Pixel Art Drawing History

The Little History of Pixel Art Drawing

As old as computing, Pixel art drawing is today considered a full-fledged art! Composed of small colored squares, it manages to seduce amateur artists, as well as professionals. In digital version, on paper, or even on our cities' walls… there are as many ways to approach Pixel art as there are artists who indulge in its practice! Definition, origin and famous Pixel artist… here's the little history of Pixel art drawing.

What is Pixel Art Drawing?

It's difficult to approach the Pixel art question if we don't know what a pixel is! So let's start at the beginning: the pixel, often abbreviated p or px, is a small element that constitutes a digital matrix image. Moreover, the very term pixel is a contraction of the expression "Picture Element" (or image element in French).

Also, any digital matrix image is made up of a multitude of small pixels invisible to the naked eye, unless the visual is exaggeratedly enlarged. Indeed, the more you stretch a matrix image, the more its cutting, formed of thousands of small colored squares, is visible.

Good to know:

• We rely on the pixel to establish the definition, that is, the size, of the image.
• The pixel allows measuring the image's resolution (then expressed in pixels per inch, or DPI). Thus, the higher the resolution, the more pixels the image contains, and the sharper and more detailed it is.
• We measure an image's weight from its pixels. There are several types of pixels whose weight differs. For example, a "real color" pixel has a weight of 32 bits.

You'll therefore have understood, the pixel forms the basic material of Pixel art drawing!

Initially, Pixel art was mainly based on two elements:

1. low-resolution screen definition;
2. a very limited number of colors.

Since then, Pixel art has adapted to the many evolutions known by digital technologies. Among them, we inevitably think of the increasingly high resolution of screens. Thus, we now practice Pixel art on high-resolution screens, which induces a voluntary imitation of the lowest screen definition to find the latter's pixelation.

At the origins, this form of artistic expression was therefore exclusively digital. However, many artists now draw inspiration from the pixel to draw or paint works formed of small, well-apparent colored squares. It's therefore the "pixelated" rendering that's sought in this form of art to compose unique works, whether digital or not.

The unusual info: did you know that the pixel isn't square but slightly rectangular? To the naked eye, it seems however to be formed of four equal sides.

Pixel Art, Decades of History

At the Origins of Pixel Art Drawing

The birth of Pixel art occurs during the seventies, while computing is in full democratization. Indeed, the 70s mark the entry of computers into private homes, where they discover new fields of application with the beginnings of video games and computer drawing.

During this period, drawing on a computer necessarily induces the use of pixels. Furthermore, it should be noted that screens then offer exclusively low definition and a very reduced number of colors. At the origins, we therefore understand that Pixel art drawing is more the result of these technical constraints than of a real artistic will!

Despite first works with simplistic rendering, Pixel art experiences dazzling success and quickly establishes itself as a new form of art.

Pixel Art and Video Games, an Intimate History

It's interesting to note that the first video games used vector graphics, not matrix graphics. Thus, Galaxy Game, the very first arcade game in the world created in 1971, offered graphics composed of vectors, not pixels!

Definition: vectors are geometric shapes assembled using mathematical equations that can be stretched at will without ever deforming or losing sharpness. Nowadays, vector image is considered a much more qualitative alternative to matrix image. It's therefore more widely acclaimed by professional graphic designers.

Due to its superior maneuverability to vector image, matrix image is the subject of real enthusiasm among 1970s programmers. Also, it quickly takes the place of vector image in the video game universe. The first arcade game to use it is Pong (Atari company), released in 1972, barely a year after Galaxy Game. The immense success of this game then naturally encourages the release of new video games based on Pixel art graphics.

Until 1980, the "coarse" and especially very simplistic aspect of Pixel art, induced by the limits of the time's computer technology, doesn't allow real artistic appropriation of the pixel. However, the eighties mark a turning point for Pixel art drawing, with the release of new video games with more complex shapes and more diversified colors. Among these games, Space Invaders and Pac-Man prove to be the most popular.

But it's in 1985 that the video game world (and parallel to that of Pixel art) experiences a real revolution. Indeed, it's that year that the first Nintendo console sees the light of day! It then experiences immense success that has nothing to envy to that of our contemporary consoles. Super Mario Bros is then the very first game to be released on this console. Entirely designed in low-definition matrix images, all graphics of this first Mario are therefore very pixelated.

The unusual info: did you know that Mario character's very physiognomy is directly linked to the limits of Pixel art drawing? Indeed, cap and mustache were privileged here to simplify the game programmers' graphic work, because these elements are much easier to represent using pixels than hair and mouth!

The Evolution of Pixel Art Drawing from the 80s to the 2000s

Thanks to the technological evolutions of the 1980s and 1990s, matrix images' aspect is increasingly refined and detailed. But these evolutions, rather than serving it, also lead to a slight decline of Pixel art drawing in favor of 2D vector graphics.

Nevertheless, it's also during these years that it manages to emancipate itself from video games. It even becomes a real means of expression, then a form of art then intrinsically linked to "geek culture".

At the end of the 1990s, Pixel art makes its appearance in the advertising world, where it's used by advertisers in their advertising campaigns' graphics. Thus, the 21st century offers a whole new breath to Pixel art which even becomes a very trendy artistic movement. It's moreover at this same time that we begin to really talk about "Pixel art". Indeed, the term didn't exist until now, although we now qualify as Pixel art drawing all matrix graphics preceding the 2000s. It should be emphasized that this art movement's success is intrinsically linked to the nostalgic feeling that touches everything related to eighties culture. All domains are moreover concerned by this nostalgia: music, films and video games.

The appearance of the first mobile phones then offers a new impetus to Pixel art. Devices that then have very low screen definition and very reduced color choice, which induces again very limited graphics.

Over the following decades, Pixel art drawing gradually emancipates itself from computer screens. It then finds its place in many other cultural domains, and particularly in Street art. Artists, and street artists in the front line, then seize Pixel art's principles to transpose it on other supports totally independent of computing, such as paper, canvas, fabric, concrete surfaces…

Invader, the Most Famous Pixel Artist

Pac-Man, by Invader

It's difficult to evoke Pixel art's history without talking, at least a minimum, about the world's most famous Pixel artist: Invader.

He's moreover considered a great precursor of Pixel art, and one of the artists who has most contributed to its popularity and recognition by the general public.

Indeed, we've all heard about his Space Invaders series, works realized in mosaics on the walls of large international metropolises.

But if his work is world-famous, we know very little about the artist himself. Always masked when he shows himself to the public, Invader remains very discreet about his identity.

Conclusion

Video games, brand branding and even NFT… Pixel art is omnipresent in the arts universe, but also in corporate communication. With its very popular retro appearance, the Pixel art drawing trend therefore doesn't seem ready to run out of steam!

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