So I get up to a lot of different creative projects, and sometimes it’s entertaining to look back and see the various screenshots I’ve taken of achievements that look quite funny or detritus left in my work folders. I enjoy seeing ‘programmer art’ through the ages, though I’m in a bit of a weird position as being about 95% artist and only some lesser percentage of other things, so you really would think there would be more beauty in my creations, dashed off though they may be. Well, maybe there is… I’m proud of them, in ways, except for the guy above…

So, this guy… he’s famous for just being bad at everything. I’m making a little utility to automatically clean up pixel art, and this guy was created to just be bad at almost everything you can mess up on. He’s encrusted in jaggies, he has blotches of thick lines, right angle corners, there’s just random crud floating around him… what a mess. Sometimes I would think of a new way to screw up, and afflict him with that too. Likely, it’s not the end for him and how bad he is at existing.

This specimen here however, is a crowning achievement. A brilliant leap forward in technology. This was a test of another tool, to automatically make lines. See, he has a nice outline around him and his bulging freak eyes. He has some random crud too, but he at least hides it, unlike some people we could name.

I always wonder what other people use for testing pixel art palettes, but as you can see here, I use the likeness of Bub and/or Bob from the hit video game series, Bubble Bobble (I don’t recall which one or where I appropriated him, but aw, look at him.) His cherubic visage is perfect for testing a range of shades for a horror game about rococo vampires.

This screenshot was taken with giddy pride, as I tested out the crayon tool for another app I’m making and it finally worked for the first time. This face rises triumphant over purple mountains majesty. I will frame him over my mantle.

Though later, we must use tools to express ourselves; it’s why they exist. It’s funny though, I make a lot of little tools and things for creative projects, but I spend my time just drawing little scribbles and scrutinizing them for further tool refinement. It’s not often I get to go, ah, time to actually make something worthwhile with this… Despite that being the entire point of why I began making them. I guess that must just be the way of things.

This was some pixeling I did early on when I was thinking about my app being a pixel based thing, or that I might use more of a pixelated UI at least. It coulda been a squiggle… I guess maybe someday, I will come up with a use for some pixelated crayons, you never know.

Either way, I do have fun doing this stuff, and it reminds me I should draw cute little things instead of just funky scribbles, if only for my own pleasure.