Art

Games can (and should) have great artwork, but for gameplay it does nothing; players soon look past it if the game is any good. Something I learned from A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster.
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This is one of those random scribbles and then make something out of it. Maybe I’m reaching the bottom of the barrel here.
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Sometimes what I draw doesn’t make sense to me. Then after some time it begins to make sense, somewhat. My fantasy is weird, non-productive. I like the colors, though.
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This pixel art was crushed from 81.920 bytes into 3.473 bytes. It’s an Amiga LowRes 320 by 256 pixels drawing with 3 bit planes (8 colors), representing a rooster.
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For some reason, I can make art on the RPi using an old Amiga LowRes format. I suppose it’s the limitations that stimulate my creativity, while with the full-blown iPad I’m still struggling because of the many options. Meaning, I have to think much harder before drawing on the RPi.
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I suppose I still need to practice (a lot more) to reach a pro level of art. Is it a duck or an ostrich, or something else altogether? 🤷 If it’s a duck, it’s fugly!
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I suppose with an iPad Pro 11 inch, and Apple Pencil 2 I can myself a “pro” now. At least I have added to Apple’s bottom line. They needed my contribution, surely. 🤣
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Maybe the last time for a while I drew with Multipaint from scratch, full of errors and slowness. Tomorrow I’ll go buy my replacement iPad.
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Doing all this drawing by mouse, cramping up my wrist, made me realize how dependent I am on an iPad with stylus. I realize a regular iPad is inadequate for my needs. Then a 256 GB M1 iPad Air is only €100 less than a 128 GB M1 iPad Pro. Only the Pro has Promotion⸺a must for artists.

😩 Decisions²

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Work in progress. I’m working with a mouse in Multipaint on my RPi.

What is he so happy about? I know, and you may too, once I’m done pushing pixels and uploaded it to my blog.
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A “little” thing as a broken iPad won’t stop me from making art. I made this when the iPad was almost gone.

And the other piece I made with a PETSCII editor on my RPi, based on a piece I did earlier this month.

Not having a backup for my Raspberry Pi makes me a bit nervous, as it should
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Analyzing @hutaffe’s (free) avatar from Make A pirate was a bit convoluted on my part…

Anyway, 100 by 100 pixel art, scaled up 8 times, with 53 unique colors, in isometric perspective, so typical for 2D games nowadays.

There’s a story here, stereotypical even, though better than I can ATM. 💡👾

This was taxing my iPad. Youtube in Safari with adblocker as picture in picture on top of a drawing app. The strokes had to be placed tactically to allow for overall sluggishness. Also, very distractive drawing and watching a video.
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As Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the eighties have taught us, cats can without most clothes, except the most essential, like a hat or a cane.
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Sometimes limitation breeds creativity; usually frustration, though. The latter is often left out, rationalizing it as “part of the process.”

Drawn, but not copied 😇, from a photo. Six-color palette based on C64 colors. Drawn in ibisPaint X in roughly 5 hours, including a failed attempt.
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While sketching this kitten I wondered how I could do away with all those lines. So I tried to eliminate as much as I dared. I’m sure more could be removed still. However, now the result was pretty “bland.” I suppose color has to do the brunt of the work, and there is too little of that.
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I find it always such a surprise how a pixel art drawing I made subtly (or sometimes radically) changes to conform to the rigors of the C64 multicolor bitmap.

Other than that, I used some of the edging techniques (sharp, lost and soft edges). So there’s that too. Happy 😊 camper here!
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Searching on Flickr for Creative Commons photos of kittens I found this cute black and white one. I used it as reference for my C64 hi-res bitmap pixel art drawing.

Sometimes less color is better. Especially if the one depicted is staring into your soul.
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I didn’t get to experiment with edges. Still, I drew something I love, so that’s good.

Maybe advice from an oil painter doesn’t translate all that well to pixel art. Pixel art has more in common with decorative art (like embroidery) than with traditional art you can hang on a wall.
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Sometimes (read: often) I get distracted by an interesting bit of art-making fundamentals, try to apply it, then get totally side-stepped by the intracies of drawing from a cute photo, forgetting what I wanted to try out in the first place. The creative process never seems to go in a straight line.
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