Why do you choose pixel art?

[CraftPix]

What attracts you to pixel art? Nostalgia? Something else?

[SquigglyV]

Not sure why I like looking at it so much, I think the low resolution leaves more to the imagination in a good way while still letting a skilled artist develop the mood and details that they want. I know when something like Blasphemous or Castlevania is beautiful but saying why it's that way is much harder lol.

As for why I stick to making pixel art myself, it's just easier, or at least it feels easier. I struggle to start and then to finish things, but pixel art is so granular that I don't tend to overthink it as much, it's almost more like a puzzle than anything else which is mentally a lot easier to keep up with. The enforced lack of detail is also interesting, I am always learning new ways to evoke finer elements without having the pixels to actually display them in full.

Tbh it helps that a 200 pixel canvas with like 4 layers doesn't make my computer very unhappy like a 2000 pixel canvas with 40 layers does. I need more RAM...

[ShangXian]

Pixel art has that fashion that brings you nostalgia for a time that only lives in memories, I love how many types of pixel arts there are and how each of them carry different feels. Many times I love looking at pixel art pieces featuring the same character but with different pixel art styles. You can truly see how the character or the composition changes a lot in terms of vibes and emotions they elicit in us if the work has black outlines instead of black and white, different shades of green, limited colour palette, more complex colour composition and so on.

This is why I sometimes make pixel art, but there is a also a technical aspect that makes me want to try it: it's different from digital drawing and digital painting despite being a sub-type of digital art. To make the experience less "traumatic" I apply principles of digital drawing for colour phase because it gives me more control over what I'm painting. It's a nice challenge to my comfort zone that has become digital art.

[GenTrigger]

I genuinely think it's an interesting medium to work with. The limitations and benefits along with the final effect of it all are super compelling.

I would hesitate to say that I was initially interested out of "nostalgia" since that implies that it evokes a sort of warm feeling that reminds me of a more innocent time. I'd like to think that I'm just inherently interested in how artists have to work with technological limits. Lower polygon counts, smaller texture resolutions, etc. etc. and I think there's something we lose when games forge forward from one technological norm to another.

For example I think pokemon genuinely looks better when its identity is revolving around pixel art, even when it was playing with 2.5D with black and white. I don't think that's due to nostalgia but more of a feeling I have towards the artistic choices being made.

Anyways, I just like it. I think it looks good

[aapiarts]

Way quicker and easier to draw and especially animate for my games plus the images won't take long to load or much file space.

[xeiavica]

Realism is bullshit. Pixel art is where it's at, if I wanted realism, I'd buy a camera.

[ZekeWatson]

It just looks good! That's the main appeal for me, and likely everyone else who enjoys doing it.

It's fun to create art out of limitations, and being limited by palette, canvas size, tiles etc is all a part of the fun to me.

I also love how consistent it can be. I love finding the "rule" to the piece of art I'm doing, and applying it to the piece, such as line thickness, rules for BG vs FG objects, making tiles fit perfectly, sub pixel incremental movement etc etc.

It's like solving a puzzle!

[Czyszy]

Mostly nostalgia in my case. I have a particular soft spot for fake screenshots from retro games when it comes to pixel art.

[Drazah]

The few times I did pixel art, was mainly for collabs, and because it's a lot easier to make compared to hand drawn art, ESPECIALLY for video games, imagine having to divide tiles up between 400x400 chunks instead of 32x32, or having to make sure a hand drawn character was in the same exact pixel so they don't wobble when their frames change.

Speaking of, finding tutorials to make hand drawn assets for games is batshit hard last several times I checked.

Otherwise, I don't really care for pixel art, I guess it does help a lot with simpler styles, imagining Celeste was hand drawn makes it look really flat for me compared to pixel art idk why.

[Placeholder456]

At 4/21/25 12:25 PM, CraftPix wrote:What attracts you to pixel art? Nostalgia? Something else?

I like retro games + it's EZ to make!

[PELUHOTSART]

Because unlike regular digital drawing, for me, pixel art is easier to shape and generate the result you're looking for in your drawings. I don't know, but I find it captures details, lights, and shadows better than digital pencil work. It's like a drawing and/or sketching experience that feels more interesting than in color work. The problem is the small pixel format, and sometimes it's difficult to express emotions, which is why I seek a balance between realism and pixel art. Although it's more of a pixel-scale drawing, the important thing is that you find your own way of making art and don't stick to the same basics as others.

[aapiarts]

At 4/22/25 02:51 PM, Placeholder456 wrote:

At 4/21/25 12:25 PM, CraftPix wrote:What attracts you to pixel art? Nostalgia? Something else?

it's EZ to make!

It really isn't though depending of the style and how accurate you want to be to stuff like console limitations.

