DonatelloFan's Pixel Paintings

[DonatelloFan]

Hey all. So for the past few months, I've been doing pixel painting. After my first couple, I realized I liked it a lot, so I'm going to attempt selling them at a horror convention (Full Moon Horror and Tattoo Festival in Nashville, TN). I also take commissions on my fan page and group for my paintings.

The Pixel Dad Fan Page
The Pixel Dad Group (Where I hope to get people to join, as I want to phase out the fan page)

So, here goes.

My first painting, because it seemed fairly simple, was of 'Little Mario' from Super Mario Bros. For whatever reason, when I drew it in my notebook a long time ago, I drew him with a blue shirt. So that's how I painted him. I really enjoyed painting this one, and have a few more planned, and even more ideas floating around in my head. The only problem is, with a toddler and a wife who works full time and goes to school full time for a Master's Degree, it's hard to find time to paint for more than a few minutes. And as many of you know, when you're painting, you can't do much in just a few minutes, aside from maybe setting up everything to get started.

Right now, I'm painting with 1/4" squares. That's about as small as I can go right now, because even that is kind of tough to do (for me, anyway).



Since I decided I wanted to paint, I figured I would paint my wife something for Christmas. In part because I wanted practice, and also in part because we're broke.

I wanted it to be bigger than a painting I would try doing for conventions, but not too big. I settled on 11"x14". Here's the final outline:



We have a two and a half year old daughter, so I wanted to incorporate both of them in the painting. We also have two cats, so I had to put them in there. Mainly because there was a lot of empty space. The squares are 1/4", except for the smaller Hello Kitty, where they are 1/8".

When got done, I didn't have anything outlined aside from the two heads. At the request of my wife, I outlined everything, and it ended up looking 100x better.



The heads, I found on the internet. The bodies I came up with the design myself. I'll tell you, I thought painting 1/4" pixels was hard. Painting 1/8" pixels is brutal. I don't see how people do it. Unless absolutely necessary, I'm sticking to 1/4", or MAYBE 3/8". But I'm going to try doing another painting with 1/8" pixels, because while hard as hell to do, maybe I didn't have the right brushes. I just bought a few good brushes from Michael's and Hobby Lobby, so maybe that will help.

Obviously, for my second painting, it's the greatest, but it's significantly better than my first, though. I painted the sky and tree first, then later the two Kitty's, the Sun, grass, and cats. And you can easily tell. The sky and tree leaves didn't turn out great, because I didn't realize that I should put a second coat on them. If I had, it would be a lot better.

I made the little Kitty a little lighter, since my wife is biracial, and our daughter is lighter than she is. I added fat to the black cat, because she is huge. I outlined the entire body on both, the sun, tree, gray cat, grass, and cloud, after my wife said it looked funny with just the heads with the black outline.

I really enjoyed painting this, although I had a REALLY hard time finding a tutorial to make a good skin tone. The skin colors turned out pretty good I think.

Why, as a beginner pixel painter, I don't start with smaller paintings, I don't know. I still need help in getting the right colors, if anyone can help, but overall I'm really happy with the way this turned out.

Painted on 8x10 Canvas, titled "First Obstacle"




I painted Goomba before I found some random off brand ACTUAL brown color (although it's not as quality as my regular paint) for the ground. The brown in the ground is what I would paint the Goomba with if I could go back. And of course, the Question Block is WAY off, but like I said, I'm horrible at mixing colors, and I couldn't get the right colors at all. I couldn't even get the bush right. But, even with those things, I love the way it come out.

And it's crazy how much of a difference my lining is from my first painting, and this, my third.

After I showed my latest painting, "First Obstacle" in a Facebook group I'm in, I got a person wanting to commission something from me. She asked for a 5"x7" canvas painting of a Hello Kitty head, pink bow with glitter, black background, and neon splatter all over.

I wasn't able to paint a black background, because the head is outlined in black, so I improvised. The only neon paint I could find was cheap $0.69-a-small-bottle kind, and that's what I painted the background with. It took about 3 coats on most of it, and 4 on some of it, to cover it. Horrible paint. But I made it work the best I could.



I never expected to get a commission so soon (after just two paintings), but she's already wanting more, and I have someone wanting to buy the Mario painting. Hopefully I'll get more business as I get better at it. Practice makes perfect, right?

I did Tanooki Mario on 5x7 Clayboard Panel. I love the way the pencil is easy to glide and erase from the board, but I didn't like the way the paint acted on it. Done with 3/16" pixels, 1/16" smaller than my normal paintings, because Tanooki Mario wouldn't fit on a 1/4" 5x7 canvas/board.



I didn't realize it until just now, but the picture is blurry. I took it with a camera, but I guess there wasn't enough light. I'll upload a better picture soon.

Next up is Princess Toadstool from the original Super Mario Bros. Done this on a 5x7 canvas greeting card. I loved everything about the greeting card, and will be buying a lot more to paint on. This is my normal 1/4" pixel size.



Next up is my 'Mario chasing Mushroom' painting, also on 5x7, but on canvas panel board. I painted the mushroom at least 5 times, and the grid is still showing through, so I left it. It's a pixel painting, so I didn't mind to leave it. I like it. Also 1/4" pixels.



And my latest painting, and my second favorite I've done so far. Mario jumping over Bowser's fireball. Done on 5x7 canvas panel board, with 1/4" pixels.



My latest painting is Lakitu from Super Mario Bros. on the NES. Again, on 5x7 canvas panel. This rivals the Mario jumping over the fireball to be my second favorite. I love the way it looks.