 Who are you? Where are you based? I am Emergent Art. I'm 36 years old and live in Umeå in northern Sweden. I am a physical pixel artist mainly working with fusebeads. I am also a scientist working in fruitfly genetics. When and why did you first start making your art? I started to consider myself an artist about two years ago, however some of my earlier work could easily have been something I made today. It took me quite some time to build the confidence needed to call me an artist. I started using beads together with my kids and it kinda spun out of control from there. What inspires your artwork? The most attractive part of doing beadwork for me comes through the theory of emergence. This is the theory of how very basic building blocks, when arranged in a specific way, can result in structures that is more than just the sum of its parts. This can be an ant colony, the ripple patterns on a sand dune or conciseness itself. In my day job as a geneticist these building blocks are the nucleotides that make up the DNA/RNA molecules of life. In my art the beads are the blocks and with roughly 200 different colours they make up a pattern that can only be seen if you take a step back. I draw inspiration from feminism, the LGBTQ+ community and science. Often a mix of them. I make original work and I riff on great pieces from other artists and disciplines. Do you remember the first piece you made? I do remember my first piece I did as an adult, a Super Mario mushroom. I think it's a classic gateway motif for many bead artists out there. I made it with my kids before I even had considered beads as a creative medium. What's the biggest piece you've ever made? Easily Storm from the X-Men, an adaptation from the art of Mike Mitchell. Biggest one I've mounted is my piece "Raising the Rainbow Flag". What is your art workspace like? It has evolved over the years. I started out as a nomad with a portable bead storage solution. This was great in the beginning, to be able to bead everywhere in the house. But as I accumulated more colours and started making increasingly larger pieces I needed a work space. Now I have wall mounted assortment cabinets and a studio in my basement. It's my happy place.  What are the tools of your trade? Except for beads and pegboards I am a tweezer nerd. This comes from me picking brains out of fruitfly larvae on a daily basis. One can never have too many tweezers. I even made a post on tweezers if you want the whole nerdy lecture. What's the most time you've spent on a project? Aside from having a day job and a family, I am a perfectionist. So when a piece is done, which in itself can take a long time, I keep it around and do tiny tweaks for a long time. I have unfinished pieces that are more than 6 months old, that's just how I operate. The exception is if it's a commission, then I get my shit together and finish whatever I start. Can you talk us through your creative process? How do you go about planning and creating a piece? First, inspiration needs to strike. There are no rules to this, it can be a piece by someone else or something heard by the recycling station. It just happens. Next comes the pattern making and this is where I can nerd out for days with different colour matching algorithms, palette optimization and image adjustments. When that's done I start the beading process and I usually do one board at the time. I never assemble the whole thing before all pieces are done. This adds to the emergence element of my work, to see I all come together even if it's just for me. Love that part. Then comes the tweaking I talked about earlier, followed by the ironing and optionally mounting of the piece. I have a super fancy iron but it's still the worst part. I'd happily pay for a ironing service if such a thing existed. What are the most common questions you get asked about your art? 1. How/Why do you get em' so big? 2. What software do you use? Have you had any art-related disasters? Yes... Oh, you want details. I messed up the ironing royalty a few times. My worst one was melting a hole in Storms head, and having to perform brain surgery,after being an idiot with the parchment paper.   Do you have a dream project you'd love to make, but just can't justify yet? I've been asked this before in interviews and joking said a wall sized recreation of "The pillars of creation". Well now it's bouncing around in there and I kinda think it would be an amazing project. What was your most recent project? I've had a a few street art projects and my last one was a trans flag version of the rebel alliance emblem from Star Wars. I placed these at various locations to empower and support gender rebels everywhere.  What are your favourite experiences you've had as a result of your art?
