Why do you LOVE pixel art?
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Diversions
Forum Discription: Get to know your fellow pixel freaks. Chat about anything to do with video games, comic books, anime, movies, television, books, music, sports or any other off topic bs you can think of.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8266
Printed Date: 23 October 2025 at 9:42am
Topic: Why do you LOVE pixel art?
Posted By: MFlanaga
Subject: Why do you LOVE pixel art?
Date Posted: 24 April 2009 at 11:28am
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Hi! I'm still new here but I want to ask people... why do you love pixel art? I ask this assuming you love pixel art... if you don't LOVE it, you can say why you marginally like it, or why you hate/dislike it. I hope I don't see many of those though... For me, I LOVE pixel art for several reasons... 1. I consider myself an off and on amateur artist, but my style is very messy and chaotic. I can skribble lines in a continuous pattern on paper with increasing pressure and out pops a drawing that looks decent. You can't do that with pixels (or I should say that I can't...) and the precision that is required of good pixel art increases both my patience and understanding of why careful placement is important. 2. Colors. I am a pencil man, black'n'white, monochrome all the way. I can paint, but I don't enjoy it for some reason. Shading is usually not an issue for me because I don't have to swap instruments in a 1 color piece. Therefor I sometimes feel like I have little experience with color selection. Since I've been creating little 32x32 graphics I have a much better understanding of which colors to use to create certain characteristics in a piece. This is something I'm still, and probably will always be, working on. 3. Beauty. For some reason or another, I miss the simple beauty found in old pixel games. Maybe its nostalgia or childhood joy that instills this, but I dare say that I enjoy a low res well made pixel game over a 3 bajillion polygon super-particle effect 1080p HD game. I don't know why. Being a part of this community makes me feel like i'm becoming a better person, very very slowly, and that's why I love pixel art.  |
Replies:
Posted By: vampireslug
Date Posted: 24 April 2009 at 1:07pm
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1 - Nostalgia. All of the game sof my youth were pixel art and I love them as much today as I did then.
2 - Simplicity. Clean lines and colors.
3 - Challenge. Doing much with little; limited palettes, small resolution, etc. ------------- "The Earth starts to rumble, world powers fall. A 'warring for the heavens, a peaceful man stands tall...." - Mustaine. ©1992 Screen Gems/EMI |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 24 April 2009 at 1:55pm
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Heh. Nice question. I have my answer ready for years, yet no one asked me. 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
I have much more to say, but I simply don't want to write more/want to waste your reading time more ;) ------------- |
Posted By: greenraven
Date Posted: 24 April 2009 at 4:54pm
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Simple. I grew up on oldskool games. Wanted to 'recreate' them. XD
-------------  "pwnage comes with patience, practice and planning." ~ Jalonso 
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Posted By: ellie-is
Date Posted: 24 April 2009 at 5:41pm
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I dont LOVE pixel art. :P I like pixel art as much as I like other kinds of art. Maybe a little more, because when using pixels, I feel like I have more control on the piece than when I am drawing with a pencil or my tablet pen. If you screw something up, its easier to fix without having to redo the whole thing. Why I love art though, is because even though I am not actually good at it, I am still better at it than most of the other stuff I do. Something I can actually do better than someone else... It feels good when you are drawing, pixeling, or whatever. |
Posted By: Lozd
Date Posted: 26 April 2009 at 10:59am
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it's an addicting hobby |
Posted By: MFlanaga
Date Posted: 27 April 2009 at 8:14am
| Good reasons all! I forgot about the control and challenge factors, but I've definitely felt the same way about those two before. Thanks for sharing! |
Posted By: Elk
Date Posted: 05 May 2009 at 3:44am
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Pixelart is the most challenging and difficult master category of video art, it has so much depth, when pixeling, you have to monitor every pixel, every color, the entire composition, it's just amazing, yet, the result will be a small picture you spent hours on, its just awesome! |
Posted By: Peelz
Date Posted: 23 May 2009 at 1:51am
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I don't know exactly why I love pixel art (and yes,I do LOVE it, even though I have just started making pixel art myself). I suspect that it mostly has to do with nostalgia. As a kid I was hooked on the Monkey Island games, Indiana Jones games, and all the other great games from Lucasfilm. I never realized that pixel art was its own specific genre until recently, and imagine my delight when I found an entire community dedicated to its creation. As a (self-proclaimed) artist, I naturally felt an urge to investigate this new art form. Once I saw the mind-blowing works of the masters like Fool and Snake, I knew I had to try it myself. |
Posted By: Dhr. Bosch
Date Posted: 25 May 2009 at 3:08am
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ECCO- the tides of time. and then later i found this: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/5481.htm combining my two favorite hobbies: Art and the occult ------------- Vanitas, vanitatum omnia vanitas |
Posted By: Wren56891
Date Posted: 07 June 2009 at 8:51pm
| i have to agree with vampire slug, all the games i played when i was young were pixilated games, like faxanadu, definitely in my top 3 games of all time. |
Posted By: monotov
Date Posted: 09 June 2009 at 3:41pm
| This is taken, because everything that relates to computer graphics is inevitably made of pixels. |
Posted By: cure
Date Posted: 09 June 2009 at 4:01pm
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that doesn't make it pixel art. digital photography is made of pixels, but it takes much more than that to be pixel art. |
Posted By: LokiF
Date Posted: 12 June 2009 at 1:07pm
| Anyone with patience can do well. It's also much more perfectible than other sorts of art. Every pixel is placed where it is for a reason. |
Posted By: Dhr. Bosch
Date Posted: 13 June 2009 at 4:08am
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i would disagree with that. with ttechniques such as oil on canvas a similair level of detail can absolutly be achieved, with this medium you can also erase and redo every part of your painting as much as you want, so long as it's not dried. and as with pixelart ech stroke is pone for a reason. in fact the french pointilists where basically the inventors of pixelart (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Seurat-La_Parade_detail.jpg). I'd argue that oil on canvas is atleast as anal as pixelart. and anyone with patience (and or the bob ross dvd colection) can do well.
------------- Vanitas, vanitatum omnia vanitas |
Posted By: Celri
Date Posted: 18 June 2009 at 2:48pm
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I won't say that I love pixel art yet - too early in the relationship for that just yet...started my very first drawing on Friday last! I can say this though: It is a very demanding and challenging medium and the one thing that makes me come back for more is the great support from the community at pixeljoint! (Seriously - am not sucking up!)
It is awesome to get proper, meaningful feedback - I've learnt so much over the last few days - made massive mistakes - and my mentors just guided me back in the right direction...tough love and all!
When I first learnt about pixel art I thought "No way am I doing THAT!" In the end what I thought would drive me insane has become a new addiction and a very satisfying one at that -
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Posted By: Solitaire
Date Posted: 18 June 2009 at 5:08pm
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i hate pixel art with every fiber of my being ------------- -,,chick magnet,,- |