For a while now I wanted to start and try out with pixel art. It has a very unique charm to it and with the relatively easy “getting-in” process (open Photoshop and draw pixels) I just tried it out. Before working on a whole artwork, I tested around and practiced with random objects I drew.
For example the first batch of random objects were medieval weapons and shields. What I learned is that I struggle with humanoid figures and proportions so that’s something to I have to keep in mind in the future. Hopefully with practice that stuff gets easier.
And with of course completely overestimating my abilities I just said fuck it and do something a bit bigger. For starters I love the movie Arrival by Denis Villeneuve and thought that it would be great inspo for what was obviously my real try at doing pixel art and in doing “an artwork” besides photography for a long time. But I had a plan in mind and the creative energy to create something. I firstly laid out a rough sketch of what I want.
I want two people in hazmat-suits standing in front of the big white foggy window where they meet the heptapods. I initially also wanted the birdcage and camera crew to the side but I ultimately decided against it so the focus stays with the protagonists.
On the positive side is that I did not really have to draw a human, just a humanoid something in a bulky suit what made it a lot easier for me. So for the first sketch I decided to have the window, the protagonists and just somewhat accurate lines resembling the wall structure. I began with the window and fleshed it out because it mainly stayed out work of the rest of the artwork. I cheated here and drew multiple layers with a big freckled brush rough shapes, then blurred them with the gaussian blur and pixelated that with the mosaic-effect on 2px. It looks good so I kept it. For the wall and ground textures I drew a million lines horizontal and vertical for each surface in a single color and copy pasted that layer multiple times with different colours. I struggled so hard with the rounded corners and I am still not really satisfied with them but I needed to focus on something else. Fleshing out the hazmat-suits was really refreshing after that wall texture monotony. In the Movie the colour of the suits do not *pop* like that in the scene I had in mind but here I am and just doing those cool colours anyway.
There wasn’t a lot to do now that the peops and walls were basically completed. I added shadows to them and added a slight glow effect to the window. one of the last things I added was the lighter more reflecting textures on the ground and ceiling. Adding multiple outer layers of fog was done in the same way as the fog in the window but with a radial mask so it fades out the way out of the frame. Before adding the finishing touches I added a very subtle hint of “heptapods” to the window.
So now that I’ve talked about it all this time, how about I show the finished artwork called “First Contact” by Jacob Keilhauer created in a single 6h pixel-art session in my bed on the 9th december of 2024.
