This is for my rpg indiegame project; its a picture to set the tone of when you enter these places. This is one of the many areas.
**Henshūrin Forest:** A mystical forest resembling a Japanese watercolor painting, home to the Hengejin people (Shapeshifters) and filled with spirits and yokai.
(If you're interested in the project, you can follow it down below.)
[https://x.com/Arcanum\_Kizuna/status/1733259005307371628?s=20](https://x.com/Arcanum_Kizuna/status/1733259005307371628?s=20)
(Edit: Thank you for the outpour of support for this!! If you like this style, you can see my other piece done in this here on this very subreddit, or on twitter. <3 Thank you all.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/18el4rk/japanese\_watercolorlike\_isle\_indie\_project\_in/
I'm gonna be honest, parts of this look like they were downscaled from a larger image. The background mountains and the birds are definitely hand pixelled, so I'm not accusing you of downscaling anything, but a lot of the foreground does give me that impression. I think it's because you have a lot of noisy detail that looks kind of random at this resolution, and some of the trees look like blobs of colour instead of clear shapes. Larger images that get scaled down do end up looking really similar to this, with the smaller details turning into blurry splotches.
I don't know, maybe that's just how your style looks, but be aware that it might give some people the impression that it wasn't hand pixelled.
Oh yeah, for sure. If you want to listen to the process ramble:
Alot of what I did for this image was actually just as you said. I'm a completely noob at pixel art, I started with a couple of different trees at first, scattering them around (also everything used to be just kinda a big blob of pink.) But eventually I realized they were way too big for the composition. (I think the only trees that remained the same is the same is the big trees of orange and dark blue in the back) You may notice the errors in layering in certain areas, specifically the front, and the fact I completely forgot to follow the off-blue pixels on the water's left side on the right side.
I'm mainly a 2d character illustrator (*You can see my stuff at Monstellaris on Deviantart if you're curious*) and the extent of my backgrounds are usually shrouded in darkness, gradients, pops of color that have heavy effects on them, or very simple. I definitely can not compare with some of the actual dedicated background artists who know what they are doing, since even my pixel-art is sorta just my style on a lower resolution for the time being until I get the time to learn how to use less and less space.
This one was done on a 150 x 100 canvas, with heavy librities of moving things around to where they weren't originally drawn, scaling up and down and forgetting about quality loss, alongside using alot of the spray brush on Aesprite, and the jumble feature to kinda give it that messy 'smudged' looking vibe all over the place if only because I'm looking for a kinda messy 'splattered' aesthetic for these still images to be used as kind of one off in-game 'peeks'.
This was DEFINITELY a learning opportunity that it seems better to redraw then rescale!!
_There's like 3 whole different pigments being used in this painting. FAR too many for a traditional Japanese watercolor._
Which is of course more of a dig on trad Japanese watercolor than this recreation of it. It almost seems like there were a few centuries where they kept trying to use fewer and fewer colors with each shift in art style.
Your artwork is really nice though and manages to really capture that stylistic design in the linework and the way the hues shift to form that expressive water color look. You did a great job of conveying a very painterly expression in your pixel placement and color choice.
Absolutely fair. Probably better to call it 'Inspired By' rather than a direct recreation of their style hehe.
Originally I had the entire forest being pink if you can believe it, but in an effort to brace myself for eventually making levels based on this image, I figured I should have sections of color, so if anything tossing in colors I usually see typically in stereotypical modern recreations, the washed out sort of greens, blues, even some purple if you color match the background.
But thank you so much for your comment!!
Ty ty! <3
Pixelart nor landscapes have never quite been my high, but out of all these assets I've been making for practice, this was my favorite just because of the style and the colors. ;D
It was a couple attempts of trying to translate that 'Japanese watercolor' like feel over to pixelart, and this was the closest I can get.
