Pixilated Portrait

Pixel Sunset

8"x10.75"

The idea that is evident within this piece is the sunset with its vibrant colors. This project relates to my life in many ways. For one, I've always loved sunsets and the colors they display. Whenever I look out of my window in the morning, I love to see what new colors are presented across the ocean that morning. I also chose this because I thought that these colors would be perfect and vibrant shades to use for the pixel "effect" because there are so many colors in the sunset itself as well as the water.

The materials that I used are oil pastels of various colors. I used a tortillion to blend each individual square, and i found that doing this made the squares pixel effect look more evident. I also used an eraser to erase pencil lines and make the boarders more clean. I mixed various shades of a color to make a color like the one on my photo reference. My picture ended up looking very similar to the photo reference– but in pixels, and I really like the way the pixel effect looks.

When experimenting with the process, I used white oil pastels to make the colors like the ones in the photo (black if needed darker), and then I used the blending tool to blend each individual square to make a single shade. As I made the black rock at the bottom, it was a little tricky making the black concentrated, but as I worked on the detail at the end, I made the black richer in concentration, and it ended up having almost a matte effect, which I am very happy about because I think it looks clean. My next steps could be making the boarder more clean or cutting it off completely because of the smudges from my hands when working. Overall, I am very pleased with how my art turned out!