Art

You can’t win them all, it seems. This one went awry by a bad choice of colors.

W.I.P. I’m fully aware that progress isn’t always improvement, yet I have to deal with its result nonetheless, as perfection is the enemy of done. After spewing these platitudes »cough« truisms, the next phase should be identifying the shadows and light areas, and then pixelating the portrait.

W.I.P. A first rough sketch from reference, done in an hour, mainly by eyeballing proportions and angles. I let it sit for a few hours to get some distance. Then I’ll do a second version, focussing on the hairdo. A value study will be the third version before I’ll turn it into 64 x 64 pixel art.

I imported my previous pixel art portrait into the Divoom pixel editor and did some touch-ups before I exported it to my photo library.

I made a 64 x 64 pixel art portrait. For a longer description, see this blog post.

Here’s what I could come up with today, a duck in a pond drawn as 64 x 64 pixel art in Divoom’s pixel art editor.

There’s no better way to learn than to just jump in and start drawing and animating, I guess. Shown is a simple animation loop and a color gradient through the 16 colors of the Sweetie-16 color palette.

I thought that 64 x 64 pixel is too small for anything worthwhile, until I saw an image (locked inside an app) by professional artist Laura Aragon in the Divoom pixel art community. Holy cow, I have to up my game to get near this level of artistry. I’d like to see how she made it.

This 64 x 64 “selfie” pixel art portrait took much, much longer than it needed to. I drew an outline in Pixquare, and replicated that in the Divoom pixel editor, after which I colored the sketch. The image is a screenshot, framed in Procreate, because Divoom’s export filter is no good.

On Christmas day I thought it appropriate to go oldskool with ballpoint pens on copier paper. While clearly not finished, I thought I captured some of the original in my sketch, of which I’m proud as a sign of progress.

I reworked a pixel art piece I did earlier this year in Pixaki, imported it via the photo library into Divoom’s pixel art editor, took a screenshot inside the editor, and added a frame around it in Procreate. Of course, it is expected that I draw in Divoom’s app, which I find clumsy.

While awaiting the arrival of my LED panel I made this 64x64 pixel art portrait from imagination. Alas importing into the Divoom app introduces unwanted anti-aliasing, almost impossible to get rid of. Ah well, it works for smaller panels too.

Just got a notification, arrival within 15 minutes 😊

I refined yesterday’s stapler pixel art in the Divoom pixel editor at 64x64 pixels. Now I’m waiting for the LED panel to arrive, so I can test it. 🥁🥁🥁💥🎉🥳

Apparently, getting better at drawing requires some attentive drawing practice, and observing what one is looking at before even drawing. I noticed foreshortening in the face, so I tried to draw that (see process video). As an initial sketch it is descent, but I think I need more practice.

I found this ornate stapler on Sketchfab and took a snapshot of a side view to study and draw. I wanted to see if I could turn it into 64 x 64 pixel art somehow. The sketch took me 4½ hours, and the pixel art version an hour or so.

I believe this is what happens if I don’t really understand the subject I’m drawing and just draw shapes. I suppose a bit of analysis before putting the stylus to the iPad would’ve resulted in a more solid drawing. Based on a toy rocket I found on Sketchfab, of which there are many.

Using several steps I created and refined this sketch, based on a wooden toy duck from Sketchfab. It isn’t a copy, but a recreation based on observation. I can see its flaws, and, therefore, I need to practice drawing solid basic sketches before trying this method on drawing portraits.

I redesigned my blank sketch sheet in a pixel editing app (Pixquare). The grays are obviously for shading, and the four colors are for blocking in straight lines, from big to small:

• green - overall dimensions
• red - rough outline
• orange - inner shapes outlines
• blue - darkest areas outlines

If I want to get any good at blocking in sketches, I probably should start with an easier subject matter, and work my way up to portraits. Here’s my sketch (and its process video).

As soon as I go a little more in the direction of stylized drawing, I find the quality of it increasing. This sketch is loosely based on Preston Blaire’s animation drawing, using a reference photo to get the details in. I’m somewhat pleased with the result, but know I can do much better.