not sure if you know who i am, but i'm an art student who's doing his art portfolio for the IB.
i was curious as to what made you choose pixel art in general, and the implications of doing so: why pixel art? why does your pixel art look the way it does? and (excuse me if it comes off as rude or anything) doesn't it seem "too easy?"
I've always loved vincent van Gogh for his exploration of "the real world as it is" ever since stumbling on his earlier works. his works are so truthful and unflinchingly honest - he's a big inspiration for me, whether I make it obvious through my works, or not.
well, hello there, fellow IB Diploma student! I've done art too, myself. Well, I'm still doing it - there's no hesitation about that.
For my more in-depth studies of art as a discipline and those who practice it, I've always loved to incorporate the style of art as mimicry or truthful representation. It's a beautiful thing, in my opinion, and just like how art can be used to communicate your interpretation of something - it can also be used as a medium to describe what you see, touch, hear, smell, and taste!
I've always loved vincent van Gogh for his exploration of "the real world as it is" ever since stumbling on his earlier works. his works are so truthful and unflinchingly honest - he's a big inspiration for me, whether I make it obvious through my works, or not. i wanted to incorporate that into my work, too. I've read on several artists like Fola David who creates hyperrealistic art with simply a pen or another basic medium, and that's where I think the excitement emerges.
however, I'm brave to say that I don't have their resources. being stuck in a pandemic creates several constraints that limit the (a) subjects I draw, the (b) mediums I use, and the (c) size of the canvas. therefore, I turned to my biggest resource: the computer! I dabbled in CSS and Python before learning JavaScript, a pretty hard programming language for me - but it works wonders. I use a source code to extract colors from images, and I arrange them in rows and columns of pixels with the help of the computer. it's art that makes itself, in a way, and it goes to show the relationship that humans have in automated art. It didn't work the first time for me at all - my portraits were extremely blurry, and some of them were too small or too big to be seen properly. Rather than thinking that the computer does the art for you, you do art using the computer, like how anyone would use a pen, a paintbrush, or a pencil to make a sketch. I keep tweaking the code and changing the resolution to see if I can get a life-like imitation of the subjects I draw (but to no success yet).
You'll see that most pixelated art here on Tumblr is, well, "pixelated art." It's art made of gorgeous colors and solid shapes and curves that resemble the 8-bit and 16-bit games of the 80s and 90s. But there's just something about me that wanted to do it differently - I wanted to go larger than life, and I settled on the word "life" from the previous phrase - why not imitate life with pixels? Why not try to see if I can paint portraits, just like how a computer does?
But I tried, and tried again, and managed to make art that also reflects a big part of me: my poor eyesight. The only way to properly see my art is to stand very far away, which, in a way, is image distortion. (I just thought it was something pretty cool, anyway, being able to see a part of me incorporated in my art). It also reflects my personality being that I'm someone who cares more about the big picture and can be too scared to go into relevant detail(the small parts). Pixel art can be easy and hard - I'm not to judge whether it's "too simple" or "too hard." What matters is what you make of it, and whether it has an impact on you. If not, that's okay! There's bound to be art that'll move you!
thank you for the question, anon! I appreciated it tremendously.
If you have more questions, feel free to ask me :)
