Who are your favorite pixel artists?

Who are your favorite pixel artists, and why do you like their work? Is there anything in particular that speaks to you about what they create?

Personally, I have way too many favorites to list, but here are a few!

syosa - Really charming character designs, excellent use of color in that she uses high contrast that grabs your attention but still feels warm and soft, textures that feel elaborate yet very clear shapes.

cocefi - Makes tiny cozy worlds that make me feel like I want to live in them, and animations that are full of pep. It's not often I see pixel artists whose work makes me forget that it was created on a grid despite embracing the grid.

Snake/Simon - When I think of what "perfection" means to me in pixel art, his work is what comes to mind. The level of depth, detail, and polish in his art all while reading fantastically from a distance is amazing.

skittle/Deryk - Everything he makes invites you in and makes you want to explore. It's not easy to make art that looks like there's an entire world beyond the canvas, and harder still to make you wish you were there.

Atnas - Amazing understanding of how to convey depth in animation and color in a way that defies what you'd think should be possible on a tiny grid yet embraces beautiful permutations of pixels.

Norma_2D, their style is amazzling

There are so many names i could drop here in terms of art quality and skill, but personally a few favorites of mine are Slynyrd (https://twitter.com/rayslynyrd), Slinky (https://www.instagram.com/slinkpixel/), N2D (https://twitter.com/norma_2d), Yes-I-Do (https://twitter.com/Contra_Bonos) and Vierbit (https://twitter.com/vierbit)


Thomas Shahan! He's a spider photographer and artist. Coming from a spider nerd, he's a big inspiration of mine.

Pedro Medeiros is the person who got me into pixel art through their work on Celeste and also has super useful tutorials that are completely free and full of great information. Definitely has mastery at every resolution.

Christie has a really unique approach to lines and form that would be fun to emulate in the future. Her art doesn't just replicate traditional mediums or anything, it feels like she's taking techniques from there and extending it to pixel art in a very satisfying way.

Gato for their very epic sense of scale in art, and demonstrates really solid pixel art technique, especially has god-tier AA. I feel like I can zoom in to any distance and learn something new.

Abuelo with the 10/10 aesthetic, I want to live in their art. Great colors and breadth of style, technique, material.

There's definitely more I'm leaving off, might add onto this list later. And there's ton of inspiration I take from older pixel art artists, especially anybody who worked on games like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Metal Slug, etc.

Arne: twitter, website
Arne has inspired every aspect of my art, and I've learned most of what I know either directly from him, or via some post of his. His work is cute and gentle on the eye.

Indigo: twitter, website
Dan is more specifically my favourite pixel artist ever. I can tell by the pixel art that is out there today that may people were inspired by Indigo either directly or through others. The way he thinks about and approaches pixel art is what I believe has shaped the medium as it is today and separated it from the works of old.

There are definitely many more who I could consider favourites, but these two I feel deserve special mention because of how greatly they have influenced me and my art.

Fool was one of the first big inspirations to me and I'm sure to many others so he definitely gets a place in here.

Deryk is great, he's taught me a lot about art in general and has helped me improve much faster than when I was just doing shit with little thought.

Frost has great demoscene stuff but his other traditional art is great too

Mandrill was always really encouraging as I was growing and his pieces always stand out

Jeremy has amazing portraits and as someone who also likes making portraits his stuff is a big inspiration

Jinn for his incredible caricature style and incredible use of colors

Jokov was also really encouraging during my growth and his portraits are also just top notch

HUGE fan of Glauber Kotaki the lead artist for Duelyst, Really all the artists, even the animators, thay made some impressive stuff.

Thanks so much for this thread and all these recommendations! It's great to be exposed to new artists and reminded of old favorites.

Some of my faves right now are Yes I Do (@Contra_Bonos), Thu / Valerii (@849Kim), the Silent Artist (https://www.pixilart.com/thasilentartist) and gijotto (@gijothehydroid)

I think my favorites are Fool, Deceiver, and Finlal

Elk is one of my favorites.

A bit surprised 6VCR isn't mentioned yet (though they are so much amazing pixel artists out there anyway, including all those that are already in this thread that i won't repeat)
But yeah, 6VCR. I can't put in words how beautifull her work is. It's incredible.
https://twitter.com/sixveeceear

Tommi Laurila does some wonders too, https://twitter.com/PxTommi

My favorite pixel artist is a user on Pixilart.com with the username of grubble. You can see his art here: https://www.pixilart.com/grubble/gallery

Whoever drew the tiles and sprites for Castlevania III on the NES. I love Konami's old work.