Hobby - Pixel Word

Something I have picked up a little bit here is improving my art skills.  Working at this particular school has allowed me somewhat the time to work on expanding my art horizons.  Something of interest has been pixel art.  A picture is made up of thousands of small dots.  Each dot is a different color.  A pixel artist can draw and create pictures one small dot at a time.  I like to use the simple paint program that every windows computer has. You simply zoom in to the max, grab a paint brush, and start making dots.  The "mannequin" I use is a basic avatar body from the website Menewsha.com.  I want to show you my silly attempts at fashion, shading, and such that I have done.

Seriously, this was a lovely way to spend my Sunday.  Hours went by without me ever noticing.  My first attempt was decent.  I continued to attempt to improve upon it though.

This was an attempt to improve shading, light direction, and have fun at the same time.  I wanted to prove that Menewsha could incorporate riding animals into their avatars.  I presented this idea to the forum and got a mixed response from the art world.  Some felt it was innovative since the "mannequin" appears to be riding even though she is standing.  Others focused on my color choice and warned that less colors is what makes the pixel art beautiful.  So I moved on and tried again.

I was told that my art needed to stay within a color scheme, so I tried again and with each shade following the "Atlantis" color scheme.  I didn't like it since the darkest shade was too dark.  Learned later that I had not needed to be so literal and used every color in the scheme.

Armed this time with a color palette AND common sense, I worked to keep the theme "emerald" but ended up adding the secondary color as well.  As you can see, I expanded beyond a simple skirt or pants.  There are more details here and the skirt length is kept more proportioned.

So yeah, every few weeks I set aside my books, grading, lesson plans, and traditional drawing for a more electronic source of art.  It is one of many art forms I have found I enjoy simply for doing it.  There is no reward or goals.  I create art simply for the art itself.