About
More about our site and us
What is this site?
This site collects palettes that were submitted to Lospec and received negative reactions from their members. The rejections range from being perceived as useless for art (pixelart), disorganized, or some other reason.
We also host art contributed by several artists who saw potential in those palettes, as a way to inspire people and make them think outside of the box.
This site is NOT affiliated with Lospec in any way.
Why make this site?
This project started out of personal necessity, as we needed a formal place to save and link palettes rejected by Lospec to our friends.
Rejected palettes don't get saved or shown in Lospec's main gallery, so people may miss them entirely. This is rather discouraging to those who create them and even more so to the potential users. When users have to go through an application process, with no clearly spelled criteria, to submit a palette to a pixel art database, the chances are pretty high for their palette to be rejected.
Additionally, there is no way for the submitter to know if the palette they are submitting is already hosted in the site. As a result, the contributor will only know about the result once the rejection notification comes in.
We, as pixelartists, believe that there are no "right" or "wrong" ways to make palettes. Of course, it is important to know color theory and how to translate meaningful ideas into visual art by applying that knowledge. However, what we disagree with is how some members in Lospec are quick to judge palettes as useless.
This behavior leads to sameness, as only traditional palettes are accepted and displayed in the gallery. This is a big disservice to the trade, because color trends end up being dictated by a single community. It does not help that only a handful of people curate and even fewer people update the list. Despite a good part of the palettes displayed in our site not following formal design principles, they fire up our creativity, as we figure out how to make the most of their limitations and use them to create something impressive.
Without proper context, any palette can be perceived as bad.
Another reason why we created this site was to combat the toxic gatekeeping behavior seen in Lospec. We believe that treating art as an exact science has done a lot of damage to the community, which can be seen in our manifestos. Please give them a read to understand our principles even more.
We strongly believe that other artists would enjoy to see these palettes and use them not just as a challenge, but also to further develop their artistic skills. Thinking outside of the box is a great way to practice, and using these colors will help color theory make even more sense.
Will you give it a try? We will be waiting for your contribution!
What are Rejected Palettes?
We use this set of criteria to build our collection of palettes:
The palette was formally rejected by Lospec's moderation team and does not appear in the pending queue anymore;
The palette was accepted, but is still regarded as bad by their community and often brought up by them in a negative light;
The palette was not formally rejected, but has been in the pending queue for more than 3 months. The lack of celerity in the analysis could be seen as an artificial way of rejection;
The palette was rejected at least once during its creation. In this scenario, we will add the version that was rejected;
The palette was directly submitted to our site via the Submit Content Form.
Due to how Lospec works, palettes that were initially rejected can be changed to fit under their arbitrary criteria of usefulness, becoming accepted in the process. However, this later acceptance is not a valid reason for us to remove the palette from our site. The reasons are as follows:
The original, unedited version of the palette is the one that was rejected, and will not be accessible once it is edited to be accepted by Lospec;
Archiving these palettes as-is serves as a gauge on what kind of palettes are or were deemed as useless in the past. People browsing our site will be able to look back on the art trends and see what has changed;
It is humanely difficult, if not impossible, to manually check if all the palettes on this site were accepted retroactively. While I have devised a method to filter palettes that are accepted, it is still a largely manual process and requires a lot of time;
Contributors who have worked with the palettes hosted in this site did so within the context that it was a palette unfit for art. Removing the palette also implies the removal of any artworks tied to it, which goes against what an artistic site should encourage - fostering creativity and challenging oneself;
The ultimate point of this site is to treat creators, both palette makers and artists, in a dignified manner. The palette's creator will be delighted to know that people saw potential in their palette in its original form and has been hosted in this site. In my opinion, wasting someone's time is one of the greatest insults you can do towards someone, so I want everyone's experience with this site to be wholesome and worthwhile.
Are these palettes even useful?
Honestly, some of the palettes displayed here are indeed difficult to employ in a pixelart context. Some can feel disorganized, excessive, too similar to an already accepted palette or a plain attempt to troll the Lospec staff.
However, we like them because they might inspire you in some way. They are interesting because they are unusual. They do not necessarily fit with our expectations when it comes to palettes and that is why they are worth giving a shot.
AMAZI 0 by Amazicat
Take this palette, for example. It was rejected by Lospec because the reds are too low in contrast and have no hueshift. Most people would avoid using it due to its problems, but this is what led artist Spritergors to use it.
And it is a case of creative solution indeed:
@Spritergors
Because the colors are rather close, Spritergors has increased "pixel estate" by making geometric borders and small canvases. This gives the viewer a comfortable amount of information while also appearing to be sufficiently big.
Usually, he would just make a single big piece, like a whole landscape or subject - but these oppressive red tones are admittedly too distracting to look at for long periods of time.
So by making smaller pieces, and filling the rest with geometry, it feels more balanced out without overloading the viewer's senses.
He would not have this approach if the colors were more balanced and/or he had more shades to work with, which is really interesting: because the colors not only dictate what can be represented, but also how the layout can be exploited to make the final piece more interesting.
Exploring this back-and-forth of ideas while trying to use the available colors the best you can, as odd as they are, can lead to creative insights and surprise you in a totally different way. Be it in pixelart or digital art, challenging yourself is stimulating and definitely worth a shot.
Usefulness is a matter of one's skill, and of one's intentions.
To see more art pieces made with our palettes, please check out our gallery!