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Desert scene in a minimalistic pixel art style, for a Talk Retro site redesign.

Available as a high quality art print.

More images: MetinSeven.com.

The electronic musician — pixel artwork in a minimalistic style.

Available as a high-quality art print.

More images: MetinSeven.com.

Retromania — 3D pixel (voxel) art tribute to the 8-bit gaming era.
Available as a high-quality art print.

More images: MetinSeven.com.

eBoy (“Godfathers of Pixel“) is a pixel art group founded in 1997 by Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig and Svend Smital.

Their complex illustrations have been made into posters, shirts, souvenirs, and displayed in gallery exhibitions.^[1] They were founded on May 2, 1997. “We started working with pixels because we loved the idea of making pictures only for the screen. It’s the best way to get really sharp and clean looking results. Also, handling pixels is fun and you are forced to simplify and abstract things, which is a big advantage of this technique.” ^[1] eBoy is based in Berlin (Germany) and Vancouver (Canada).

Their influences come from: “Pop culture… shopping, supermarkets, TV, toy commercials, LEGO, computer games, the news, magazines…”^[2] Kai grew up with Nintendo to inspire him, the rest of the eBoys lived in East Germany where video games did not exist.^[3] Their work makes intense use of popular culture and commercial icons, and their style is presented in three-dimensional isometric illustrations filled with robots, cars, guns and girls. Now, most of their designs are printed and not used solely for computer screens, allowing images to get more complex with details.^[1]“If we don’t work on other projects at the same time it takes about six to eight weeks to finish a very detailed cityscape, three eBoy’s working on it, nearly full time. But, if we have to do it in our spare time, which happens often, it could take years to finish a picture since we can’t spend so much time on it.”^[1] Their style has gained them a cult following among graphic designers worldwide,^[1] as well as a long list of commercial clients. Their latest project are plastic Peecol toys with Kidrobot, and a line of wooden toys are to be produced under their own label.

Source: Wikipedia

Visit Eboy’s web site here.

Check out Amazon for Eboy Posters

So at SPX a few weeks ago, Jim Rugg walked by with a giant Sam Vanallemeersch book (Big Mother #2, from Nobrow Press), which of course sold out before I could get one. Vanallemeersch is no stranger to readers of Drawn—or even me; I’ve been following his Flickr for awhile, have seen his stuff here and there, and liked it. But something about looking through that book made my hair stand up a little; nothing beats a book for a tactile, visceral experience.

So anyway, I got home and started looking him up, and found a bunch of gorgeous, frenetic, manic drawings like the one above, very much in line with what I’d responded to so much in Big Mother. But somehow I had never made the connection between Vanallemeersch’s textured, inky, organic drawing and his second “Kolchoz” style, which is an incredibly polished, shape and color-based approach. Not quite the opposite of the organic style, but a kind of mirror version. Like what if a robot, programmed with everything Vanallemeersch knows about drawing, color, and movement, then struck with some sort of divine lightning, were to create? Look at this, the first image of a eyeball-withering long horizontal scroll, on Vanallemeersch’s Kolchoz site:

It’s a beautiful drawing, right? But when I tried to open it up on my computer, I found something crazy: it’s essentially pixel art! 

Now, pixel art by itself is not such a new exciting thing. I mean, this is gorgeous and everything, sure. But as someone who draws all day, who knows a bunch of drawers, who sees drawings and makes drawings and blogs about drawings, sometimes it’s hard to get excited about drawings. But this duality, the mirroring of Sam Vanallemeersch into chaotic-but-sensible organic drawings, and these inorganic-but-insane ordered drawings—something about those two things going on in the same brain makes both more interesting. You end up looking closer at each to discern the other, does that make sense? 

The funny thing is, I emailed Sam to ask him a bunch of breathless questions, and he was appreciative but maybe not as excited about his illustration “clean” style. Which is fair, of course. Heck, you can feel anyway you like about whatever you like. But it reminds me of something I read somewhere about illustrators keeping a single sketchbook, rather than having a “work” sketchbook and a “personal” sketchbook. So all your ideas and tryouts and mistakes inform and feed each other, rather than existing in two walled cities, stagnating. Is that what Sam’s doing? I’m not sure, but if he is, there’s definitely a tunnel between the two and some trade going on; a subterranean Athens-Sparta Railroad. 

My favorite thing was this: while trying to figure out how to get screencaps of 72dpi pixel art up close, I ended up looking closely at that first image:

I love it! Art is great for looking at and learning from and talking about and all that, but there’s something really enervating and human about seeing someone’s brain at work. Definitely am looking for anything with Sam Vanallemeersch’s name on it, whether it’s the hard-to-spell regular version, or under Kolchoz. 

