PixelArt production record "snow station"(2/6) (Patreon)

Hi, I made "PixelArt  production record 01". This is a $4 article on shopify.

But we will translate it into English and publish it in 6 articles on patreon. This is a patron benefit.

I will be posting the first chapter, "Until I Started Drawing Pixel Paintings.

This is a readable The technical discussion begins at part 3/6.

Reason: English translation takes time. Patron benefit is needed. I do not yet have a standard to distinguish patrons by amount, etc.

Previous : PixelArt production record "snow station"(1/6) 

Next : (untranslated) 

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◆1-2 A landscape I have never seen

When I was looking out from the train window of the Ban'etsu East Line that had started running, white spots increased in the scenery, and after just a few stations, everywhere became pure white. Rice fields are snow-covered. Before I knew it, it began to snow, and I couldn't see anything in the snowstorm. Rather than being impressed, I regretted not knowing before that I could see this scenery for only a few hundred yen.

I got off the train at the stop before the destination in a playful manner. It was my first time getting on a train with a push-button door, so I was stunned at the front of the closed door when I tried to get on again. Soon a person inside opened the door to help me.

I changed to the Ban'etsu West Line at Koriyama station and headed for Aizuwakamatsu. The line name has changed from East to West, so the feeling of travel has increased. On the way, the wind and snow came in through the gaps of the windows with a whooshing sound. It made my face cold and felt good. It wasn't too cold despite being completely dark outside. While looking at the light inside the train illuminating the snowstorm outside, I thought, "How can I draw this?"

I arrived at Aizuwakamatsu, stayed at a hotel, and took a hot spring bath. I planned to take the Tadami Line, running more profound into the mountains the following day. The Tadami Line is a private railway heading toward Nagano and has difficulties on the pathway. I had to get off the train and take a bus where a section was damaged and closed by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. In addition, some areas are frequently closed due to snow.

On my trip this time, the Tadami Line was closed due to snow on two days of the four days I tried to get on. This drawing was born on "the day when I could get on the Tadami Line."

◆1-3 A rough drawing

I made a rough drawing shown below when I was waiting for a train to depart at the platform of Aizu-Miyashita Station on the Tadami Line. It was nice to see train conductors talking with each other, so I took photos after imprinting the scenery in my memory. I used an app called Pixaki on the iPad for this.

I hastily drew the whole thing with the straight line tool and the fill tool, referring to my memory and photos. I drew more people than were there to estimate the size of each part later.

At first, I didn't decide about the finished form, whether a pixel art or a painting and a still image or animation. After a while, I thought it would be good to draw train conductors with fine pixel art, so I prepared a larger drawing canvas than usual. Then I tried to express in detail several parts, but it was not very fun. It seemed that neither the drawing process nor the completed drawing itself wouldn't be to my taste. I thought once, "Occasionally, I have to draw like this," but I decided not to draw the train conductors in detail for the time being.

In the end, I decided to make pixel art of a loop GIF animation as usual, so I reduced the resolution to 250*165px. The image after reduction is below.

I often end up with the usual pixel art while worrying about these matters. In recent years, I occasionally also draw without pixel-by-pixel editings on high-resolution canvases, such as "Samezu Bridge."

I think it's better to sketch, but I don't because I am nervous about behaving freely in public. Sometimes, I trace a hand with my fingers to imagine instead of sketching.

Pixel art enables it easy to separate observation and expression. To tell the extreme, you can make "pixel art-like things" by only lowering the resolution of your favorite images or photos and adding a few adjustments. When I come up with such a thing, I worry about “What is pixel art?”, “What is drawing?” To not overthink so, I have a habit of linking my hands and my eyes while using either my fingers or paper. "I use my hands and tools to convey what I see." I have this standard to help me not to worry about complicated things.

Next : record 3/6(Untranslated)