Creating Pixel Art (2010)

I. What is Pixel art?

Judging by the name, we might assume that pixel art is any art that's made up of pixels.

But not every digital image is pixel art.

This photograph is made from pixels, but is not pixel art:

Alright, so no photographs. But if I make my art on the computer, then it's pixel art, right?

No. Pixel art is a very specific sub-category of digital art. It isn't what it's made of so much as how it's made.

For example, this digital painting is art made on the computer, and it is made of pixels, but it is not pixel art:

If the pixel art loses the sense of the importance of the pixels
which construct it, then I don't think it can be called pixel art.
It is when the pixels hold importance to the nature of the work
which defines it as pixelart. - Alex HW

Why not all digital art is pixel art

Pixel art is set apart from other digital art forms by its focus on control and precision.

The artist has to be in control of the image at the level of the single pixel, and every pixel should be purposefully placed.

When pixel art is done purposefully, offsetting just a few pixels can have a dramatic effect on the image:

The features of this parrot change drastically, but only a few pixels are different.

Other digital art forms use many tools you won't find in pixel art. The reason pixel artists don't use these tools is because they place pixels in a manner that the artist can't predict. These automatic tools blur, smudge, smear or blend the pixels. Any tool that places pixels automatically (which means the computer makes decisions about the placement of pixels rather than the artist), is generally frowned upon in pixel art. Remember, pixel art is all about control.

     An automatic tool has been used to blur the edges of this grey blob

You'll often hear people complaining "This isn't pixel art, it has too many colors!" This isn't because there's some unwritten rule in pixel art that says "It's only pixel art if it has [X] number of colors", you're allowed to use as many colors as you want. The main reason that people complain about color count is that a high amount of colors can indicate the use of dirty tools. Dirty tools create a lot of new colors in order to achieve their blurring, smudging, or transparency effects. People also mention high color counts because larger palettes are more difficult to control, but we'll get to that later.

Why it's not just about the toolsSo if I don't use any blur effects or filters or fancy tools, it's pixel art, right? Anything made in MS Paint will be pixel art?

No. It's not the program that determines whether or not it's pixel art, it's how it is made.

For example, this image was made in MS Paint, without any fancy tools:

But it isn't pixel art. This is what we call oekaki. If you can create the image without zooming in, chances are it isn't pixel art. If you're using the line tool and flood-fill most of the time, you're not paying attention to the individual pixels, just the lines and shapes that the pixels make up. The same goes for rough sketches made with the pencil or brush tools. These methods ignore the importance of careful, deliberate placement of the individual pixels.

While the most common misconceptions about pixel art are due to too loose of an interpretation of the medium, there are some who have too strict a definition of what makes pixel art.

Every pixel does not literally need to be placed by hand

The job of the pixel artist is not to manually place each and every pixel. You aren't expected to behave like a robot, filling in large areas with thousands of single-clicks of the pencil tool. The bucket tool is fine. The line tool is fine. What's important is that the artist has control of the image at the level of the single pixel, not that you create the image one pixel at a time.

Edited by jalonso - 28 July 2014 at 6:35am

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