I went to school with someone who would draw amazing things in MS Paintbrush. The output was impressive but watching him work was amazing. Paintbrush had two zoom modes: pixels are pixels, or pixels are large squares of something lie 8x8 pixels (on a 640x480 screen, so very large). He would draw exclusively in the zoomed-in mode, clicking on individual pixels. I couldn’t really see what the picture would look like from the pixel view, but he’d click at very high speed, seemingly at random, and then zoom out to show a detailed picture.
I remain completely in awe of anyone who can do this kind of pixel art.
I know a guy who, back in 2014 or so, still clung tight to an ancient serial mouse, and went through quite some pains to keep it working on modern Windows versions. He used it to draw actual bloody cartoons in Microsoft Paint. I don’t mean pixel art, or at least not what springs to mind when you say “pixel art”, I mean honest-to-god drawings that one could draw with a pen, on paper. His style is closer to carricature/cartoons so it certainly was a good fit, but it was frickin’ amazing to see this guy drawing character outlines and practically perfect circles with nothing but a mouse and a steady hand.
I haven’t had the chance to talk to him in years now (we hung out in the same group way back in high school so, you know, once real life happened we just talk once every couple of years on Facebook or whatever) so I don’t know what rig he uses now. I think he moved on to more “professional” tools but it’s one of the things that taught me never to underestimate what a seemingly simple tool can do when handled by someone who knows how to employ it.
I cut my teeth on UI development as a kid on HyperCard and HyperTalk. I overused these graphics so much I still can’t look at them without gritting my teeth and setting aside my own embarrassment in order to fully appreciate how much they inspired my early love of computers. @snej is absolutely right to call out Susan Kare, who, in addition to designing these amazing graphics, also designed a lot (most?) of the fonts that came with the Mac operating system in the late eighties right up through early versions of Mac OS X. You can still find some of them on macOS today.
Fixed it:
Right now I’m reading this with my legs under my Susan Kare blanket.
ZOMG that is wonderful. I know what my daughter and her girlfriend (who fetishize old Mac stuff) are getting for Xmas this year! đź‘ľ
I went to school with someone who would draw amazing things in MS Paintbrush. The output was impressive but watching him work was amazing. Paintbrush had two zoom modes: pixels are pixels, or pixels are large squares of something lie 8x8 pixels (on a 640x480 screen, so very large). He would draw exclusively in the zoomed-in mode, clicking on individual pixels. I couldn’t really see what the picture would look like from the pixel view, but he’d click at very high speed, seemingly at random, and then zoom out to show a detailed picture.
I remain completely in awe of anyone who can do this kind of pixel art.
I know a guy who, back in 2014 or so, still clung tight to an ancient serial mouse, and went through quite some pains to keep it working on modern Windows versions. He used it to draw actual bloody cartoons in Microsoft Paint. I don’t mean pixel art, or at least not what springs to mind when you say “pixel art”, I mean honest-to-god drawings that one could draw with a pen, on paper. His style is closer to carricature/cartoons so it certainly was a good fit, but it was frickin’ amazing to see this guy drawing character outlines and practically perfect circles with nothing but a mouse and a steady hand.
I haven’t had the chance to talk to him in years now (we hung out in the same group way back in high school so, you know, once real life happened we just talk once every couple of years on Facebook or whatever) so I don’t know what rig he uses now. I think he moved on to more “professional” tools but it’s one of the things that taught me never to underestimate what a seemingly simple tool can do when handled by someone who knows how to employ it.
I cut my teeth on UI development as a kid on HyperCard and HyperTalk. I overused these graphics so much I still can’t look at them without gritting my teeth and setting aside my own embarrassment in order to fully appreciate how much they inspired my early love of computers. @snej is absolutely right to call out Susan Kare, who, in addition to designing these amazing graphics, also designed a lot (most?) of the fonts that came with the Mac operating system in the late eighties right up through early versions of Mac OS X. You can still find some of them on macOS today.
Makes me think of the stamps in Magic Cap.
Same artist. There is a great documentary about General Magic. Highly recommended to watch if you like that kind of history.
More art collections need to involve dinosaurs playing electric guitars.
Never seen these before, thanks for sharing. I have a soft spot for the dithering effects and these look amazing.