Interview With A Pixel Artist Part 21: PXLFLX

Who are you? Where are you based?
My name’s Ryan and my online pixel art handle is PXLFLX. I’m currently in the Richmond Virginia area of the United States.


When and why did you first start making your art?
I’ve been doing art since I was a little kid before I could write. I saw my older brother draw a comic and that inspired me. For the pixel art I started almost 10 years ago now when I was working on a flash video game. The software I was using required pixel art for it to look clean so I had to force myself to learn it.

What inspires your artwork?
I wear my inspirations on my sleeve. I’m a child of the 80’s so things like old Saturday morning cartoons, classic Disney and Warner Bros. animations, Star Wars was huge, and bronze age comic books from DC and Marvel and what came after into the 90s and early oughts. The original Nintendo Entertainment System’s games with large sprites like Punch Out and the cut scenes from Ninja Gaiden are a huge influence on my pixel art. I’m also inspired by certain manga and anime such as Beserk and Studio Ghibli productions. To many to name them all.

Do you remember the first piece you made?
I can’t remember the first artwork I ever did, but my first pixel art was of my original character for my first video game Mr. Pig.


What's the biggest piece you've ever made?
I’ve painted some rather large murals. Probably my biggest pixel art design was for a commission for someone’s video game. It was a snake with a kind of Egyptian science fiction theme for a shooter I think. It was huge, so big I could barely call it pixel art.

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What is your art workspace like?
It’s a mess and spread all across the house. I have a draft table where I mostly do miniature painting, an old computer where I do my of my pixel art and animations, a newer computer where I do graphic design and some pixel art, and I draw in sketch pads where ever and when ever the urge strikes me.


What are the tools of your trade?
For my pixel art and animation I use adobe photoshop almost exclusively and I do that with a mouse. For drawing I like Bristol board and mechanical pencils, and for painting my go to is illustration board and acrylic paints.


What's the most time you've spent on a project?
Probably the most time I’ve spent on one project was the Marvel pixel battle animations I did for Marvel Entertainment. I worked on those for a little over a year and half.

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Can you talk us through your creative process? How do you go about planning and creating a piece?
It’s kind of hard to say and it’s different depending on what I do. I usually wait for some inspiration to strike me and it feels like something I can fun with. I usually work on something in my imagination for a while before I actually start working on it so I usually have a pretty good idea of what I’m going to do. I use a lot of references and experiment with different ideas. I’ve always had a knack for recreating things that I look at, people used to call me a Xerox machine in art class.


What are the most common questions you get asked about your art?
For my pixel art and animation people always ask me what program do I use, and how long did it take.

Have you had any art-related disasters?
Sure, I’ve had several. I think my most memorable one was when I was in college and I needed to get to an art history class I was in a rush and I also needed to cut some matte board for framing designs for a typography class that day. I was using an exacto blade and being in a rush I slipped and cut the tip of my finger almost all the way off. It was just hanging on by a little bit so I rushed to the hospital which luckily wasn’t that far from where I was living at the time and they mended me up the best they could. It was quite dramatic!


Do you have a dream project you'd love to make, but just can't justify yet?
So many dream projects so little time. I would love to make a video game of my own – rpg, platformer, shooter, you name it. I’ve wanted to do long form animations for a long time but these things take so long. Even a short animation can end up taking way longer than you would think so it’s pretty hard to justify.

What was your most recent project?
For client work I did album cover art for a chiptune artist. Unfortunately I have been to busy with graphic design to do any pixel art commission work for a while now. My most recent personal project was recreating the opening fight scene from the 90’s cartoon Batman the Animated Series in pixel art animation form.

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What are your favourite experiences you've had as a result of your art?
I got to live out a few of my childhood dreams and worked with some of the biggest companies in the world. I always wanted to work for Marvel and Disney as a kid and I got to do both which was really cool.


Do you have any projects in progress or in the pipeline right now?
I have a bunch of projects in progress. I have a hard time on focusing on just one so I do a little at time on different projects to keep a variety of things going on.

Do you sell your art? If so, how can people find it?
I have a pretty cool storefront on Teepublic with commercially licensed fan art and original designs. https://www.teepublic.com/user/pxlflx


How can people find you online? Drop your social media handles, websites etc...
Just search PXLFLX all over the web:
https://www.instagram.com/pxlflx/
https://www.youtube.com/user/PXLFLX


Anything else to share? Shoutouts, words of wisdom etc?
I would say if you are interested in art go for it but try to remain true to what you want to do and not what you think other people want to see. It needs to be fun for you or there’s really no point. As I said I was lucky to live out some of my dreams, but sometimes I think dreams are better as just that and it might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Avoid burnout at all costs and if you can find a way to do art for yourself go for it. Doing art for others can be good for some people but for me it just ended up feeling like work with no soul to it where a lot of things end up compromised. Do what you want to do!