Pixel art

Between September 18 and October 20 this year my account’s level on the Divoom app shot up from 17 to 59. I managed to draw commemorative pixel art up to level 57, included, before the bug got fixed, and the level was demoted to 17. It feels a bit harsh, though.

When someone else reviews a new photo frame on YT and one’s pixel art is casually shown by the reviewer, one can’t but feel like proud of oneself. At least, I felt that way, searching for a review of the new 10.1 inch Divoom Time Frame, and found this video by Marc The Geek.

Rolling Down Without End, a Penrose staircase.

Here’s the animation celebrating that I reached level 30 in the Divoom community yesterday. No other artist has reached this level yet, and some are on the platform since 2021 (I only 9 months). I suppose posting on average more than once a day, and being recommended by the staff a lot helped.

I removed my image archive with Pixoo64 gifs from micro∙blog, because it didn’t work for me. I’m moving them (slowly) to my Flickr account. Flickr has its problems with animated gifs, but management isn’t one of those; on micro∙blog there’s no management for large (100+) collections.

I’m about to reach level 30 in the Divoom community, higher than any expert artist of the app, much more skilled than me at pixel art. I suppose I happened to tick the right boxes with the algorithm, since I’m only using the app since Christmas 2024, and most experts since 2021 or so. Anyway, I made a rough animatic based on a rough sketch with all the key poses, and made a pixel animation from the frames.

I will share the finished pixel animation if and when I’m awarded level 30.

Here is a process video of the sketch I did of the dragon from Bubble Bobble, and next the 64 x 64 pixel art animation of said sketch.

Since it’s inspired by his self-portrait, I call this one “Vincent.”

Heads are going to roll. No idea why.

Serving smoothies endlessly on my Pixoo-64 64 x 64 pixel art frame. Drawn in Procreate on an iPad.

I drew this stylized head of B.A. Baracus of the 1980s hit series The A-Team, played by Mr T.

It seems the basis of good 2D animation is solid drawing skills. Without it, the result will be poor, or, at best, occasionally hit, but mostly miss. I know where to spend my time in the coming months. I only hope I don’t lose my Divoom Master Pixel Artist status with still images.

I made a rough animation in the Animatic app on iPad and traced the frames into a pixel animation with Pixaki. It took much longer than I expected, but I’m pleased with the (very rough) result running on my Pixoo64 LED panel.

I’ll be running a marathon on 13 April 2025. It almost didn’t happen because of injuries, which only healed a week ago. To celebrate in advance I made this jumble of legs, arms, and a confused head. Its animation lives on the Divoom community, where I became a master pixel artist, also this week.

Using Quick Poses I found a reference for a pose. After pixeling the nude I put some clothes on her to avoid flagging on the Divoom community. BTW, it wasn’t quick at all.

A larger piece, and Fate/Apocrypha fan art. I know I can do better, if I weren’t so out of practice. I also might have traced a little to get it done, after spending more than 12 hours on it today,

It’s been a while since I posted some pixel art on here, while I’ve been inundating the Divoom community with my creations, being mostly recommended by the staff. I don’t judge it high art, but I can see why they want to see more of it. Most don’t seem to post anything, or at best it’s low-effort.

The @pixeldailies.bsky.social #PixelDailies theme was #ladder Link has to climb the ultimate infinite ladder.

I suppose if you always play it safe (read: draw for more likes), you will never learn new things, and keep repeating old things until you’ve bored and stop creating. For me, this is a place of experimentation, finding your artistic limits, go beyond them, then dial back a bit.

I started a new project in Procreate for pixel art. I already made a rough sketch and applied base colors (white, green and light-brown). It will become a 64 x 64 pixels piece for my Pixoo64. It’s been a while since I did a landscape, so it will be a challenge to finish it. Here’s a WIP.