Fox Retro (by PUNGA)

Trexels - Star Trek Pixel Art by John Martz and Koyama Press

I made this print with Koyama Press, featuring 235 Star Trek characters in pixelated form. Can you name them all? We’re giving away two copies to the Trekkies with the best guesses. The print debuts at MoCCA in New York this weekend, and then officially goes on sale a week from today.

Audience Calibration Procedure (by Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery )

The latest mysterious trailer for Suprbrothers’ (aka Craig Adams’s) iOS app Sword & Swocery EP. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this game. Superbrothers’ deft use of pixel art with Jim Guthrie’s music? Sign me up.

Superbrothers really understands the idea of videogames as an experience and as interactive art, as evidenced by an essay on BoingBoing I revisit frequently: Less Talk, More Rock.

I linked to it recently on my personal blog where I said:

It’s a thoughtful piece about how to communicate ideas and emotions effectively in games by eliminating the “disruptive talk” — the exposition, the hand-holding, and the noise. I think it’s a solid philosophy for all creative work.

Pixel Film:Oo. (by garth+ginny)

Simple, adorable, hilarious. And there’s more where that came from. Visit Garth and Ginny’s website.

Design of a 3D pixel style character and racing car for an Apple iPhone game in a 3D pixel style. Details will follow.

You're invited to sevensheaven.nl for an extended impression.

The pixel-kings of isometry, eBoy have released this tilting iPhone game. You can try the game on this site if you don’t have an iPhone or any of that other hardware.

Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: eboy, games, iphone, Pixel Art

My latest stuff ...

Product design as a cartoon for a Nu.nl news article about the rapper Snoop Dogg performing in the Netherlands:



Retro 1980s video game console poster design (with a hint of Art Deco) featuring the characteristic Atari 2600 joystick:



Sevensheaven images and prints are for sale at sevensheaven.nl

If there’s one thing I love about the iPhone, it’s a resurgence in casual, pixely, retro gaming. I am really looking forward to The Incident, an upcoming game by Matt Comi and Neven Mrgan of Big Bucket Software. It’s like some hyper hybrid of Tetris, Katamari Damacy, and Super Mario Bros.

Here’s a video of the actual gameplay:

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Matt Comi, Neven Mrgan, Pixel Art, video games

Toronto pixel artist Superbrothers has once again teamed up with musician Jim Guthrie, this time for an epic upcoming animated iPhone game called Sword and Sworcery.

It’s still unreleased, so we will all have to wait impatiently until we can get our hands on it.

Edit:
Not five minutes after posting this, I came upon a link to Less Talk, More Rock, a fantastic visual essay by Superbrothers on the language of video games. More than this, it is a look at how to improve any creative process or method of storytelling — stop talking, start rocking. (via Tony Cliff on Twitter)

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Animation, gaming, iphone, Pixel Art, superbrothers, video

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this. The featured game is Donkey Kong from Nintendo, a classic 8-bit video game for the arcades, released in 1981.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for more imagery.

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this. The featured game is Donkey Kong from Nintendo, a classic 8-bit video game for the arcades, released in 1981.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for more imagery.

Illustration and design of an alternative poster for the Disney-Pixar animation film Monsters, Inc.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

Argentinean animator Leo Campasso is 21 years old, and has been animating in Flash since he was 12. His latest short, Wild Wind cleverly combines pixel art with traditional animaton. It’s a perfect fusion of 80-bit video games and saturday morning cartoons.

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Animation, Leo Campasso, Pixel Art

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this.

The featured game is Space Invaders from Taito and Midway, a classic 8-bit video game for the arcades, released in 1978.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

How great are these mini pixel portraits? Very Important Pixels are created by Beligan designer Kristof Saelen who offers up a new set every week. What I find remarkable is that the recognizability of these portraits is due not just to choosing iconic characters; Kristof manages to capture each person’s true likeness in that tiny grid of pixels.

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Caricature, Kristof Saelen, Pixel Art, portraiture

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this.

The featured game is Galaga from Universal Games, a classic 8-bit game for the arcades, released in 1981.

Would be great to see a series of these scenes realized as 3D pixel games or tangible designer gadgets. If anyone is interested to realize that, just get in touch with me.

More 3D pixel creations at Sevensheaven.nl.

Join me at Twitter [I mainly write in the Dutch language].

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this.

The featured game is Galaga from Namco, a classic 8-bit game for the arcades, released in 1981.

Would be great to see a series of these scenes released as tangible designer gadgets. If anyone is interested to realize that, just get in touch with me. I can deliver the 3D scenes ready for rapid prototyping.

You can find my other 3D pixel artworks over here.

Adam and Eve in 3D pixels.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

Artist Jay Epperson has been posting lots of concept art that he created and art directed for the Nintendo DS game Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. Check out his blog for background paintings, character designs, sketches, pixel art, and more.