[xeiavica]

At 4/22/25 02:51 PM, Placeholder456 wrote:it's EZ to make!

This is easy:

This, however, takes a bit of knowing what you're doing to get it look good:

[Yomuchan]

At 4/21/25 12:25 PM, CraftPix wrote:What attracts you to pixel art? Nostalgia? Something else?

Been doing pixel art since the mid 90s. It's one of the first styles I ever learned.

[xeiavica]

What exactly makes ANSI artwork like this:

different from sprite art? It was extremely popular in the bbs era of the late 80s throughout the 90s.

Normally you would use ANSI.SYS if from DOS, but you can today just print ANSI escape codes in your terminal emulator.

Would you say that ANSI is still sprite art, even if it's done differently?

[OnLime]

I think originally it started because was a wee lime, I was really obsessed with things like RPG maker, etc. And so i was constantly trying to make my own sprites and etc. But also just in general, honestly? I just really liked how pixel art looked. I was obsessed with recreating the art style of things like terraria, minecraft, starbound, and etc. And although im leaning into a more anti-aliased/binary artstyle, pixel art will always have a place in my heart.

[Chdonga]

It started off as me wanting to make my own custom pokemon and romhacks, but quickly became its own passion as I got into sprite comics and custom sprite art.

[NuclearTaco2004]

Nostalgia is a very huge factor in my pixel art, especially since I double down on the Windows 95/98 icons. The lack of anti-aliasing (smoothing out the jagged edges) also provides a great deal of flexibility with editing, coloring, and fixing mistakes.

When you zoom out of your pixel art, you can't help but notice how crispy the drawing is....none of that blurry nonsense.

[Metropoloxx]

At 4/21/25 01:52 PM, SquigglyV wrote:Not sure why I like looking at it so much, I think the low resolution leaves more to the imagination in a good way while still letting a skilled artist develop the mood and details that they want. I know when something like Blasphemous or Castlevania is beautiful but saying why it's that way is much harder lol.

As for why I stick to making pixel art myself, it's just easier, or at least it feels easier. I struggle to start and then to finish things, but pixel art is so granular that I don't tend to overthink it as much, it's almost more like a puzzle than anything else which is mentally a lot easier to keep up with. The enforced lack of detail is also interesting, I am always learning new ways to evoke finer elements without having the pixels to actually display them in full.

Tbh it helps that a 200 pixel canvas with like 4 layers doesn't make my computer very unhappy like a 2000 pixel canvas with 40 layers does. I need more RAM...

Yeah Pixel art low resolution helps the player fill in the rest of the detail with their imagination. There is a reason why newer realistic AAA games has that problem of being too much detail resulting it looking clutter as hell.

[Placeholder456]

At 4/22/25 05:20 PM, xeiavica wrote:

At 4/22/25 02:51 PM, Placeholder456 wrote:it's EZ to make!

This is easy:


This, however, takes a bit of knowing what you're doing to get it look good:

Well, at least it's easy for me

[Creeperforce24]

At 4/21/25 01:52 PM, SquigglyV wrote:Not sure why I like looking at it so much, I think the low resolution leaves more to the imagination in a good way while still letting a skilled artist develop the mood and details that they want. I know when something like Blasphemous or Castlevania is beautiful but saying why it's that way is much harder lol.

As for why I stick to making pixel art myself, it's just easier, or at least it feels easier. I struggle to start and then to finish things, but pixel art is so granular that I don't tend to overthink it as much, it's almost more like a puzzle than anything else which is mentally a lot easier to keep up with. The enforced lack of detail is also interesting, I am always learning new ways to evoke finer elements without having the pixels to actually display them in full.

Tbh it helps that a 200 pixel canvas with like 4 layers doesn't make my computer very unhappy like a 2000 pixel canvas with 40 layers does. I need more RAM...

One word… waterflame

[OnixDark]

At 4/22/25 05:20 PM, xeiavica wrote:

At 4/22/25 02:51 PM, Placeholder456 wrote:it's EZ to make!

This is easy:


This, however, takes a bit of knowing what you're doing to get it look good:

while making the bottom sprite from zero would NOT be easy, modifying it to change clothing/armor style would be WAY easier than with non-pixel art (you could give him pants and different shoes by just changing the colors of a few pixels, for example).

