My story in beads so far...
I first stumbled upon pixel art at a film convention in 2013, where I purchased a small Mario sprite made out of mini beads. Looking at my new purchase later that night, I decided to have a look around the Internet to see what other pixel bead art was out there. Little did I know how popular pixel art was, with thousands of examples jumping out of Google at me.
There was an exactness to the art that I liked. To make a bead sprite, beads are placed on a peg board, meaning it's easy to make your lines straight. This is perfect for pixel art, which is basically dots on a grid. I soon realised that the only thing you really need to be a pixel bead artist is patience. By the bucketload. Ok, creativity and attention to detail helps a lot too!
After gathering the required materials, I set about recreating some of my favourite 8-bit Nintendo sprites. Having first started gaming on classic Nintendo games, it was appropriate that I learned how to bead by making Duck Hunt, Mario, Bionic Commando, Bubble Bobble and other sprites, until I had found the technique that worked best for me. This involved a lot of trial and error; the results of my efforts can be seen in my “How To Bead” guide.
There was an exactness to the art that I liked. To make a bead sprite, beads are placed on a peg board, meaning it's easy to make your lines straight. This is perfect for pixel art, which is basically dots on a grid. I soon realised that the only thing you really need to be a pixel bead artist is patience. By the bucketload. Ok, creativity and attention to detail helps a lot too!
After gathering the required materials, I set about recreating some of my favourite 8-bit Nintendo sprites. Having first started gaming on classic Nintendo games, it was appropriate that I learned how to bead by making Duck Hunt, Mario, Bionic Commando, Bubble Bobble and other sprites, until I had found the technique that worked best for me. This involved a lot of trial and error; the results of my efforts can be seen in my “How To Bead” guide.
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It wasn’t long before I was moving on from single, basic sprites to more detailed work, and entire scenes of pixel art. After achieving my goal of creating some unique art for my own games room, I realised that I didn’t want to stop beading simply because I had nowhere to display my work. After a lot of positive feedback online, I decided to start selling my work, and have done so at various fairs and conventions since early 2015. If you are interested in a commission, please drop me an email, or come see me at the next fair or show I’ll be attending (info regularly updated in my Blog).
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While videogames were my introduction to pixel art, and continue to inspire a lot of my work, I also enjoy pixellating photographs and paintings. This lets me put an interesting twist on iconic images, by using colour and detail creatively. My galleries on this site showcase the variety of my work in the Comics, Music and Film & TV sections.
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This website is the showcase for my bead art, and a place for me to share various thoughts on pixel art, video games, movies etc. It started as a place for me to publish game and movie reviews I had written, but bead art has taken centre stage ever since I discovered it in 2013!