Pixel Painting - Pixel Pikachu (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon)

This painting was done as a donation to a local fundraiser. This was my contribution to a Pokémon-themed prize pack. It's a decent size at 20"x20".

I searched through many Pokémon games to find the exact style of sprite I was looking for. After searching through the highly recommended Spriters Resource, I decided on a sprite from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness on the Nintendo DS.

I changed up the usual background too. I went back to basics and found the grass tiles from Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow and colorized them myself. I like the way it turned out, and it's way more interesting than the standard solid color or gradient shading background.

Commissions are always welcome. Price varies based on the size and complexity of the sprite/scene. I moderate comments, so feel free to leave one with your contact email and request and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Pixel Painting - And Make it Double (Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow)

This commission was done to be given as a wedding gift .

How. Awesome.

After working with the buyer to figure out exactly what they wanted, they settled on the original Game Boy sprites of Jessie and James. But again, like the Gym Leader sprites, there wasn't any good color versions of these characters in this form.

Those colors are...just awful.

I poked around the internet, seeing what others had done in terms of coloring these sprites, and came up with a hybrid of the parts I liked the best. I think it turned out pretty damn good.

The only thing I might change is the light shading on their clothes. Right now it's a very light blue, which works well with the background choice and all, but I was toying with making it a shade of gray instead. I think both work fine, so no worries on my end.

The buyer said that the newlyweds were ecstatic to receive it, since they are apparently huge Pokémon fans, of Jessie and James in particular. I'm glad it all worked out. There's not a ton of in-progress photos, because I was doing a million things at the same time due to the holidays, and my whole setup was wedged into a poorly lit, crowded room. Too much fun.

Commissions are always welcome. Price varies based on the size and complexity of the sprite/scene. I moderate comments, so feel free to leave one with your contact email and request and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Pixel Painting - Kanto Badges (Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow)

Pokémon is such a great series, and I had the pleasure of being just the right age when it first came over to the States. Even after all these years, it's still going strong. It's been refined and tweaked over the years so that it still manages to stay fresh. My favorite will always be my first, though. I know a lot of people around my age who were there at the beginning regard Red and Blue Version very highly. Vocabulary, locations, individuals, statistics, and the Pokémon themselves spring instantly to mind when the topic comes up. It really has stood the test of time (although a literal mountain of marketing doesn't hurt either).

For colorizing the sprites, I looked a lot at existing efforts done by others, as well as the badges from the anime. The end result was a hybrid of all of them.

It's interesting to note that even though the pixel size seems obvious, the perceived pixels are misleading. They're actually composed of four smaller ones. Certain badges give this away by having very thin columns or rows. When the issue arose during the project, it initially presented a dilemma. I ended up adjusting certain sprites entirely to make them more manageable, although two of them still retain their original dimensions.

Each canvas measures 8" x 8". I found it interesting that the Japanese names for the badges are extremely exciting things such as: Gray Badge, Pink Badge, and Green Badge. The fact that the badge names are written in katakana makes it make sense, though. And it only really applies to Generation I. 

Boulder Badge

Cascade Badge

Thunder Badge

Rainbow Badge

Soul Badge

Marsh Badge

Volcano Badge

Earth Badge

The Mega Man-esque background has become my new favorite. It really seems to fit with almost everything. And since all of these projects go to different people, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I also just realized that I missed eight pixels on the Volcano Badge, so I should probably touch that up before sending it out.

Commissions are always welcome. Price varies based on the size and complexity of the sprite/scene. I moderate comments, so leave one with your contact email and request.

Pixel Painting - The Elite Four (Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow)

It was only a matter of time before a Pokemon-themed painting came about. The buyer gave me a few ideas to work with, and this is the final result. I did a lot of experimenting in terms of how I wanted to present this one.

Once we had decided on the Elite Four (Kanto Region), I had to decide how exactly they would appear. Some ideas we wrestled with were:

Would I use the map sprites or battle sprites?

Would it stretch over one long canvas, or be split into four separate ones?

Would I use the original Red/Blue sprites, or the updated FireRed/LeafGreen versions?

We eventually decided on Red/Blue sprites, battle mode, one character per canvas. The next step was determining color vs. monochrome. Monochromatic choices were grayscale or pea-green.

Color choices were harder. The default Super Game Boy colors were the best choice (in my opinion), but also pretty bland overall.

The buyer suggested the Yellow version, Game Boy Color versions. He said that was the most vivid memory he had of battling the Elite Four. So I checked those sprites out.

Ugly. As. Hell.

So I guess what happened was due to whatever technical reason (available memory, etc), the "colorization" of the sprites had to be at the lowest possible level. It figures like this:

1) The monochrome sprites have black, white, and two shades of gray.

2) Black stays black, white stays white.

3) The two shades of gray have to stay all the same color, so that leaves us two colors to "colorize" the sprite with.

4) Is everyone in agreement with bright yellow and red? Those seem like realistic colors for people, right? Man, I'm bushed! Coffee break time!

Obviously, there was no way I would use those disgusting-looking sprites, and the buyer agreed after seeing them. Things from your childhood are usually different in reality from what you remember.

I liked the FireRed/LeafGreen color schemes, and I took the challenge of re-coloring the sprites myself, using the GBA versions as a foundation. I also did some edge cleaning, as some pixels stood out as looking sloppy. I think they turned out pretty good.

Last question was background. I have become tired of solid-color backgrounds (unless it really works for the painting), so I opted for something more dynamic. I toyed around with several options before settling on a Mega Man-esque background for each. Each canvas measures 20" x 20".

Lorelei

Bruno

Agatha

Lance

Now the buyer can wake up every day and be immediately invigorated to take on the day's challenges! Awesome!

Commissions are always welcome. Price varies based on the size and complexity of the sprite/scene. I moderate comments, so leave one with your contact email and request.