Simplification in pixel art is king

in Pixelartlast year

Shopping Staples

This is actually one of the first big pixel artworks I made a couple of years ago, to teach myself some basics.

Problems with pixel art I often notice are people (including me) either overcomplicate it or try to make it look as close to real-life/reference as possible, which isn't the reason pixel art exists in the first place.

Here is the reference photo btw. This is what a friend buys for her family of four:
Reference photo (used with owner's permission)

Complex looking, isn't it?

Simplification is king.

Here lies the problem. You see a work above and it looks complex (I have to agree here, Broccoli, apples, and carrots are a bit too much tbh).

But if you look at the mushrooms, tomatoes, and yams, you might notice they are simple, made only with 2-4 colors each (not counting the outlines).

Mushrooms close up

It is hard to let go of the details for me, but when I do some magical things start to happen :)

For all of the times, one thing I learned is to start with a composition thumbnail instead of diving right into the work.

This was supposed to work as a composition map for the objects
As you can see above, I was planning to include everything...

Everything!

Blocked out main colors and silhouettes of each item

Starting with a silhouette of an object or a character can help with coherence later on. The details won't matter as much later on if an item is easy to recognize from its shape.

Some details added on the rice bag, yams and apples

Apples were one of the first things I've made. Tbh I like them the least because of the details :D Too many orphaned pixels to show their texture. Yams on the other hand turned out cool.

The rice bag was difficult because I wanted to render the plastic properly and that requires more complex shading.

Close-up of rice bag with proper shading

At this point, I realized I had too many items to work on, and rearranged the composition.

Phew glad I've decided to cut down on half of them or this work would never get finished!

Tomatoes only have 4 colors

After choosing which objects to leave and which to toss, I ended up moving the Soy milk pack to the sweet potatoes.
At this stage I've also changed the background color for a darker value.

It was all straight forward after that, with carrots, shadows and floor pattern being the last things added.

Screenshot of the Aseprite workspace

There were tons of layers in this one :D

I still have a long way to go to get better at organizing layers and workflows. It's especially important since I want to do more animation and eventually work on an indie game, either my own or team up with someone else :)

Sort:  

You’re a beast with it. I could totally see your work as a game design lead or even some pieces going for a lot as individuals.

What I thought of just now, I might really commission you for: small illustrations for my website landing page. Maybe a camera or a chapter of manga. Who knows?

Hope you feel better, but still glad the time off has let you share more! ⚡️🔥

Hey yeah :) dm me about the webpage some details about the dimensions etc.

health is honestly perplexing... i hope i can make more of these while i have the time, and get faster :)

That's soo amiazing, I liked it so much.

thank you:) what do you like about it so much?

Congratulations @pxlmitsu! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You received more than 100 HP as payout for your posts, comments and curation.
Your next payout target is 250 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because post and comment rewards can be split into HP and HBD

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Check out our last posts:

Hive Power Up Day - April 1st 2023
Happy Birthday to the Hive Community
The Hive Gamification Proposal
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!

STOP

Notifications have been disabled. Sorry if I bothered you.
To reactivate notifications, drop me a comment with the word NOTIFY

You did a great work, it's looks just the same and even more smarter than the original picture taken, nice job friend.

thanks dude!

You are welcome