40 Examples Of Eye Popping Pixel Art
- Posted in DESIGN, Inspiration
- 31 Comments »
By Tim Mercer
Pixel art was brought to the mainstream with the release of gaming consoles in the early eighties. Those 8-bit graphics we all loved back then often evoke feelings of nostalgia and take us back in time. Nostalgia aside, pixel art is a beautiful art form on its own that many of us have come to love. With so few pixels to work with, pixel artist’s have to make each one count.
Today we present 40 Examples Of Eye Popping Pixel Art from some of the best pixel artists around. Be sure to check out their sites for more of their amazing work.
Beautiful Pixel Art
R Grillotti
Grillotti uses every pixel perfectly in this rendition of The Birth Of Venus.
Another pixel masterpiece from Grillotti’s model series.
I love these large pixel paintings. Each pixel must be place just right to get the desired results.
Snake
This piece is full of detail and has great shadowing.
Great lighting and vivid colors make this one a standout.
Autumn Pixels
This stunning beauty shows the artist’s mastery of the pixel art form. It has very smooth form and shading.
It’s almost hard to believe this is pixel art with its soft textures.
Lief
This image was created using only eight colors.
Ryan-GFX
This little scene looks like something straight out of the old 16-bit video game days.
This isometric design of Mr. Burns’ casino is complete with a parked limo.
Sven Ruthner
This one reminds me of an Andy Warhol painting with its bright colors and faces.
This piece has awesome character design and charm.
Jamon
The misty atmosphere and low angle of view make this one great.
Endigo
This one has an unusual color pallet and lots of attitude.
Paul Robertson
This one has lots of Sega characters and a cool background.
Another piece from Paul full of action.
Army of Trolls
This one’s got everything from Papa Smurf to Mario. Can you spot Link from Zelda?
Rod Hunt
Great concept and use of color.
Another solid concept for Rod. Robots controlling a larger robot from inside.
Derek Yu
This one gives a whole new meaning to gorilla warfare.
A great design of a mechanical monkey.
Flip Flop Flying
The large pixels give this piece an impressionistic feel.
Seven Heavens
This piece takes pixel art into the third dimension. Dig Dug never looked so cool.
Another trip into 3D. This time it’s Galaga.
Eboy
Eboy is well know for its pixel art and you can see why in this one below.
This awesome little pagoda is full of the Eboy charm.
This piece was for a Coca-Cola advertisement. You can spend a long time exploring all the details.
Tim
This isometric design is just awesome. I love the 3D quality it has.
Another great piece from Tim. It’s like a 16-bit Robinson Caruso.
Tomec
The Blues Brothers look awesome in pixels. The purple highlights make me imagine a nightclub just off to the right.
This fantastic Monkey Island piece has a really cool transition from night to day.
Gunstar Red
This is a mock-up of a video game. Check out the pixel patterns use to make the gradient in the background.
Another great mock-up from Gunstar Red. Great cartoon style.
Bugpixel
This isometric building has enough details to keep you looking for quite a while.
The texture and shading on this balloon are just amazing.
Tom Schieter
This piece is loaded with details. Notice the water splashes and little fish.
This wonderful visage looks great with its muted tones.
Fool
Awesome character design and excellent textures make this one a favorite.
This one by Fool is simple stunning. The atmosphere, concept, color pallet and details are truly inspiring.
Another great character full of whimsy and charm.
Further resources
Create your own pixels with the pixel toy.
Check out a pixel map of Hong Kong.
Pixel art tutorials to get you started.
Pixel art forum and galleries.
Somebody should do a pixelated pac-man in 3D…
Isn’t anything displayed on a computer screen technically pixel “art”?
funny remark
no. pixel art describe a particular subcategory of digital artwork that focuses on the artist’s complete control of the image at the pixel level, meaning the artist makes conscious decisions about all or most of the pixels on screen, without the aid of automated tools and processes.
Pixel sculpture:
http://www.michaelwhiting.com/
Fantastic!. I loved the Gunstar Red’s work!
Wow I have never looked so closely at this sort of art, being more interested in photo reality. However a good number of these are truly excellent and all deserve praise and exposure thanks for the share!
BTW thanks Rob for the URL.
Wonderful collection ! Loved the work of Eboy, Coca-Cola ad is awesome.
This king of graphic are great I really like, but I think this king of stuff can only be appreciated by graphic or design guys everyone else can say mmm way it look like that jaja anyway I think people that visit this site are conscious enough of these kind of work :)
Nice collection and inspiring. Thanks for sharing.
Great work but gonna use such Pixlated images in commercial environment :)
a few pics of a space invader painted by my self in a wall of my house.
http://changodescalabrado.blogspot.com/2009/06/un-space-invader-en-casa.html
“This piece is full of detail and has GREAT SHADOWING.”
I guess the pun was intended, because it was very clever. (For those who don’t know , the illustration is based on the masterpiece videogame “Shadow of the Colossus”.)
If you like Paul Robertson’s pixel art, you should definitely check out his amazing pixel art film, “Kings of Power 4 Billion %”. It’s very gory but the detail is amazing and it’s just incredibly long and complex.
You can download it for free from his journal:
probertson.livejournal.com/23973.html?page=5
Wow, I had so little non-commercial exposure to the great artwork being done in this style.
Really cool to see something so high quality and new!
Quite easily my fave blog article recently. A lot of great stuff here, feeling inspirational.
Nice stuff but the Rod Hunt stuff is vector, not pixel art.
Agreed – Rod hunt’s is definitely not pixels. A few other look like they might be as well. Just low resolution enlarged? Dunno.
All great pieces regardless.
all the “real pixelart” has been done by hand. You can check pixeljoint.com if you don’t believe me.
some of these are just amazing!
Cool examples! I remember there used to be a whole pixel art layout fad a couple years ago when personal blogs were starting to be a trend. Some of them were quite well made.
I call it the work of ants… hardworking and amazing.
“old is gold” in this beautiful article.
This looks good on tshirt also.. thanks for sharing!
These are awesome, I’ve always been a big fan of pixel art
Incredible site, where did you come up with the data in this post? I am lucky that I found it. i’m going to be checking back again quickly to view what other blog posts you’ve got.
pixeljoint and wayofthepixel.
I’m missing a lot of good pixelartists in this post which is a shame “but obviously you can’t show all of them”.
Anyways Rod Hunt’s work doesn’t have anything to do with pixelart/voxelart “voxels are 3d pixels”. And “gunstarred” and “armyoftrolls” are the same person.
Reminds me of the nintendo days ;)
Have you ever been to http://www.pixeltemple.com? Pixeltemple has some nice pixelart works too! They use to say “Pixel & Art”!
Cheers,
Cospefogo.
lovely pixelated work i like it