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Rektagon
3 Members
Welcome to Bit Hill Haven, a paradise for Brick Hill's Pixel Artists, and those looking to get into the most accessible form of art!
===========================
What exactly is Pixel Art?
===========================
During the decade of the 80's all the way to the mid-90's, video game consoles and microcomputers lacked a huge chunk of the performance modern-time systems have, leading to most notably, limitations in their screen resolutions that even in the fastest systems would be as small as around 320x200 (example taken from the Commodore 64)!
This led to developers having to rely a lot on ensuring every single pixel on-screen had a purpose and it clearly helped represent a thing in-game, commonly known as a "sprite".
It is that what gave the early video game industry a style that would be instantly recognizable for it's chunky, at times simplistic, and at times 'impressive' graphical style that heavily leaned on sacrificing minor detail and figuring out what the best way to display an idea would be!
With this in mind, it can be easily concluded that Pixel Art, a term that back when it was prevalent in the non-indie video game era didn't exist, is a form of mainly digital art where one purposefuly makes use of the tiny image resolutions as workspace, and at times even limits their color palette in order to imitate the look of "Retro video games", or that blocky style they're known for!
===========================================
This is new to me... how do I get started?
===========================================
Getting started in Pixel Art is as easy as opening up Paint, or any image-editing software and setting up a new file on a resolution minimally as small as 16x16 and/or as big as 215x215, which for most pixel works, it is considered a huge one!
However, is paint really the best option even for just getting started? Well, it is the fastest, but not the best at all.
There are plenty of programs that are specifically designed to not only help in making, but also speed up the process of creating Pixel Art. Here are 4 of the most (personally) recommended ones:
- Asesprite/Libresprite (Both are essentially the same, excluding that Libresprite is the free and open source counter part of the two)
- GrafX2
- IDraw
- Pixie Engine Editor
And as a bonus, if you'd rather not download any software or would like to work from the web:
- Pixilart
- LoSpec Pixel Editor
- Piskel
Now get out there, and get started!
====================================
I don't think my art is very good...
====================================
Hah, aren't you a funny one?
Pixel Art is often taken as the easiest and most accessible form of art for two reasons:
· Being limited by a pixely 'grid' makes it hard for one to commit mistakes they can't erase easily and forces you to be more technical than artistic.
· Pixel Art has no real "official style", and because in the past changes to how it was done had to be implemented depending on the *system* a game was on, it helped give it a "no boundaries" kind of deal, where adding more or less detail, using higher or smaller resolutions, doesn't really affect how good or bad your pieces are!
But of course, there's always the *real* question; "How can one get better at it?"
The response from most people will always be "just keep doing it", which can actually help you overtime figure ways to be more effective at it, but there's always better ways to explain the process:
Start small, go from a very, very low resolution and see what you can do, or try to imitate sprites from retro video games from scratch, and as you get better or more comfortable doing work, up the resolution up a little, and so on until even humongous resolutions such as 512x512+ seem too easy!
If you must, it is also recommended you see tips from other Pixel Artists, both by asking them how they do it, or by watching videos on the Internet that guide you through better ways to save space and represent things.
You can do it, even if you believe you aren't good enough!
============================================
So, Pixel Art is exclusively digital, right?
============================================
Yes-ish...
It is *mainly* digital, but it has gained the title of "Art" for a reason, nowadays it is know more as a style to employ in an artwork, not just some 'computery stuff'.
Because of that, there's a couple of alternative ways that you could do pixel art that isn't limited to a computer, or atleast a piece of software designed for it, from which are included:
- Voxels, like the cubes in a game like Minecraft. Surely you might've seen people in the game before do pixel art but with 3D cubes instead of flat, 2D squares. Though some separate Voxel Art from Pixel Art, you can definitely do the latter by using voxels!
- Grid paper. High chance you use a notebook with grid paper for school, or used to. Nothing stops you from filling in the squares as you see fit to do pixel art on physical paper, and since you're still limited by a grid of squares, no one has the right to tell you it isn't pixel art at all...
- Hama/Perler beads. You know those plastic beads you put on a spiky base and then press with a hot iron so they stick together? Thanks to the way they (obviously) limit placement and how it turns out looking once pressed, Hama or Perler beads make for the best way to make physical pixel art, which not only can serve as jewelry, but they look cool if you're big into pixels!
I know, I know, they're technically round and not square once pressed, but come on, it's hard to deny they still *look* the part.
And that's all of it!
If you've bothered to read this entire introduction, then consider yourself introduced! 😎
Unless you're a Pixel Art expert already, and you're looking to see if I've made some weird statement in regards to Pixel Art, which in that case: "Don't worry, I've been doing this for years..."
Now get out there, and start spriting the world up!
