Out Of Compo is a virtual contest devoted to graphics entries that usually get rejected at demo parties and other public contents - erotic computer art. The contest is held for the 3rd time. Previous years were ZX Spectrum graphics only, this year there are a few more categories - oldschool pixel art for a number of retro platforms, including Commodore 64, modern pixel art, digital painting and 3D renders, and more.
Detailed rules for this year
Entries from 2016
Entries from 2017
Deadline is November 24, 2018. There are prizes in each category for 1st place, and some stuff for 2nd and 3rd too. Win a compo and get the extra challenge of international mail delivery!
Over the last week, Pixel Dailies ran a collaboration to celebrate reaching 40,000 followers on Twitter. The theme was to create a yearbook featuring everyone's self portraits and caricatures.
PJer and master of clean clusters A2J2TIWARI has interviewed Mandrill on his Blog and has done a fine job of looking through the pixel jungle behind the monkey-named man.
Have you ever asked yourself what to do if there's a power shortage and you still want to gaze at amazing pixel art? (Mobiles, solar panels and generators don't count)
Pixel Art news anchorman Retronator has an answer for you. He's created a list of books that cover our favourite thing besides all the other things we really love to do.
Go and check it out.
https://www.retronator.com/post/170310645818/pixel-art-books
Matej "Retronator"Jan has just released his 19 minutes version of pixel art news for December 2017. Games, software, art and music; he covers everything your pixel art heart needs.
Hop over to Youtube and check it out.
Stray Pixels, your semi-whenever pixel news update!
Useful links:
Retronator made a guide about the best pixel artist channels on YouTube!
Watch it here on YouTube
Cyangmou made a little overview about the pros and cons of a couple 2D game projections, featuring his own stunning artwork
Browse through it on Twitter
Saint11's tutorial animations are both insightful and pretty, and regularily new ones are added!
Those of you who follow or participate in (or are just curious about) #pixel_dailies and who use Discord may be interested in joining the new Pixel Dailies Discord server!
Click here to connect: https://discordapp.com/invite/T9Puddm
Fellow PJer and archivist of everything pixel art Matej "Retronator"Jan has not only been running a successful website with numerous projects most of you should be familiar with www.retronator.com/ but also a youtube account that's worth checking out.
Every month he manages to compress the most important things that happen in the world of pixels into his
Whether it's games, art or even music. If there's pixel art in it, chances are you'll find it there.
An interview with 1041uuu, whose pixel art has stretched far and wide from Twitter to Tumblr, and beyond.
Link to Interview: https://www.pixivision.net/en/a/2686
This unique artistic collaboration between pixel artist Timo Visser (Ultimo) and composer Victor Butzelaar is now available on BandCamp!
The Wayfaring Monks is the first Episode in this story about two monks.
You can get it here for just a buck: https://victorbutzelaar.bandcamp.com/album/the-wayfaring-monks
"Commodore 64: For the Love of a Machine" is a book project by Andreas Wallström about the C64 with lots of interviews of people who helped create the machine as well as game makers and demo sceners, and of course pixel art as well.
The campaign is running for another week and could need a bit of a boost.
Have a look at the campaign page and see if it tickles your fancy.
A new pixel-art t-shirt design challenge will open soon at Threadless. Let's do this, PJ!
However before you rush to post your fave pixel pieces, take the time to think hard about what makes a good t-shirt design, as opposed to a good piece of art (pixel or otherwise). Great shirt designs usually have a strong underlying concept, and make use of the shirt background color as a prominent design element. Beware of boxy (rectangular) designs that don't have a good reason for boxyness (such as fake film posters, comics pages etc).
The challenge opens a week from today, and should last for 2 more weeks. You can already ask for feedback on the Threadless forums. Trigger warning: it can be a tough crowd to please out there!
Also be aware that chances of print are very slim, well under 1%. Do this as a chance to compete and improve, not to make easy money. Now pixel away!
Hello fellow pixel artists,
I got a hint that some lady is selling some of our pixels as listing at etsy.com;
Some of her listings look very familar to me. One certain submarine too familar.
(already reported)
Happy Hunting.
Animated Loop's latest weekly challenge (ending 23 March) is all about pixel art.
If you would like to participate, visit their Twitter page.
In 1985 renowned Pop Artist Andy Warhol created these purely digital works using Graphicraft on an Amiga 1000.
