Definition of Pixel Art

When 1995 started coming around, pixel dolls/dollz were very popular, people used them as avatars on a visual chat room, called the Palace. Most of these dolls were made by dollmakers (in which you could create your own doll, by using premade clothes/hair and accesoires).

When dollmakers were still a hype, people also started to practice making their own dolls, and who would have known back then, that with a simple program, you could invent so much? The experimenting made a lot of subcategories for pixel art. The "Handdrawn" dolls, the old-fashioned dollmaking, and now, the renewed dollmaking.

Renewed dollmaking, as I like to call it, is a renewed version of the dollmakers in 1995. Instead of using premade stuff (props), you just designed everything yourself while using another's base. Handdrawn dolls, or baseless dolls as I'd like to call it, are dolls or pixels you made completely, without props, without using bases, you just start from scratch.

History

Late 19th century, many artists painted their paintings this way. In small dots of distinct colors and in different patterns, to form and create an image. The technique has been developed in 1886, 129 years ago, by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Pointilism relies on the ability of the mind and eyes of the viewer to form and create an image. Whereas Pointilism is more an art of paintings, and the way you use your brush, pixel art is somehow similar, but also not..

While Pointilisme sure looks like it was the former version of Pixel Art, it developed even further. Most of us know the term Pixel Dollz, these originated in 1995, attributed by Melicia Greenwood, whom came up with the idea of making a dollz for an avatar on the Palace Chat Room, sometime after that it became a hit with other people. Dollmakers were started so people could make their own dollz using different kind of outfits. All this was made digitally. And then it started evolutionizing.

And then came the differences in techniques, in pixeled art. Since 1995, there are now "prep dollz", dolls, bases, sprites, isometric arts, literally everything made with a digital program can be called pixel art.

Easy definition

To make it easier to explain, Pixel Art is a digitally drawn doll/artwork, that you make pixel by pixel (dot by dot), in various colors and patterns, that eventually forms an image.