true to some degree. The main question I'd like to pose is this: if pixel art is estranged from video games - is that a good thing for pixel art?
I don't believe there are many among us here who love pixel art and do not love either old games, or old technology. As this other stuff falls into obscurity, what will that mean for pixel art? Will new people continue to pick it up?
How many of those here make a living doing pixel art? How many are employed in the games industry? Is there any other viable way to do it?
The link to video games is limiting in a very basic sense: If you try to tackle subjects that aren't games using pixel art, some game-ness seeps in. Obviously that's not appropriate, in a lot of cases. Do people have this trouble?
And so forth. I don't think many here need convincing that pixel art is a viable artform, in isolation of video games. But there's long been a strong relationship between the two, and pixel art still holds a strong video game association. I'd like to hear what people think about this.