All the creative people I have gotten to know thanks to the social media art scene. I have gotten to know some really amazing people not just in pixel art but surprisingly also cosplay which wasn't on my radar before I got my work on Instagram. It's by far the kindest and most interesting community out there. Do you have any projects in progress or in the pipeline right now? I'm working on one right now that is the sequel piece to one of my most popular pieces. Not telling you anymore. Wait and see. Do you sell your art? If so, how can people find it? I do sell my art. You can find it on https://emergentart.bigcartel.com/ How can people find you online? Drop your social media handles, websites etc... My handle is @emergentbeads on: Instagram (my main platform) Ko-Fi (if you want to buy me a bag of beads) I am on TikTok, Artfol and Facebook as well but I am not giving my followers there the full all-inclusive experience. Follow me on Instagram say 'Hi!'. Anything else to share? Shoutouts, words of wisdom etc? Do your thing and screw everybody else. Everyone can bring something unique to the table and if more people did this world would be better for it. Every week I run a character centered artist/cosplay tribute in my Instagram stories. I let my followers decide who's next and I have a quiz. It's usually on Wednesdays. Swing by and join the fun
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Welcome to the first in a series (hopefully) of interviews with pixel artists. Who better to start with than myself?? Here goes... Who are you? Where are you based? My name is Iain, aka the Cave of Pixels. I'm based in the UK, in South East England. When and why did you first start making your art? I started in 2013. I was at a comic convention and saw someone was selling mini bead sprites based on Nintendo games and couldn't resist getting a Mario one. At home later on I looked up how to make them, and thought "I could do that". I started off with videogame sprites, with the intent of making some nice art for my games room. When I inevitably ran out of wallspace, I didn't want to stop making art, so started selling. What inspires your artwork? I get my inspiration from all over. Obviously videogames are a big one - I've been into them since I was a kid - but my art is also inspired by movies, comics, sport (mainly basketball), music, and even other art. I particularly enjoy making portraits, and art based on things I love, like cult movies or basketball. Basically, if I think something looks cool, there's a good chance I'll try and make my own version of it out of beads!
 What's the biggest piece you've ever made? Probably the big John Lennon portrait I made out of 1cmx1cm mosaic tiles. What is your art workspace like? It's pretty good! I have a big screen to display the design I'm working from, 2 decent sized surfaces for beading, and all my beads stored and labelled within easy reach. The consoles and arcade machine provide inspiration when I'm not beading!  What are the tools of your trade? I generally need my computer with internet access for the reference picture and design, pegboards, tweezers, beads (I use Hama, Perler and Artkal brands), masking tape, an iron, and an ice cream tub and paper clip for my infamous paper clip method (see my beading guide for more info...). Also essential is a Coke Zero, and a good podcast. What's the most time you've spent on a project? I think it was the John Lennon project above. That took 26 hours and was pretty backbreaking! Can you talk us through your creative process? How you go about planning and creating a piece? Well my process differs, depending on whether I'm working on a videogame project, or if I'm using a program to make a design from a photo. For gaming projects, it depends on if the image/sprite/scene is readily available online, in a resolution I can work from. If so, great, but if not I will probably spend some time playing the game on an emulator and making a screen recording of the session. Then I'll go through the recording and screenshot the frames I need. After that, it's a case of seeing what size it needs to be to capture all the detail I want to show. This involves pixel counting by eye! I have previously measured how many beads fit into different sized frames, so these figures help me decide how big to go. After all that, I'll make the art out of beads, matching colours by eye. This can be a trial and error process, but I've been doing this long enough to quickly know which colours should work. If I'm making a piece based on a photo, I use the Dolkow.se Perler program to make my design. It's a simple program, but it does everything I need, and I'm very used to it by now. I know others use Photoshop or GIMP or bead-specific apps, and that's great, but it's not how I learned to do it. The Perler program lets me design to specific dimensions, change the brightness and contrast, and input my own RGB values for the beads, to make them more accurate (the pre-programmed values are not accurate). It's perfect for my needs. After I've finished the design, I'll basically sit down and make it, usually over a few evenings. I do one board at a time, and tackle it one colour at a time, rather than one row at a time. When the beads are all laid, I'll compare the art to the reference photo and make amendments if needed. When it comes to ironing, I tape the beads with masking tape, sandwich it between 2 boards and flip it over. Then I remove the pegboards and straighten up any beads that might have shifted. Then it's on with the parchment paper, and time to iron it (temp set to "wool"). When finished, I put heavy books on the art and leave them to cool down. Inevitably some beads won't have fused, so the ironing may need touching up. Then it's time to share on the Gram and bathe in those likes!! What are the most common questions you get asked about your art? There are a few I get all the time: Q: What program do you use? A: Dolkow.se Perler Q: Where do you get your frames? A: Ikea Q: Do you iron both sides? A: No Q: Where do you get your beads? A: The official manufacturer websites When people ask me these now, I just provide the link to my guide on how to bead. Because I'm lazy.  Have you had any art-related disasters? Yes! A memorable one was a Nicki Minaj portrait I spent ages on, then just as I was about to iron it I got the masking tape stuck to my elbow and dragged it off the table and onto the floor... I was pretty devastated, and never could bring myself to remake that project. Maybe one day Nicki! Do you have a dream project you'd love to make, but just can't justify yet? I'd love to make a videogame scene that covers a whole wall. Maybe one day!