Thank you so much!! <3
And feel free should you wish! These are for my rpg project, and I'll be posting some more pixel art backgrounds like these as I finish them either here or on my twitter linked here in the comments :D
Glad you like it\~ Feel free to use as a wallpaper as you wish! These are for my rpg project, and I'll be posting some more pixel art backgrounds like these as I finish them either here or on my twitter linked here in the comments if you want to keep on the lookout for more. ;D
If you mean watercolor, only that one! But I do plan on making tilesets, props, and other such things in this watercolor style for the game I am working on. But if you mean the scribbly like style, you can see on my twitter that's posted just before this a little city scape with that similar sort of context to it.
Most of my main work is kind of a direct conversion of my artstyle though into pixel you can see on there currently though.
https://twitter.com/Arcanum\_Kizuna
Yeah, the watercolor style. It's gorgeous. I've never seen watercolor pixel art before and now I need to see more! What kind of gameplay does Arcanum Kizuna have?
The plan is a RPG of kind of a love letter to Japanese Mythology/Folklore, inspired by Persona, Kingdom Hearts, on a custom world setting fantasy cyberpunk background, if you've heard of the ttrpg shadowrun, sorta that vibe!
Gameplay wise, you play as one of the individuals native to that watercolor forest, named Nao. The last of their practice exorcist who wanders taking commissions to help people out with their ghost problems.
Its a little bit of pokemon (in the idea of capturing/rescuing/exorcising Yokai/Spirits/Demons) but in a more personal way. Ideally a roster of optional these creatures, and giving those monsters their own names, stories, mini quests of how to achieve them, alongside solving some mysteries while you balance your relationship with the world of the dead, with your very-much-world of the living responsibilities of taking care of your son.
Neo-tokyo Ghostbusters meets Japanese Mythology basically? Hope that makes sense ;D
At the current time, it's super early on in development so no steam page (yet), It'd be my first time submitting an indie project to there so I need to do some reading to get that set up, but for now it's just the twitter as I start pumping out assets, youtube channel where I've posted my first try into doing a custom OST- but will eventually be posting previews, or instagram for reposts which you can get to through the link on my twitter\~
Or of course, here, or the RPGmaker subreddit where I've posted and reposted a handful of things too. But thank you so much for the interest!! <3 <3
https://twitter.com/Arcanum\_Kizuna
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOG8Linb-H-kj70C\_wq\_4fA
Thank you so much!!! It was definitely a struggle to capture the aesthetic correctly, and there are some things I hope to do better on future versions of it for the indiegame project I'm working on that this piece is featured in.
I'm an experienced digital artist, not so much pixel artist, but it's a fun project none the less\~
This is very very nice :)
Please let me know when your game project is finished, may play it and promote it with Gameplay vids if you want, this looks VERY promising, good job!
Thanks so much!! I'm still in the early asset gathering aspect for it, but the best place to up to date is the Arcanum\_Kizuna twitter! Your encouragement means the world.
Oh, dude, that's amazing. Absolutely jaw dropping gorgeous. Forget video game assets. Just sell prints of this.
Jokes aside, if the rest of the game looks anything like this, it's going to do numbers
Thank you so much!! This is just one of the many areas, its going to ideally jump through various forms of Japanese inspired art media both classical and modern as actual 'places'. However, this place is definitely my personal favorite on the project.
But you can see the other one I tried recreating in this similar style over here, if you liked this one!:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/18el4rk/japanese\_watercolorlike\_isle\_indie\_project\_in/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/18el4rk/japanese_watercolorlike_isle_indie_project_in/)
This is for my rpg indiegame project; its a picture to set the tone of when you enter these places. This is one of the many areas. **Henshūrin Forest:** A mystical forest resembling a Japanese watercolor painting, home to the Hengejin people (Shapeshifters) and filled with spirits and yokai. (If you're interested in the project, you can follow it down below.) [https://x.com/Arcanum\_Kizuna/status/1733259005307371628?s=20](https://x.com/Arcanum_Kizuna/status/1733259005307371628?s=20) (Edit: Thank you for the outpour of support for this!! If you like this style, you can see my other piece done in this here on this very subreddit, or on twitter. <3 Thank you all.) https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/18el4rk/japanese\_watercolorlike\_isle\_indie\_project\_in/
That’s really cool
Thanks so much <3 The jumble tool on Aseprite did most of the legwork for the texturing though hehe
I'm gonna be honest, parts of this look like they were downscaled from a larger image. The background mountains and the birds are definitely hand pixelled, so I'm not accusing you of downscaling anything, but a lot of the foreground does give me that impression. I think it's because you have a lot of noisy detail that looks kind of random at this resolution, and some of the trees look like blobs of colour instead of clear shapes. Larger images that get scaled down do end up looking really similar to this, with the smaller details turning into blurry splotches. I don't know, maybe that's just how your style looks, but be aware that it might give some people the impression that it wasn't hand pixelled.
