Don’t throw away your toilet rolls, you can still use them!
For your pixelly art project of course :)
A tutorial on how to make this is here!
Lego heads
November 24, 2009
Greensoft from greensart.nl runs a pixel art collaboration on deviantart.com!
The challenge is to create a lego face with the given palette and face template. Good luck!
Some inspiration from other entries:
By the collaboration creator: Greensoft
“Was fun to do, something relatively simple” – Neoriceisgood
It only takes a few minutes to make these, but it can be very very fun to do :). Give them character and personality, make them original, and send your entries to greensoft.
Coloring lineart
November 20, 2009
There are quite a few people allowing their linearts to be colored by other people.
What can you do with these? How can you make the artworks unique, while respecting the original?
Personally, when I color other peoples work, I am having a big problem on figuring where to start.
The people who made the linearts work in a totally different way than I do, so it feels unnatural. Also, I can often not imagine how those drawings would look colored, while I can with my own work.
I might paint over it, again and again. But how do other people do it?
Last week, the pixeljoint challenge was to color one of arachnes linearts.
I send out quite a few requests for comments on artworks from the creators. I got a lot more replies than I had expected! To keep the article interesting I decided to not put in all replies I got. I am sorry for that.
However, in this article you can find all the art works and their full descriptions. So for more inspiration, please go there!
I am going to feature some of the entries, and say what I think of them. Read on!
Okay, so here are two completely different versions of the same creature.
The first one is made by Elk, the second by Jeremy. The original lineart is here.
In the first one, Elk gave the creature a beautiful shiny skin. Defining each scale, making it look like something snakelike. Set on a beach in a shining sun, it gives the feel of an chameleon too.
Elk:
“My aim is to create realistic pieces with alot of depth fusing the object (outline) with the background seemingless. Realism is important for me there to make it pretty and appealing for the viewer, the balance of colors within the picture (different saturation in objects i.e), being not 100% accurate but still calm for the eye.”
Jeremy however clearly did not go for Realism. A distinct color style, defining every muscle. It stands out very well on the dark background!
Jeremy:
“I liked the challenge, it was quite different in that the focus was on rendering rather than form, but not inhibiting creativity.
Comparing my version to Arachne’s work, colours and rendering style are the biggest difference, Arachne uses her flawless dithering, something I’ve found it’s best for me to avoid ;D
My colours were dictated by the *wonderful* Microsoft XP Paint Palette, which is pretty much the opposite to Arachne’s more muted tones.”
Something funny I noticed: While the original lineart pupil is round, Jeremys eye is a horizontal line, Elks a vertical one ;)
Again 2 very different images! Thanks HMC (first) and Jumpei (Second)! Original lineart here.
The first one shows a high contrast, smooth and slimy monster, in a desert setting. Very well chosen colors! The blue>green>yellow works great here!
Of course, if you would like to learn something, you should study the very well placed dithering here!
The pink flowers make an original and eye catching detail.
HMC:
“I wanted to make the monster a bizarre cactus-creature.
I colored it and turned it into a plant with flowers coming out of it. Honestly, I just played around with colors until I got something I liked.”
Jumpei however did not use any dithering at all to make his version interesting!
It has a very interesting and polished wood-like texture. The original lineart is also still there, intact. He used the black of that very nicely!
Jumpei:
“Its not safe to say it is 100% mine as I only interpreted the shapes sugested by the lines, by giving the piece color and texture. The lineart was wonderfully done in a simple non binding way that gave me lots of room to create something different from the other participants.
I immediately had a general idea of doing an organic monsterous kind of tree, then I chose a base color, a color for shades and highlights.”
Comparing the two: Do you see what a difference there is by pulling the eyebrows to the front, or by making the whole eye area hollow? The volume can make quite a difference, but you are free to go in any direction you want. Linearts do not define volume!
And once more, two beautiful different entries!
The first one is made by Crusader333 and the second one by Zombi2. Original lineart here.
Again, the two are totally different. Crusader used a scary light source, and added some weird drips of pixels upside down on some places. But more interesting, he added something to the line art. The cage was not in the original, but now it is the most interesting part of the image!
Crusader333:
“Well primarily I’m quite a surreal artist and I don’t really like to take things at face value. When initially looking at all the line works I was really attracted to the ‘Bird’ , but it took me several days to come up with an idea to be able to twist it. The idea of seeing the ribs as a birdcage came to me and I couldn’t resist. I also like to place a lot of emphasis on colour choice.”
Zombi’s way of working is everything but regular too. Defining everything that was also defined in the original line art, but clearly with a hard palette to work with.
Zombi2:
“I generally make pictures in the graphical mode of the ZX Spectrum (80s home computer).
Apart from being high quality lineart, the bird is, because of the organic forms and low level of detail, quite suitable for the chosen approach. ”
I hope that you realized that there are so many ways to color something! Infinite styles and possibilities. Get inspired!
And to focus on coloring only, it can be interesting to take someone else’s line art. There is a big list of stuff thats free to take here. In the filename there is always the artists name, make sure to give proper credit if you use their lines!
For more colored line arts, have a look at this article too!
