Pixel Art; Monday 21st January
Thumbnailing ideas; nature themed to link with Zine idea.
Classic illustration workflow
Thumbnailing
Sketching
Colouring- Environmental- lighting- volume- form- shadow- reflected light- global colour- materials/texture- (glossy surface- highlight)
Environmental effect -Texture
= Rendering ( the final stage ) could be hand rendered too using paint or other materials.
Tips on how to create a visually effective pixel art character or object-
Production- Photoshop – Pencil Tool = crisp results
The brush tool- anti aliasing- adds different hues and tones
Use true solid colours
Limited Resolution
Limited colour palette
Superior thumbnail – how effective it is.
Working with the silhouette – it makes it recognisable to the viewer- quite important –
“Does the silhouette communicate the message I want it to?”
“Can I exaggerate that?”
“Can I simplify it?”
“If its complex does it still read properly?”
- Readability
- Message
- stylise
- exaggeration
- simplification
- composition
Starting off with the canvas size, we set up the canvas to 32 by 32 Pixel, a small format. This was the first time I have ever done pixel art, so I wasn’t familiar with the process.
Using the pencil tool rather than the brush with the anti aliasing turned off so it’s only showing one hue. You can see when anti aliasing is turned on, because when you’ve drawn a shape, photoshop add extra hues and tones of the colour surrounding the main pixel.
Initially I found this process quite hard, as I haven’t done any Pixel art and I’m not so used to drawing digitally. Will suggested I drew my ideas down on paper first, and this worked better for me. I think because I am so used to pencil to paper I struggle a lot with digital art,
After researching and sketching my into my logbook I decided to go with the chunky cat, I thought I could emphasise shape and form better. I think I was quite successful with the silhouette, I think it reads well to the audience too.
As you can see at the top of the page I explored the silhouette of a cat, highlighting main features, like a cats ears or their tail, This being because the features is what defined the animal.
I used quite energetic compositions to begin with which appeared quite elegant and had a sense of movement too but then wanted to stylise this one differently, making a fatter, rounder cat instead.
One layer per each light quality/source. Once your happy with the silhouette you can start to think about stage two, adding colour but first thinking of where the light source is coming from, I decided to put the sun at the top right of the format.
So ensuring you have made a new layer you can adjust the colour to a darker tone and start to think about where shadows will be, this gives the pixelated design more sense of depth and volume, especially when you add the highlights as well but make sure its on a new layer each time.
Overall I am happy with how my pixel cat turned out, I really enjoyed creating this and learning the new skills, I feel like this is helpful for any future digital drawings and could even benefit this within my pencil drawings.
Kherree 