Pixelation is moving to a new host.
This will probably result in a couple of days worth of downtime.
Everything should be back to normal asap.
I'm here to talk about someone you probably didn't know the name of, but you've surely already seen his work.
Christian Robert was graphician and pixel artist on a large number of games, such as "Cruise for a Corpse" and "Flashback" on Amiga 500 and Atari ST but he was also art director and originator of concept arts, backgrounds and animations of "Heart of Darkness" on PS1 and PC. And you can see his art in most of Gameloft's games (even if his name is not in credits...)
He left us last weekend in a car accident at age of 52 years, he was a very good artist but also a friend. I met and worked with him on my 1st project at Gameloft Paris, he taught me a lot of things, and he was the most kind and humble guy I've ever met. I remember how he would always come and compliment all other graphician's work even if he could surely do better and how he was suprised and hampered when I've asked him to dedicate my old "Flashback" box.
Pixel art and video games have lost a great man.
If you happen to be in Saxony, Germany this weekend (or just like traveling across Europe to see pixel art) then you should check out the opening of the TriArtLon No.2 exhibition.
The idea behind the exhibition is to get together artists from three different genres into one exhibition. This time it's a combination of fine arts, "girl stuff" :) and pixel art by PJ member tomic. Also, you can order t-shirts with prints of some of the artwork, which will be printed live during the closing night.
Location: The Nikkifaktur t-shirt factory, Dresden.
Opening night: October 29, 7pm.
Exhibit: October 30 - November 11, 5pm - 8pm.
Closing night: November 12, 7pm. Including live band!
It would be nice to see a few Pixel-Jointers there to have a chat and/or a beer with.
Good news for Firefox users that want to explore the Japanese artist community Pixiv and especially its wonderful pixel scene!
This script for Firefox's Addon Greasemonkey translates Pixiv into an English usable/readable site.
Requires: Firefox, Greasemonkey and Pixiv Translation Script for Greasemonkey.
Times are tough for Mars rover Spirit, permanently embedded in the Red Planet's sands.
AstroInfo website set up an art challenge for all artists and media: make a picture of Spirit at her new home.
Deadline is Feb 13 (no hour nor timezone being specified, caution is advised!), submissions are to be sent by email to the organizer (see website). Hope to see lots of red pixels in the next few days!
Christmas is just around the corner and to celebrate Rush Coil have created 8-BIT CHRISTMAS, a full-length album inspired by classic video game music.
Net proceeds donated to charity, pump up those speakers!
Create a character using a DS Lite design tool and you can have your creation appear in a THQ game and win a $500 prize in addition to various other goodies courtesty of IGN.
At least two Picasso paintings, worth a total of nearly $66 million, were stolen from the artist's granddaughter's house in Paris, police said Wednesday. The paintings, "Maya and the Doll" and "Portrait of Jacqueline," disappeared overnight Monday to Tuesday from the chic 7th arrondissement, or district, a Paris police official said.
(I think its the chimps with spears)
Read the full story here.
For all of you guys interested in comics (and art in general) this music video might be interesting to watch: http://bubblare.se/fattaru_horde_jag_skal
Just sit back and enjoy the music and this very cool and unique video!
This in depth look at the For Better or Worse process is really a terrific guide on how to produce a quality sequential art piece. Really well worth a look even if you're not a fan of this particular comic strip.
Bobby Chiu, conceptual artists, releases several helpful digital painting videos on Youtube showing his approach and artistic philosophes. Check 'em out here.
Looks like we've got another Game Dev Compo coming up!
Here's the link http://www.72HourGDC.com
Hope to see ya in the comp!
, it might be an interesting visit. Details.
From Boing Boing: John Kricfalusi and Katie Rice are going to exhibit and sell their work at Every Picture Tells A Story in Santa Monica this Sunday. After the show, watch a bunched of BANNED John K cartoons at the theater across the street. Link
John K, creator and genious behind Ren and Stimpy, is running free, thats right, FREE drawing lessons! His blog, an infinite source of cartooning wisdom and wackiness, is now home to John K's very own drawing class. Read his instructions, pick up a pencil, and DRAW. It's an awesome opportunity to sharpen your skills and knowledge of one of the most engaging art forms known to man.
