AuthorTopic: Why do you love pixel art?  (Read 3840 times)

Offline lollige

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Why do you love pixel art?

on: April 25, 2009, 07:14:22 pm
A topic with the same name was opened on pixeljoint lately, but I suppose the answers here can be far more interesting, because I believe there are quite a lot of people around here that really LOVE pixel art, and have their special reasons to that.
I am willing to share mine, and I hope to hear them from others too! Please tell about why you love pixel art!

Why I got into it

I was born, quite a few years ago as a creative person. People around me realized, but I did not myself.
I was also born as a logic person. In more than just one way.

So, one day, I do not remember how anymore, I introduced myself to isometric pixel art. I believed it was simple, as it followed logical rules, and required no creativity or much skill. Of course I was wrong, but that does not matter. Thing is, I was able to create nice things by using the line tool right.

A year later, a more important thing happened. I found a community. And any community that would have adopted me could have formed me in any way they would have wanted, but it happens to be this pixel community. At the right time.
So that is the reason I kept going on and on.

Why I love it
But you asked me, why do I love pixel art?

I could have fallen in love with many different hobbies, and I might will someday, but I will keep liking this for ever on. And thats just for one thing: Control!
If I draw by pencil, I can never ever remove a line properly after I drew it. Same goes for traditional painting. If I would paint digitally, I would not get the time to do every little pixel of my image right, and I would always be able to spot infinite correctable things I dislike on my image. On a 32x32 pixel canvas, there are no infinite possibilities! Never!

Why I like it

    * Great community
    * Retro
    * Game fans
    * Programmers
    * Logic
    * Impressive
    * Gallery
    * MSpaint doable
    * Iconic
    * Skills being learnt valuable for everything
    * Palettes
    * Animations
    * Isometric stylized stuff


I have much more to say, but I simply don't want to write more/want to waste your reading time more ;)

Offline Mathias

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Re: Why do you love pixel art?

Reply #1 on: June 15, 2009, 10:03:08 pm
I love pixel art because of how it forces you to get down to the most basic unit of digital art and meticulously work in the smallest possible details. I think all digital artists should at least attempt some pixel art or get to know it's principles.

And pixel art produces images based on strict and often daunting restrictions. Can't overlook game graphics and how pixel art gets us closer to games, game development, etc.

But it's really the overall look and appeal that really draws me in, for many reasons, some which I mentioned. Pixel art is deceivingly complex, especially compared to it's appearance. Sadly, only we pixel artists can fully understand and therefore appreciate it. But that almost bolsters my interest in it. It's like it's only little club. Those that don't know it are the outsiders.
You thought iso was simple because it looked so logical and you found out you were wrong. Likewise with most pixel art I'd imagine - onlookers see visually "simple" and low-res art and think, hmmm, I could do that. I even made that mistake at first. My buds and I were going to do a game, and I for no other reason that the fact that I like the look pixel art decided to just go ahead and do a "pixel art style". Well 3 months later, I was still "researching" pixel art, and the game effort, at the time, withered away because I, the artist, went on hiatus to learn pixelling. Needless to say I'm still learning, but now at least understand the demanding nature of pixel art and am no longer ignorant in that way. I'm just glad I finally found pixels. All those years playing 8-bit and 16-bit games, I never really thought about pixel art and doing it myself.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2009, 10:05:33 pm by Mathias »

Offline Beoran

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Re: Why do you love pixel art?

Reply #2 on: June 18, 2009, 08:13:53 pm
We live in a time where 3D is being used everywhere, and with all the "realism" going on, but I find most 3D models (with the exception of Ookami) as industrial and bland as any other mass product. I think pixel art is much like hand made lace, store made chocolates, home made cakes. Better, because more attention is payed to the fine detail, and because it isn't mass produced. I love it for games, because it gives a touch of imagination, fantasy and personality to a game. That's why I'm making my own dream project with 2D graphics.
Kind Regards, Beoran.

Offline peculiarapparat

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Re: Why do you love pixel art?

Reply #3 on: June 19, 2009, 01:35:40 am
(im more into non-pixelart but anyway) im a consistency fanatic, and using pixelart in a game eases enforcing consistency. Having a pixelart graphic in front of you & doing another "in the same style" is much easier than it is with nonpixelart.

Offline Don risotto

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Re: Why do you love pixel art?

Reply #4 on: June 19, 2009, 07:26:28 am
I love pixel art because it is like baroque and shit. pixel 4 life. the streets yo.  ::)

Offline Jakten

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Re: Why do you love pixel art?

Reply #5 on: June 19, 2009, 08:35:00 am
How I got into it:
 I originally got into pixel art when I was a kid using my old 286 and paint. I found I had a lot more control over how things looked when I zoomed in and drew it piece by piece as opposed to scribbling willy nilly with the mouse. As a youngun I would make pixel art in/for things like LogoWriter, ZZT, Graal and Zelda Classic. As I got older and got an SNES playing games like secret of mana I was incredibly impressed with how it all looked and tried to replicate it many times with varying results. I would carry graph paper with me everywhere I went and would fill in squares for ideas so that once i got to a computer i could make a sprite of it. Its just been a hobby of mine since i was probably 7 or 8.

Why do i like pixel art?

The majority of my life has been spent staring at little coloured squares. Growing up all my favorite heroes were confined to a 16x16 box (atleast till the 16 bit era came). I love the crispness and exactness that pixel art brings. You can make it look exactly how you want. Pixel art has such a look to it that nothing else has that just looks a lot more appealing to me than alot of stuff. It's amazing how it breaks down elements of how we see things.

I've always believed restrictions increase creativity. Using restricted palettes has helped me learn how to use colour way better than I ever used to. It's made me look at a lot of aspects of art in a different way.