Pico Artography

[TylerBarnes | 184]

I noticed not much (or any) entries in the Pixel Art sub-thread. However, I feel it certainly has some potential to be a fun spot. Pixel art is rad, yo! 

I guess I'll share some of my entries in a series I'm working on in which I'm limiting myself to very very very low resolutions only. Like, 32x32px and below for the most part! 

City Skyline is 24x24px
Sunset Trees is 25x25px
Snow Scene is 32x32px
Beach is 25x25px
Pumpkins are 28x28px
and Desert is 28x28px

I hope you enjoy, and I hope y'all make threads and make this a great spot to admire each other's '8-bit artography'! 

I will be putting all the images that I make in this style on this instagram: https://www.instagram.com/picoartography/ 

Edited March 26, 2021 by TylerBarnes

[Hammerfestus | 4,201]

Very cool  

[FireHazard51 | 2,176]

No my work but work that I appreciate and bough (some of them)

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all from my favorite local t-shirt shop https://cincyshirts.com/

[T-Pac | 8,443]

16 hours ago, TylerBarnes said:

This is gorgeous, dude! Any pointers for someone who's interested in learning proper pixel-art someday?

-CasualCart

[TylerBarnes | 184]

On 3/22/2021 at 5:04 PM, CasualCart said:

This is gorgeous, dude! Any pointers for someone who's interested in learning proper pixel-art someday?

-CasualCart

I'm not as experience in px stuff as I would like. At least in the open ended sense that is very common these day (i.e not being limited by a given consoles capabilities). My background is from ad design, photo retouching/compositing, and things of that nature. 

You are a very equipped artist, so all the fundamentals you are already familiar with in your art experience will remain the same regardless of the resolution. So, no pillow shading and obvious stuff like that. 

there are some pixel specific things to think about though. There are multiple ways to shade or make gradients. Sometimes dithering is the answer, or sometimes a stepwise color/shade change is appropriate. So you would want to think about the texture you are trying to portray and make a determination on how to proceed shading. 

Also, it's easy to make things look too busy when the resolution is very low. I tend to try and think about what a given pixel is doing, what it's role is and if it is strictly required. This is a loose and fast rule however, Some of my examples above just have some smeary shading compared to a lot of pixel art I've seen, so again, it comes down to what you think is best. 

After doing the above pico resolution images, I have noticed that it certainly helps me actively think more about what particular pixels are most important and what is actually contributing to the image. So based on that I would definitely recommend getting your feet wet with some pico res images. They are quick to sketch up too, so getting to that rewarding feeling when the image comes together tends to come a lot quicker than if it was like a 250px or 500px piece. 
Try 32px on for size and see what comes of it. (or do what you like )

At any rate thank you so much for the feedback, I would love to see what you come up with, man. Always admired your work here. 

-Tyler 
TrebleWing  

Edited March 23, 2021 by TylerBarnes

[T-Pac | 8,443]

22 hours ago, TylerBarnes said:

I'm not as experience in px stuff as I would like. At least in the open ended sense that is very common these day (i.e not being limited by a given consoles capabilities). My background is from ad design, photo retouching/compositing, and things of that nature. 

You are a very equipped artist, so all the fundamentals you are already familiar with in your art experience will remain the same regardless of the resolution. So, no pillow shading and obvious stuff like that. 

there are some pixel specific things to think about though. There are multiple ways to shade or make gradients. Sometimes dithering is the answer, or sometimes a stepwise color/shade change is appropriate. So you would want to think about the texture you are trying to portray and make a determination on how to proceed shading. 

Also, it's easy to make things look too busy when the resolution is very low. I tend to try and think about what a given pixel is doing, what it's role is and if it is strictly required. This is a loose and fast rule however, Some of my examples above just have some smeary shading compared to a lot of pixel art I've seen, so again, it comes down to what you think is best. 

After doing the above pico resolution images, I have noticed that it certainly helps me actively think more about what particular pixels are most important and what is actually contributing to the image. So based on that I would definitely recommend getting your feet wet with some pico res images. They are quick to sketch up too, so getting the that rewarding feeling when the image comes together tends to come a lot quicker than if it was like a 250px or 500px piece. 
Try 32px on for size and see what comes of it. (or do what you like )

At any rate thank you so much for the feedback, I would love to see what you come up with, man. Always admired your work here. 

-Tyler 
TrebleWing  

Thanks a million!
This is some great info to jump-off from. And I completely agree about the benefits of limitations (like image-resolution), since it really pushes your creativity whether you like it or not haha.

-CasualCart

[nesmaster14 | 479]

Cool stuff! Those landscapes are impressive and I really like the gradient on the desert one.

I don't consider myself a graphic artist, but I've always been drawn to pixel art, specifically making the most within limited resolution/palette/hardware. I remember now one of my blogs needed a favicon and had a limit of like 16x16. This is what I came up with like 6 years ago:

16x16 by nesmaster14 

 

It's not palette/hardware restricted pixel art of course, but I think even making pixel art in the modern sense (limiting resolution with more palette) has plenty of merit and craft to it. I enjoyed making it and feel inspired now to try it again.  Cheers!  

 

 

[TylerBarnes | 184]

2 hours ago, nesmaster14 said:

Cool stuff! Those landscapes are impressive and I really like the gradient on the desert one.

I don't consider myself a graphic artist, but I've always been drawn to pixel art, specifically making the most within limited resolution/palette/hardware. I remember now one of my blogs needed a favicon and had a limit of like 16x16. This is what I came up with like 6 years ago:

16x16 by nesmaster14 

 

It's not palette/hardware restricted pixel art of course, but I think even making pixel art in the modern sense (limiting resolution with more palette) has plenty of merit and craft to it. I enjoyed making it and feel inspired now to try it again.  Cheers!  

 

 

That looks really awesome! I really love the little canyon scene on the label. Only 4px wide! 

[TylerBarnes | 184]

Finished this one last night. 

Moonlit Sheep 34x34px 
 

[Deadeye | 1,604]

Very nice! I Like. 

[Famicuber | 60]

I like it, It reminds me of the SNES version of Mario's Picross after completing a puzzle with the mosaic look of the scenery, very satisfying to look at. 

I made something sort-of similar years ago when I randomly drew a detailed 16x16 pixel jar of Vegemite to my graphics editor, I sourced it from my own jar I had in the kitchen cupboard. It's probably one of the very few times I drew something that's not 1/2BPP.

[TylerBarnes | 184]

Decided to completely fix the pumpkin one. Not sure why I though the dull flat look was ok before, lol.

And slight contrast and color improvements to the wild west one. 

Edited March 28, 2021 by TylerBarnes

[nesmaster14 | 479]

I'm still very much learning, but here's one I just created:

Pink Horizon, 16x4

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Three birds sharing the pink horizon.

 

[Vectrex28 | 366]

Hm, might as well post a little Commodore 64 loading screen I did. I love doing pixelart. In fact, I draw all of the graphics in my games (Except for Eyra, which was done by SD's own graphic artist)

Anyway, enough talk, here's the goods!