[babydash65]

ok so like one of my favorite things about pixel art is that it kinda feels like a puzzle at times, cause you have to figure out "how the hell am i gonna fit this detail in?" when making it. some of my best work is actually the tiny 64x64 or 32x32 sprites, or even the 16x16 ones. in fact, the one thing i regret about my pixel day submission is that i made it way too big, where i still really like it, but i feel like i couldve gotten just as much across in a smaller resolution, if not more actually. also, i feel coloring is like a lot more fun with pixel art for some reason. maybe its cause you get to work with a more limited palette, or maybe its cause you can just change a few pixels if it feels off.

another thing is that it simplifies character design in like the best way possible. some of my best character design is because of the tiny size ive had to make them in, it just really gets you focused on what the best aspects of the designs are.

heres some of my favorite sprites ive done recently (including one unfinished one i was making today lol)

i also have always just really loved how good pixel art looks, maybe part of it was growing up on snes and indies like terraria and yume nikki (the latter of which being a huge inspiration if u cant tell)

oh and its also totally cause i used to use skincraft on here to make shitty minecraft skins when i was a kid. thats why my account is as old as it is lmfao

[Luis]

I think most people said most of the reasons. I like the limitations. I also find a lot of opportunity in the limitations. I’ve been experimenting with a different style on my next thing. I use a thick purple outline and a slightly lighter purple outline for not important animations in the bg. I like to think of it as my pixel line meets @mindchamber outline of the pico cartoon he made. We will see how it goes next wed

[GiovanniKody100]

Idk, it just looks cool. Y'know what I mean?

[Guidodinho]

Because it's a pretty easy way to get some satisfying or funny/cute results, without having to focus too much on your dexterity or precision (or trained eye for finer details) Because you can just go around, filling in little blocks on a grid.

There's no worrying about your touch with the pen(cil) or marker or brush or whatever.

And it's also accessible as can be, because pixel-art uses very few and inexpensive resources to make. Not dirt-cheap, like a disposable pair of pen&paper. But anybody on a tight budget can acquire some kind of device with a color display to make some pixel-art on.

No need for no fancy new gadgets, or pricy art supplies.

[Guidodinho]

At 4/23/25 07:18 PM, babydash65 wrote:ok so like one of my favorite things about pixel art is that it kinda feels like a puzzle at times, cause you have to figure out "how the hell am i gonna fit this detail in?" when making it. some of my best work is actually the tiny 64x64 or 32x32 sprites, or even the 16x16 ones.

Totaly get you on that one. Especialy when working on a standard small grid like that. It just sort of looks like you got some cross-word or sudoku puzzle in front of you. And all you have to do, is fill up the empty squares, but instead of letters/numbers, you pick the right colours to fill in.

[xeiavica]

At 4/24/25 06:05 AM, Guidodinho wrote:Because it's a pretty easy way to get some satisfying or funny/cute results, without having to focus too much on your dexterity or precision (or trained eye for finer details) Because you can just go around, filling in little blocks on a grid.
There's no worrying about your touch with the pen(cil) or marker or brush or whatever.

And it's also accessible as can be, because pixel-art uses very few and inexpensive resources to make. Not dirt-cheap, like a disposable pair of pen&paper. But anybody on a tight budget can acquire some kind of device with a color display to make some pixel-art on.
No need for no fancy new gadgets, or pricy art supplies.

I disagree with your stance on traditional art. Pixel art still has a time investment to get good at it. In fact, any form of artistic passion has a cost. Either in money, time, or possibly both. So they're both perfectly valid. In fact, knowing traditional art fundamentals can make you significantly better at pixel art or sprite animations, such as perspective and shading.

[Guidodinho]

At 4/24/25 12:05 PM, xeiavica wrote:

At 4/24/25 06:05 AM, Guidodinho wrote:Because it's a pretty easy way to get some satisfying or funny/cute results, without having to focus too much on your dexterity or precision (or trained eye for finer details) Because you can just go around, filling in little blocks on a grid.
There's no worrying about your touch with the pen(cil) or marker or brush or whatever.

And it's also accessible as can be, because pixel-art uses very few and inexpensive resources to make. Not dirt-cheap, like a disposable pair of pen&paper. But anybody on a tight budget can acquire some kind of device with a color display to make some pixel-art on.
No need for no fancy new gadgets, or pricy art supplies.

I disagree with your stance on traditional art. Pixel art still has a time investment to get good at it. In fact, any form of artistic passion has a cost. Either in money, time, or possibly both. So they're both perfectly valid. In fact, knowing traditional art fundamentals can make you significantly better at pixel art or sprite animations, such as perspective and shading.

Nah, u agreeing with me bruh, but just on a different degree/level, or whatever.

And I agree witchu: for when it gets serieus, or passionate or ambitious or so, that pixel-art can take a lot of work and detication too.

Just in an entry level kind of way, its sort of easier with pixel-art, to quickly make something entertaining. Can be a little harder to pull off with traditional media in some ways.

[Yamanu1]

If we are talking about low res then it forces you to adapt and simplify shapes, helps with developing imagination!