And in the comments, there is room for discussion about this article.
colours and rendering style are the biggest difference, Arachne uses her flawless dithering, something I’ve found it’s best for me to avoid ;D
Colored line arts
All original line works belong to Arachne
The article about coloring lineart is here
I was unexpectedly overflowed by responses. And not just simple responses, most people send me whole stories! And as every artwork tells a story, I would like to share them with you, the reader.
Mambazo (bazosoft.com) created this alien monster. I really enjoy the blue reflections on the red shiny ’skin’!
“Well, I’ve only done one other challenge so I’m lacking in experience there. When I saw line-art I had much trouble deciding which one to do as they were all interesting, but eventually settled for one that had more lines/details. Thats probably just laziness on my part! It is quite inspiring working with her line-art, as it is very different to anything I would created myself. They have great volume to them, even in monochrome, which is something I have trouble replicating. It was a learning experience at the same time.
I don’t really feel as though it is my work when I look at it. Its so different to anything I would do by myself.
Its heavily inspired by the early Unreal Engine III mesh screen-shots, from the tech demos. They had really nice bright back-lighting, and a softer light from the front which really made the details on the mesh’s textures pop (normal-mapping and all that jazz!). I’ve ever-since liked that lighting setup, and wanted to try and recreate that with this piece.
This piece really helped me learn more about defining volume, and a lot about lighting. With the two light sources, I was forced out of my usual shading techniques, and had to think a great deal more than I’m used to. But I’m glad I tried, it puts a new notch on my belt! I’m particularly happy with the shadow between its two left feet (our right). You can almost see the shadow-plane :)”
Fool (foolstown.com)did the usual, what he does best. Brilliant colors popping out on a dark background
“I think it is a parallel inspiration – in the book i’ve just finished there was some interesting theory about vagina dentata in its philosophical aspects. One of Arachne creatures seems to have a close appearance. They are all defenitely cool , but this one just comes along.
When it comes to visual inside you mind all is left to extract it from there.
Colors are usuall shaman’s dances – tweaking and stuff. I Can’t tell I’m happy with a curent theme, but I got a really retarded schedule right now, sleep whenever i get a chance. Ought to stop that.
See it, like it, do it. =)”
TheJoe did his best on creating this pink slimy creature. I like the combination of smooth shades and highlight with the grainy pixel clusters.
“I had a lot of fun with it. I don’t have a lot of experience with pixel art. I just treated this challenge like a page out of a coloring book and used it to work on coloring, shading, and texturing techniques that I have seen others use. I learned quite a bit with this piece but I still have a long way to go.
My original color scheme was inspired by paint jobs I have seen on Warhammer 40k Horrors of Tzeentch.
I hope to use what I’ve learned with this challenge in future works to improve myself overall as a pixel artist.”
Darchangel (www.kings-field.com) added some eyes, a nice pattern, and made that mouth very scary and dirty!
“I thought the challenge was great, I enjoyed it very much. The most interesting part, was that we all had the same starting block (the line art). Everyone’s end result is so much different.
I also think that using line art from other members of the PJ community is a good way to acknowledge their talent. Plus sometimes it’s hard to come up with good ideas, so having the line art was half the battle.
I think making it unique was all in the detailing and coloring. Ultimately you still want to make sure it remains Arachne’s line art in there somewhere.
I got the idea while looking at a World of Warcraft art book. A friend lend it to me recently, the book has great illustrations and was good inspiration. The background was the one that gave me the most trouble…it took me 2 days to come up with that idea.”
This was created by Gygrazok. I like this mysterious creature on a mysterious background. The yellow on top works very well!
“I decided to enter because I’m not that good on drawing things out of thin air, and because I loved arachne’s linearts.
I don’t think I have a particular style. I like to use unsaturated color, and I just added a few details like the veins or the red spots around the mouth to make the creature more wicked :)
When I first saw that lineart I thought of Majin Buu from dragon ball Z :) that’s why I decided to make it pinkish with dark eyes.
For the background, I used a couple of pictures as a reference, as well as some pixel arts by various artists. I think it turned out pretty good, although I’m not completely satisfied with the ground and how it blends with the character.”
GTK colored thisone with the Windows Vista Paint colors. It is among my personal favorites, probably because I just love yellow and this cell shaded style!
“My objective is above all to have of fun, I do not make a point of taking part to impress or gain (I do not have the level necessary to reach the top3 in any event) but in Pixel-Art, like the drawing in general, must remain a pleasure for me. It is also an good occasion to improve my technique.
I do not seek to be distinguished from the others absolutely, I work rather like I feel it, with a style which is appropriate to me. Sometimes, I try to try out new style, and I keep what I like.
I am not very satisfied of this one. I am content when I look at my way, I see progress, but PixelJoint abounds in many talent and since I know this website, I try to improve myself constantly. I admire particularly the work of Syosa, of .Anubis., of Bisque and of Fool (and too full other artists buy I all will not quote them, the list is too long ^^’), and my main objective is to arrive at an equivalent quality of work.”
I would like to thanks all the artists for their help and their great responses, and I would like to recommend to the reader to get inspired by these different takes on coloring line work!
Read the other article here too!
Secret Santa 09
November 17, 2009
You can sign up for Secret Santa again, at pixelation!
Secret Santa is a project where you sign up to participate. On 24 November you get a message containing a name of your secret “partner”, and you draw (pixel) a gift for him/her. You secretly send it to the administrator, and if everything works out fine everyone will get and make one present!
Have fun!
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