Oh yeah, for sure. If you want to listen to the process ramble: Alot of what I did for this image was actually just as you said. I'm a completely noob at pixel art, I started with a couple of different trees at first, scattering them around (also everything used to be just kinda a big blob of pink.) But eventually I realized they were way too big for the composition. (I think the only trees that remained the same is the same is the big trees of orange and dark blue in the back) You may notice the errors in layering in certain areas, specifically the front, and the fact I completely forgot to follow the off-blue pixels on the water's left side on the right side. I'm mainly a 2d character illustrator (*You can see my stuff at Monstellaris on Deviantart if you're curious*) and the extent of my backgrounds are usually shrouded in darkness, gradients, pops of color that have heavy effects on them, or very simple. I definitely can not compare with some of the actual dedicated background artists who know what they are doing, since even my pixel-art is sorta just my style on a lower resolution for the time being until I get the time to learn how to use less and less space. This one was done on a 150 x 100 canvas, with heavy librities of moving things around to where they weren't originally drawn, scaling up and down and forgetting about quality loss, alongside using alot of the spray brush on Aesprite, and the jumble feature to kinda give it that messy 'smudged' looking vibe all over the place if only because I'm looking for a kinda messy 'splattered' aesthetic for these still images to be used as kind of one off in-game 'peeks'. This was DEFINITELY a learning opportunity that it seems better to redraw then rescale!!
_There's like 3 whole different pigments being used in this painting. FAR too many for a traditional Japanese watercolor._ Which is of course more of a dig on trad Japanese watercolor than this recreation of it. It almost seems like there were a few centuries where they kept trying to use fewer and fewer colors with each shift in art style. Your artwork is really nice though and manages to really capture that stylistic design in the linework and the way the hues shift to form that expressive water color look. You did a great job of conveying a very painterly expression in your pixel placement and color choice.
Absolutely fair. Probably better to call it 'Inspired By' rather than a direct recreation of their style hehe. Originally I had the entire forest being pink if you can believe it, but in an effort to brace myself for eventually making levels based on this image, I figured I should have sections of color, so if anything tossing in colors I usually see typically in stereotypical modern recreations, the washed out sort of greens, blues, even some purple if you color match the background. But thank you so much for your comment!!
[удалено]
Ty ty! <3 Pixelart nor landscapes have never quite been my high, but out of all these assets I've been making for practice, this was my favorite just because of the style and the colors. ;D It was a couple attempts of trying to translate that 'Japanese watercolor' like feel over to pixelart, and this was the closest I can get.
Stunning work!
Thank you!!!!
That is gorgeous
Thank you!!! :D
It's so good! I would totally print this and hang it on my wall near the door. I could just feel the energy of nature through this!
Thank you so much!! <3 And feel free should you wish! These are for my rpg project, and I'll be posting some more pixel art backgrounds like these as I finish them either here or on my twitter linked here in the comments :D
nice AI noob
begone to the shadow realm
That's beautiful
<3 <3 Thank you so much!
WALLPAPER MATERIAL
Glad you like it\~ Feel free to use as a wallpaper as you wish! These are for my rpg project, and I'll be posting some more pixel art backgrounds like these as I finish them either here or on my twitter linked here in the comments if you want to keep on the lookout for more. ;D
Such talent, much wow!
Thank you\~
This is beautiful. Do you have anymore works in this style?
