Landscape artwork and other stuff

[helpcomputer0]

Maybe last fantasy one for a while.

[Lee Bee]

Superb work!

[zxbruno]

If we had Spectrum point and click games such as Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, helpcomputer0's art would make them an instant hit.

[helpcomputer0]

The final member of the gang will have to wait a while now.

[EdToo]

This makes great use of the Spectrums palette. How long do these take you?

[patters]

These are all amazing. I'd love to see an animation of how they're made, like Grongy has posted of some of his works.

[helpcomputer0]

This makes great use of the Spectrums palette. How long do these take you?

Thanks! From about 4-8 hours depending on detail.

[helpcomputer0]

These are all amazing. I'd love to see an animation of how they're made, like Grongy has posted of some of his works.

Thanks, I sometimes post work-in-progress pictures on Twitter but that's about it.

[helpcomputer0]

[XTM]

Nice ones as usual.

One observation I have made, and maybe this is just personal preference, is that the graphics feel more solid and just generally nicer when it's not all just INK on PAPER 0 but when there are at least a few parts that have a different PAPER colour here and there. So the one you posted on Friday, while still very good, seems to be lacking something. I remember someone on a German forum a long time ago, they asked why Speccy graphics look so "riddled with holes" and he meant exactly that, all that INK x with PAPER 0 stippling, dithering etc.

It's also one of the reasons why I thought Wonderful Dizzy looked great, it had a lot of graphics with a bit of PAPER 1 dotted around - and your latest picture here is another example. The transition from White to Cyan make it appear more "solid", even the few pixels in Magenta in the Cyan parts of the hood are noticeable.

[helpcomputer0]

Nice ones as usual.

One observation I have made, and maybe this is just personal preference, is that the graphics feel more solid and just generally nicer when it's not all just INK on PAPER 0 but when there are at least a few parts that have a different PAPER colour here and there. So the one you posted on Friday, while still very good, seems to be lacking something. I remember someone on a German forum a long time ago, they asked why Speccy graphics look so "riddled with holes" and he meant exactly that, all that INK x with PAPER 0 stippling, dithering etc.

It's also one of the reasons why I thought Wonderful Dizzy looked great, it had a lot of graphics with a bit of PAPER 1 dotted around - and your latest picture here is another example. The transition from White to Cyan make it appear more "solid", even the few pixels in Magenta in the Cyan parts of the hood are noticeable.

I know exactly what you mean, and agree the thief piece does look more flat compared to this one. At some point trying to improve it became a time sink so I decided to release it and move on.

I'm not a big fan of overusing/mixing colours either and it becomes a nightmare to hide the grid and you end up destroying import details just to hide the grid for a bit more colour. I try to use non-black paper where it suits (mostly surfaces in direct light) but only where it doesn't make the 8x8 grid too visible.

I find in Spectrum communities the visible grid/attributes is more forgiven because they know how difficult it can be to work with, and it's not uncommon to see in a lot of great Spectrum art. Because my audience is mostly non-Spectrum on Twitter I have to try and make it look more like "modern" pixel art, and that means minising the grid.

[XTM]

Yeah, there's always a fine line with how much you need to compromise with the grid, but you're doing pretty well. I think PAPER 1 is quite nice because it is dark in luminosity so the grid will be less noticeable.

On the other hand, some auto-converted graphics with no touching up tend to look horrible ... I think Pobulous changed his avatar recently because people had complained about his previous one (I don't remember what it was), but the current one he is such a bad example of this, the grid sticks out like a sore thumb, it's horrible and what gives the Speccy a bad rep in the retro communities if it's this blatant ... here's the avatar for reference:

[helpcomputer0]

Yeah, there's always a fine line with how much you need to compromise with the grid, but you're doing pretty well. I think PAPER 1 is quite nice because it is dark in luminosity so the grid will be less noticeable.

On the other hand, some auto-converted graphics with no touching up tend to look horrible ... I think Pobulous changed his avatar recently because people had complained about his previous one (I don't remember what it was), but the current one he is such a bad example of this, the grid sticks out like a sore thumb, it's horrible and what gives the Speccy a bad rep in the retro communities if it's this blatant ... here's the avatar for reference:

That avatar is good example of a visible grid due to bad paper and ink colour, impressive!

[helpcomputer0]

Another landscape

[EdToo]

You use colours in a way I wouldn't dream of and the results are fantastic.

[Lee Bee]

Incredible work. This fellow surely has to be one of the all-time best ever Spectrum artists? It's a thrill to behold his work.

If anyone hasn't yet checked out his ZX Art page, you're in for a treat as there are many great pieces from the last couple of years which haven't been seen here - some of them are real gems. I mean, this is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen, simply sublime:



All this incredible artwork is too good not to be used in something. Is there no coder who can step up and turn these into games? I would happily supply all the music

[Ivanzx]

Another landscape

This is simply awesome, so evocative, amazing... clap clap clap

[helpcomputer0]

An old tower. Enter? Y/N

[uglifruit]

That's utterly beautiful.
The attribute use is masterful. Nothing feels at all forced, and the use of the black shadows (the figure, the trees, the tower) is brill.

[+3code]

Really, really nice screens.

[EdToo]

I could happy inhabit the worlds you depict. Hard to choose a favourite.

[Joefish]

It's the ones like this that I love. Realistic looking landscapes, despite the completely saturated palette of the Speccy.
I'm not keen on artwork with lots of artificial colourisation. Bold colours have their place, for effect, in skies for example, but some artists seem too desperate to use magenta and green just because they can, when they're only drawing something like a cat ffs.

[stupidget]

An old tower. Enter? Y/N

Oooh, it's a speccy version of Elden Ring

[Lee Bee]

I've always wanted a Spectrum clone of Monkey Island, or something similar. If it were technically possible, I definitely think this would be the artist for the job! Some of his landscapes would look amazing with tiny touches of slow animation such as rustling leaves or rippling water.

[helpcomputer0]

I've always wanted a Spectrum clone of Monkey Island, or something similar. If it were technically possible, I definitely think this would be the artist for the job! Some of his landscapes would look amazing with tiny touches of slow animation such as rustling leaves or rippling water.

Thanks Lee. I would love to help out on this!