I first came across Pixel Art (in print form, not on-screen) in a picture shown to me by local artist and entrepreneur Johnny Lau in 2002. Back then, he was showing us the types of artwork an illustrator like him could do after a successful run of Mr Kiasu comic books. I only found out recently that this kind of art was called 'pixel art' and that the illustration I saw most likely originated from the E-Boy group based in Germany, with an impressive track record and list of clients. They even published their portfolio! Here's the blurb from Amazon.com
Eboy (Paperback)by eBoy
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Te Neues Publishing Company (July 2002)
Language: English
ISBN: 1856693031
Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.1 x 1.5 inches
"Famous for their illustration, web design, fonts and games, eBoy have a cult following internationally.The eBoy world is unique, populated by robots, cars, guns and girls, all built up out of thousands of pixels. This is the first book devoted to their work, and with 500 pages it is the eBoy bible, containing their complete image database. Three quarters of the book is devoted to pixel-based work, and the other quarter to vector images by Peter Stemmler.
The images shown include eBoy's trademark eCities. Inspired by a love of buildings and architecture and the challenge of endlessly recombing different urban elements, these are painstakingly detailed and abound with monsters, seedy bars and porno cinemas. Another eBoy innovation is Peecol, an online project which invites users to recombine elements of images to form new ones.
Inspired by popular culture--shopping, supermarkets, televisions, LEGO, computer games--eBoy's imagery is colorful, funny, subversive and startlingly original. "
More recently, I've noticed that SIM or its ad agency has also commissioned E-Boy to do a custom job. Check it out at: http://buildyourownfuture.info/index.html
There's also a local online game/forum called Habbo Hotel with a similar art form: http://www.habbohotel.com.sg/habbo/en
There's also an brilliant US-based Indian chap who's regarded by some as a Flash animation guru. In his site, there's a section devoted to pixel art: http://www.kirupa.com/lab/kville/index.htm
I like pixel art, partly because of the retro look, and partly because of the 'reusable art' concept.
Websites:
E-Boy
Kirupa Ville
http://www.kirupa.com/lab/kville/index.htm
Habbo Hotel
http://www.habbohotel.com.sg/habbo/en
Singapore Institute of Management - Build your own future at SIM
http://buildyourownfuture.info/index.html
3 useful comments:
eBoy is what got me into creating pixel art as well. Amazing stuff there. You should also check out www.pixeljoint.com - a pixel art community with some amazing artists.
Hello.. don't forget: halshag.com and city creator
Pixel art, for tech fans like me, is the epitome of web-delivered eye candy.
While the details might be fine-tuned pixel per pixel, I can't help but to think these talented creators have tools to speed up things on the huge canvases they publish.
What I like the most is "animated" pixel art ; )
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