⚠️⚠️ Note: Message the overseer if you're already a Pixel Artist, so you can be added to the rank! ⚠️⚠️
===========================
What exactly is Pixel Art?
===========================
During the decade of the 80's all the way to the mid-90's, video game consoles and microcomputers lacked a huge chunk of the performance modern-time systems have, leading to most notably, limitations in their screen resolutions that even in the fastest systems would be as small as around 320x200 (example taken from the Commodore 64)!
This led to developers having to rely a lot on ensuring every single pixel on-screen had a purpose and it clearly helped represent a thing in-game, commonly known as a "sprite".
It is that what gave the early video game industry a style that would be instantly recognizable for it's chunky, at times simplistic, and at times 'impressive' graphical style that heavily leaned on sacrificing minor detail and figuring out what the best way to display an idea would be!
With this in mind, it can be easily concluded that Pixel Art, a term that back when it was prevalent in the non-indie video game era didn't exist, is a form of mainly digital art where one purposefuly makes use of the tiny image resolutions as workspace, and at times even limits their color palette in order to imitate the look of "Retro video games", or that blocky style they're known for!
===========================================
This is new to me... how do I get started?
===========================================
Getting started in Pixel Art is as easy as opening up Paint, or any image-editing software and setting up a new file on a resolution minimally as small as 16x16 and/or as big as 215x215, which for most pixel works, it is considered a huge one!
However, is paint really the best option even for just getting started? Well, it is the fastest, but not the best at all.
There are plenty of programs that are specifically designed to not only help in making, but also speed up the process of creating Pixel Art. Here are 4 of the most (personally) recommended ones:
- Asesprite/Libresprite (Both are essentially the same, excluding that Libresprite is the free and open source counter part of the two)
- GrafX2
- IDraw
- Pixie Engine Editor
And as a bonus, if you'd rather not download any software or would like to work from the web:
- Pixilart
- LoSpec Pixel Editor
- Piskel
Now get out there, and get started!
====================================
I don't think my art is very good...
====================================
Hah, aren't you a funny one?
Pixel Art is often taken as the easiest and most accessible form of art for two reasons:
· Being limited by a pixely 'grid' makes it hard for one to commit mistakes they can't erase easily and forces you to be more technical than artistic.
· Pixel Art has no real "official style", and because in the past changes to how it was done had to be implemented depending on the *system* a game was on, it helped give it a "no boundaries" kind of deal, where adding more or less detail, using higher or smaller resolutions, doesn't really affect how good or bad your pieces are!
But of course, there's always the *real* question; "How can one get better at it?"
The response from most people will always be "just keep doing it", which can actually help you overtime figure ways to be more effective at it, but there's always better ways to explain the process:
Start small, go from a very, very low resolution and see what you can do, or try to imitate sprites from retro video games from scratch, and as you get better or more comfortable doing work, up the resolution up a little, and so on until even humongous resolutions such as 512x512+ seem too easy!
If you must, it is also recommended you see tips from other Pixel Artists, both by asking them how they do it, or by watching videos on the Internet that guide you through better ways to save space and represent things.
You can do it, even if you believe you aren't good enough!
============================================
So, Pixel Art is exclusively digital, right?
============================================
Yes-ish...
It is *mainly* digital, but it has gained the title of "Art" for a reason, nowadays it is know more as a style to employ in an artwork, not just some 'computery stuff'.
Because of that, there's a couple of alternative ways that you could do pixel art that isn't limited to a computer, or atleast a piece of software designed for it, from which are included:
- Voxels, like the cubes in a game like Minecraft. Surely you might've seen people in the game before do pixel art but with 3D cubes instead of flat, 2D squares. Though some separate Voxel Art from Pixel Art, you can definitely do the latter by using voxels!
- Grid paper. High chance you use a notebook with grid paper for school, or used to. Nothing stops you from filling in the squares as you see fit to do pixel art on physical paper, and since you're still limited by a grid of squares, no one has the right to tell you it isn't pixel art at all...
- Hama/Perler beads. You know those plastic beads you put on a spiky base and then press with a hot iron so they stick together? Thanks to the way they (obviously) limit placement and how it turns out looking once pressed, Hama or Perler beads make for the best way to make physical pixel art, which not only can serve as jewelry, but they look cool if you're big into pixels!
I know, I know, they're technically round and not square once pressed, but come on, it's hard to deny they still *look* the part.
And that's all of it!
If you've bothered to read this entire introduction, then consider yourself introduced! 😎
Unless you're a Pixel Art expert already, and you're looking to see if I've made some weird statement in regards to Pixel Art, which in that case: "Don't worry, I've been doing this for years..."
Now get out there, and start spriting the world up!
⚠️⚠️ Note: Message the overseer if you're already a Pixel Artist, so you can be added to the rank! ⚠️⚠️