What are your favourite experiences you've had as a result of your art? I think I'm lucky to have had a lot of great experiences. Having my art hang in galleries was amazing, as was being asked to display it in pubs and bars. I love that my local arcade has some of my art on display! I really get a kick out of people seeing my art and reacting to it. A few years ago I was able to get some of my art signed by the original (co-)creators - John Wagner signed a Judge Dredd piece I made, and Kevin Eastman signed a TMNT piece. As a fan, it was great to see their reaction to someone's art based on their creations! Do you have any projects in progress or in the pipeline right now? I always have a "to-do" list that keeps growing as I think of new things. I have some album covers I'd like to make, and I'm thinking of making a series based on basketball cards (another passion of mine), now that I've made one that I'm pretty happy with. Do you sell your art? If so, how can people find it?
I do! I have an Etsy shop called CaveOfPixelsArt How can people find you online? Drop your social media handles, websites etc... You can find me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest as @caveofpixels. My website is this one you're reading! I have a Facebook page too: www.facebook.com/caveofpixels Anything else to share? Shoutouts, words of wisdom etc? My advice is something I've only just started to follow myself - make what you want to make! Don't feel you have to accept commissions unless it's something you want to make! Make art for yourself... if others like it, then that's just a bonus.  Annoyingly, the year after I moved away from Aylesbury, an arcade opened up in town! It's probably for the best, as if it was on my doorstep, I'd be there all the time spending my coin. After my first visit, I shared some photos online, and it wasn't long before they approached me with the offer of some wallspace to display my art. Of course I took them up on it, as it is the perfect environment for my gaming art! Here are some photos of the awesome venue... My Personal favourite game is The Walking Dead. This is a zombie hunting experience you won't get at home, unless you have £18,000 to spend on your own arcade machine of course. The best option is probably just to pop over to The Arcade and play it for a quid. Ok, I actually ended up sinking a tenner into it the other day... I REGRET NOTHING. My other faves are the Jurassic Park shooter, the Space Invaders shooter, Time Crisis 4 (can you tell I like shooters?) and the 4 player Ninja Turtles machine (updated from the original).
If you like videogames (and why wouldn't you), I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in or near Aylesbury. https://thearcadeaylesbury.co.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thearcadeaylesbury/ Market Square, Aylesbury, Aylesbury, HP20 1TB, United Kingdom 01296312855 Recently I made quite a run of small bead portraits. I decided to challenge myself to make them fit A4 frames, to make them affordable, as well as take up less space on the wall. After all, any beader worth their salt can make a beautifully detailed pixel portrait if it's huge, as this automatically provides the size for plenty of detail. I have been working with black & white for most of the portraits, although I have also been playing with colour for some others. If you could see any of the above on your walls, please take a look at my Etsy page, where they are all listed!
I've recently been working through a portrait phase. Every now and then I get inspired by something different, and having done a lot of videogame art for markets this year, I decided to make some portraits for a change. Here is a selection of my recent work: Some are available for sale, some not. None of the above art is on Etsy yet, so if you are interested in any of it, drop me a line and we'll talk!
Hey there, pixel fiends! I thought I'd finally write another blog post, as I haven't gotten round to it for a while. So what's been happening? Markets I've had stalls at 2 markets this month... and had my lowest takings of any events I've worked to date! The first was the RetroPlay Festival in Leighton Buzzard - I didn't expect much from this one, as it's a family event in a small town, with a focus on cosplay and vehicles from the movies. I made some sales, which was all I expected, so I wasn't disappointed. The Leeds Retro Games Fair however, is a different story. I expected to do much better there, as I had done in previous years. I hadn't been since 2016, when it was in a different venue. This time, my stall was in a bit of a dark corner away from the main hall, and there didn't seem to be as many people as in previous years. The weather was also really good, which may have been a factor in keeping people from the market. Whatever happened, money-wise this was my worst market to date - I made about 5 sales, when usually I make about 30 at these kinds of events. It was a little disappointing, as I feel like I had some of my best artwork with me. What do you think? Take a look for yourself below and let me know your thoughts! My last market of the year is the Nottingham Retro Games Fair, organised by the same folks who put on the Leeds market. This is the first one to be held in Nottingham, so I'm hopeful there will be some interest from gamers who can't make it to the other events. Anyway, this market is on 5 October at the Britannia Hotel. Check out the Facebook event page for more info.  Online Store I have been adding to my online listings at my Etsy shop - I now have over 60 items and counting! There is more to come, and I will be adding them over the coming days/weeks. Please take a look here... if there is anything else you'd like to see me make, just let me know - I do take custom orders!  