Pixel Art: Self Portrait

For the initial task of our pixel art project, we were asked to create 8 or 16 bit pixelated portraits of ourselves using Photoshop based off of an existing image of ourselves. I opted to go for a 16 bit portrait as it offered my colours for me to use to try and achieve more detail.

2015-04-23 19.03.45

This is the picture I decided to go for.

By scaling down the picture above, I could more accurately pick out the colours I wanted to used with the colour picker tool.

pixel portrait

This is the image I managed to create with the 16 colours I was allowed to use. Its not perfect, but I feel that it looks pretty good.

pixel portrait upscaled

This is the same portrait, however I have scaled the resolution up to 900×900.

Pixel art ideas

This is just a collection of quick drawings I’ve done for my pixel art project, showing the ideas that I had when originally deciding what to make for my final picture.

Scan 2

A drawing inspired by Bioshock.

Scan 3

A more abstract drawing of a giant rising out of the ocean or something like that.

Scan 4

A picture of Goku from the anime series: Dragon Ball

Scan 5

This is the drawing I went with for my final project.

Scan 6

A 1-Up mushroom from the Super Mario Bros. video game series, with a bite taken out of it (kind of wishing I had chose this picture for my final drawing)

Pixel Art Research

8_Bit_Mario

One of the most iconic 8-bit characters: Mario

History Pixel Art is a form of digital art created through the use of raster graphics software. Graphics in most old computers, consoles and mobile phones are mostly pixel art. The term pixel art was first introduced in 1982 by Adele Goldberg of Xerox Palto Alto Research Centre, however, the art form itself goes back about 10 years before that. Some traditional art forms, such as beadwork and some mosaic work are very similar to pixel art. These art forms construct pictures out of small colored unites similar to pixels on modern digital computing.   Technique Drawings usually start with line art, which is the basic linear that the artist uses to define character, buildings or other objects. Line arts are usually shared between pixel artists. The limited palette often implemented in pixel art usually promotes dithering to achieve different tones and colors, however due to the nature of this technique, it is usually done by hand. Hand made anti-aliasing is also used alongside this technique in order to achieve the stylised look that defines pixel art.

Modern pixel art is not fully accepted as mainstream yet, and instead is viewed as an art form reserved for a more niche market, however, the amount of pop culture  that exists in todays society leads me to believe that in the very near future, pixel art will be a widely accepted and respected art form.

Most modern pixel art seems to stem from popular pop culture references from the 1980s, such as Mario (from the Super Mario Bros. series) Star Wars and many more, however, because of the stereotype attached to these things, many people tend to have a negative view towards the art that has come from them.

swpa

Star Wars pixel art.

Pixel art: Death Knight

Out of the six drawings I created, I decided to attempt to create the Death Knight, in 16-bit.

Originally, I meant to have really grey, gloomy colours, with hints of blue or green, but in the end, I decided to brighten up the overall design. Overall, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Untitled-1

The image in its original size

To add to the shadow (of his body) and flames (from his sword), I changed the opacity on both, and used a rubber on the edges of his shadow.

pixel art full scale

Resized to 1500×1500