PE: Pixel Art - Definitions and Examples

Hello As a part of Digital Art Week I'm here to give you the breakdown of the Pixel Art subcategory.  So let's dive in!

Definitions

What is a pixel?
Pixels are the tiny squares that make up images on a digital screen.  Dictionary.com provides this definition: "the smallest element of an image that can be individually processed in a video display system."  

So wait, if all images on our screen are comprised of pixels, aren't they all pixel art?
Not quite; Pixel Art is defined on DA as being created "using tools that do not produce automatic anti-aliasing".  In most programs (Photoshop, MS Paint, Paint.Net, GIMP, etc) these tools are the pencil tool and the paintbucket tool (with anti-aliasing/AA-ing turned off).  Some tools that automatically produce anti-aliasing include brushes, gradients, burn, dodge and smudge.  Basically if it cannot be done by hand with the pencil tool, it likely doesn't "count" as pixel art.

And anti-aliasing/AA-ing is...?
One of those things I have problems explaining in words, so I'll share some tutorials instead


I can however say that automatic AA-ing has a bad rep in Pixel Art because it artificially increases your colour count by adding colours that were not hand picked.  Pixel Art typically has as much done by hand as possible.

Category Break Down

So I'm going to be a little counter-intuitive and start with the last two options that you pick from when submitting Pixel Art on DA.  But these are important to know as they distinguish the 2 types of Pixel Art.

Isometric Vs Non-Isometric
Isometric Pixel Art "uses a 1:2 ratio and is at an angle of 26.565 degrees".  I wish I could explain that less mathematically, but the scale and angle are the defining factors.  Here are some examples:
:thumb421567580:

And Non-Isometric Pixel Art is literally pixel art at every other angle XD

Subject Categories
The remaining subcategories on the menu tell us what exactly the pixeled piece contains and is broken down into the following:
Characters: "Pixel Art created using tools that do not produce automatic anti-aliasing, that resemble a person, animal, creature, humanoid or robot."


Objects: "Pixel Art created using tools that do not produce automatic anti-aliasing, that depicts still life objects as the main focus of the piece."
:thumb541855865:

Other: "Pixel Art created using tools that do not produce automatic anti-aliasing that do not fit into any of the categories of Characters, Scenes, Text or Objects."
(Not giving examples because after a look through of 600 deviations they all could belong in the other categories... )

Scenes: "Pixel Art created using tools that do not produce automatic anti-aliasing, that depicts a scene such as a landscape, interior of a room or other environment as the main focus of the piece."


Text: "Pixel Art created using tools that do not produce automatic anti-aliasing, that depict a word or words without the use of computer generated text tools."
:thumb188981019:

Now I would love to see some of your favourite pixel art