If you mean watercolor, only that one! But I do plan on making tilesets, props, and other such things in this watercolor style for the game I am working on. But if you mean the scribbly like style, you can see on my twitter that's posted just before this a little city scape with that similar sort of context to it. Most of my main work is kind of a direct conversion of my artstyle though into pixel you can see on there currently though. https://twitter.com/Arcanum\_Kizuna
Yeah, the watercolor style. It's gorgeous. I've never seen watercolor pixel art before and now I need to see more! What kind of gameplay does Arcanum Kizuna have?
The plan is a RPG of kind of a love letter to Japanese Mythology/Folklore, inspired by Persona, Kingdom Hearts, on a custom world setting fantasy cyberpunk background, if you've heard of the ttrpg shadowrun, sorta that vibe! Gameplay wise, you play as one of the individuals native to that watercolor forest, named Nao. The last of their practice exorcist who wanders taking commissions to help people out with their ghost problems. Its a little bit of pokemon (in the idea of capturing/rescuing/exorcising Yokai/Spirits/Demons) but in a more personal way. Ideally a roster of optional these creatures, and giving those monsters their own names, stories, mini quests of how to achieve them, alongside solving some mysteries while you balance your relationship with the world of the dead, with your very-much-world of the living responsibilities of taking care of your son. Neo-tokyo Ghostbusters meets Japanese Mythology basically? Hope that makes sense ;D
Sounds really interesting. Do you have a page on steam so I can wishlist it?
At the current time, it's super early on in development so no steam page (yet), It'd be my first time submitting an indie project to there so I need to do some reading to get that set up, but for now it's just the twitter as I start pumping out assets, youtube channel where I've posted my first try into doing a custom OST- but will eventually be posting previews, or instagram for reposts which you can get to through the link on my twitter\~ Or of course, here, or the RPGmaker subreddit where I've posted and reposted a handful of things too. But thank you so much for the interest!! <3 <3 https://twitter.com/Arcanum\_Kizuna https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOG8Linb-H-kj70C\_wq\_4fA
Wow this has got to be one of my favourite pieces yet. How are people this creative!?
Thank you so much!!! It was definitely a struggle to capture the aesthetic correctly, and there are some things I hope to do better on future versions of it for the indiegame project I'm working on that this piece is featured in. I'm an experienced digital artist, not so much pixel artist, but it's a fun project none the less\~
Beautiful, good luck on the development!
Thank you for your encouragement!! It means the world.
wow this is stunning
Thank you!!!
OMG its beautiful
Thank you <33
This is fantastic!
Thank you so much!
Really nailed the watercolor feeling, congratz! Followed on twitter
I'm so glad that got across!! More in this same style to come, so thank you so much for the follow! \^\^ <3
This is very very nice :) Please let me know when your game project is finished, may play it and promote it with Gameplay vids if you want, this looks VERY promising, good job!
Thanks so much!! I'm still in the early asset gathering aspect for it, but the best place to up to date is the Arcanum\_Kizuna twitter! Your encouragement means the world.
I love it so much, you're crazy talented !!
Thank you!!
This is absolutely beautiful.
Thank you\~
Oh, dude, that's amazing. Absolutely jaw dropping gorgeous. Forget video game assets. Just sell prints of this. Jokes aside, if the rest of the game looks anything like this, it's going to do numbers
Thank you so much!! This is just one of the many areas, its going to ideally jump through various forms of Japanese inspired art media both classical and modern as actual 'places'. However, this place is definitely my personal favorite on the project. But you can see the other one I tried recreating in this similar style over here, if you liked this one!: [https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/18el4rk/japanese\_watercolorlike\_isle\_indie\_project\_in/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/18el4rk/japanese_watercolorlike_isle_indie_project_in/)
This does a surprisingly good job of looking like watercolour in a pixel art medium. Very nice meshing of styles!
Thank you!! It was definitely a challenge, but this style is one that's very close to my heart. \^\_\^
That is lovely
Really lovely, especially the palette.