And lastly, I thought I'd share a pic of my workspace. It's also a playspace, due to the number of games consoles I have stashed there! It's my favourite room in the house and it literally is the Cave of Pixels.  Recently my art arrangement at The Hubbub bar/theatre in London came to an end. They asked if I could take my art down as the owner wanted to paint the walls. Fair enough I thought, and went and picked up my art, thinking in the back of my mind that maybe this was their way of saying they wanted to go in another direction. I remember being over the moon when the manager had asked if I would be their “resident artist” (I had to clarify what he meant by “resident artist” when he suggested it - he said that meant my art would be the only art on his walls) a while back, but after a few months this began to seem fairly meaningless, as every time I visited I noticed other artists’ work on the walls as well as mine. Anyway, sure enough, weeks and months passed since I removed my art, and silence from the landlord (he was never the best at communicating to be honest). Realistically, I can’t complain – I had an awesome venue in which to display my art for a couple of years, and they asked for no commission on sales. I can’t imagine I’d get that kind of deal anywhere else. Even so, I can’t help but feel disappointed by the way it ended – they could at least have been straight with me. Which brings me on to the topic of this blog post. I have 15 or so pieces of art I’d like to display and hopefully sell. They aren’t gaming-themed, and some of them are a bit too big for me to comfortably sell on Etsy, so I’m not sure what to do with them to be honest! Please note - the props (DVDs, CDs, wife) are not for sale.
Ideally I’d find a gallery/bar/market/shop/space in general that would like to display some pixel art and doesn’t completely exploit its artists (I don’t want to have to raise my reasonable prices to cover huge gallery fees). Ideally it would be local (South-East or London), but I’d happily travel a bit if the situation was right. So far I’m leaning towards trying Camden Market, but if you know of anywhere that you think would be a good fit for my art, I'd love to hear about it! Please drop me an email or message me on social media if you can help. Thanks for reading! First off, happy new year! I just realised it's been just short of a year since my last blog post... I have reasons, honest! The main one is that a huge chunk of last year was spent moving house, meaning I had no workspace for beading for a fair few months. The hard work was worth it however, as I now have a fully functioning art studio / games room in the spare room. It's probably also in my best interest to acknowledge my wife here, who has graciously allowed my childhood to continue into my late thirties. Pretty sweet room, right?
My new year got off to a great start when Vintage Is The New Old ran a profile on my artwork after one of their contributors commissioned some sprites from his favourite games. You can read the article here. Last year I only exhibited at two shows - the London Gaming Market in April, and PLAY London in August. Again, this was due to the house move (PLAY London was the day before we actually moved house, just to make things that little bit harder). This year I vow to be at more markets and shows! I have already booked a stall at the London Gaming Market on March 17th - you can RSVP via Facebook here. I have also (finally) updated my Etsy shop, CaveOfPixelsArt with new art for sale, and am running a special offer of 15% off all pieces until the end of January, so don't miss out on some tasty wall candy! That's a weird way to describe art, but I'm sticking with it!  Hello and welcome to my latest blog post! Firstly, a little something I'm fairly proud of... recently The Hubbub restaurant/bar/theatre in London kindly asked me if I'd like to be their first resident artist, so of course I accepted! It's a great honour to be the only artist to have their work featured in this awesome space. It was my local bar when I lived in London a few years ago, and it was only after I moved away that I found out they were looking for more artists to display on their walls. I have my lovely wife to thank for that, as she is the one who spotted it when they put the call out on social media. Since then I have had my art up in the venue a few times, and it's always been a place where my style and inspirations seem to be appreciated by the clientele. I'm looking forward to creating more pieces for the Hubbub, and will post updates whenever I have new art for their walls! Until then, here are some pics of the latest art additions: The Hubbub bar-kitchen is at 269 Westferry Road, London E14 3RS. More info can be found at their website.
My other update is that I am all signed up to be an exhibitor at this year's PLAY London event in August! It's a two day event featuring retro gaming, modern gaming, special guests, arcade machines and more. I can't wait to be there, it sounds like a great event! Check out my Events page for more info. Recently I have been focussing on selling my art online through Etsy again, so here's a little plug for my shop. It's called CaveOfPixelsArt, and allows you to buy a selection of pieces directly.  Currently there is only videogame-themed artwork listed, but I intend to add a variety of pieces as I sort through my stock. Pixel art is only a hobby for me currently, so until it pays the bills I can only give it my attention on my days off from work. Stay tuned for updates!
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AuthorMy name is Iain and my addiction is making pixel bead art. My main inspirations are comics, video games and movies. Archives
July 2021
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