Since there is a doll category being crafted at deviantART (that will hopefully, in turn, rid the pixel art gallery of non-pixel art compliant submissions -- trying to say it as nice as I can!) , running is a contest for a little 16x16 gallery icon for the section. Of course, there are some meaty subs (hungry?) as prizes.
The terrific classic video game art contest is all over folks and the winner is posted for all to see. If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area from April 19 - May 19 drop on by Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight on Melrose to see the exhibition up close. I'm definitely going to try and make it to the opening reception on April 18th.
Hey guys,
Thought you might dig the ability to have all your readers submit art for possible inclusion in the "i am 8-bit" exhibition this April. Lots of prizes up for grabs!
http://games.ign.com/articles/694/694719p1.html
Cheers,
// jon
jon@iam8bit.net
Check out these interesting creations by artist David Chatt. They're three dimensional sculptures of everyday objects and figures made entirely from tiny glass beads, interestingly enought they sort of resemble pixel art (if you squint and cover your eyes). My personal favourite is number 9 of 12.
Thanks goes to my girlfriend Justine for spotting these.
Lifemeter is such a simple and pure gallery idea carried out elegantly -- art inspired by a love of video games.
I've blathered on about the "i am 8-bit" book previously, but a digg post reminded me just how effing cool the art is. Check out the gallery featuring Excitebike, Kirby, Mario, Centipede and a bunch of other classic games as interpreted by top notch artists.
Pixel art with Rubik's Cubes is all the rage these days. A Paris based artist named Invader is creating "pixel art" with the old mind teaser toy.
Hard to not to smile while playing through this beautiful and simple puzzle game. Reminds me of a low-tech Katamari Damacy (in a good way) or my all time favorite interactive portfolio design found here.
I've always been fascinated by the people behind all the wonderful characters we see in movies, television, comic books, video games, etc. Character Design at blogspot is a promising new blog that interviews some of these character designers and I encourage anyone looking to break into the biz to read through all the interviews for to get the insider dish.
I usually don't get too excited about product design, but these spiffy little flash drives really got me thinking. Companies like Apple have pushed industrial design with elegance and we are all better off for it (those nasty beige PC cases were a blight on society). Unfortunately, there just hasn't been much improvement in making tech products with personality. "Elegance" can sometimes just be code for "boring".
Why can't tech equipment be colorful and fun?
Found a bunch of great stuff on the excellent illustration blog Drawn this morning. The following are a nice variety of animated music videos featured at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
A quoi ça sert l’amour? is a beautiful little animation by the French animation studio Cube. It follows the rocky relationship of a stick figure couple set against a jazzy song.
Yet another gem found on Drawn!
What me worry? Sorry, I just had to throw that in there. Some nut has scanned every Mad Magazine cover going all the way back to 1952. Found on the ultra-nifty drawn illustration blog.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane when dinosaurs weren't just confined to zoos. Check out these beautiful interpretations of classic video game characters...
There's a whole bunch more over at the eatpoo retrogame fanart thread.
Jil Lee put 500 empty speech bubbles in the streets and took pictures of what people wrote in. Some funny stuff.
[ Via Ozone Asylum ]
The title says it all. Check out this amazing artist's chiaroscuro work. Oooooh, chiaroscuro... that's the kind of vocabulary a couple of years of art school will buy. Money well spent.
Such a great concept executed perfectly... endlessly amusing videos using every day objects for props, special effects and actors. That is the world of PES. Who needs ILM when you've got a paper clip and a tape dispenser?
PES did the bobblehead campaign for the Los Angeles Dodgers and a beautiful CoinStar ad. There's also a fantastic Bacardi set of ads using only items you would find in a bar. Great stuff.
On my quest to make sense of the vast wasteland that is the internet I came across a lovely little Illustration blog with bazillions (give or take a gazillion) of cool artsy links.
While browsing Drawn!'s blog I came across a must see for the Manga fan in all of us... Garnier's Manga Head. Unfortunately, my hair isn't quite long enough to pull off any of the cool styles. 
 |  |  |  |
 | Ash Wednesday 46 days before Easter Sunday (February or March) |
 | Easter Between March 22nd to April 25th |
 | Greek Independence Day March 25th |
 | March Madness March through first week of April |
 | Mardi Gras / Shrove Tuesday / Carnaval / Carnival Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (February or March) |
| | Palm Sunday Sunday before Easter |
 | St. Patrick's Day March 17th |
| More holidays | |