TzAR: Pixel Art Profiles #9 – Dan Anthony Kelly, Gulce Kuter, Lubitel Bliznih

Kyle Flemmer profiles three pixel art illustrators included in the forthcoming Tezos Art Review (TzAR): Pixel Art Anthology.

Some pixel artists illustrate through the individual selection of pixels, others illustrate by drawing as they would with a pencil. I am in the Selector camp and use the mouse and keyboard to make my work. This way of illustrating is highly trial and error, like turning a series of switches on and off until things look right. Drawers, though, deemphasize the click in favor of the gesture, be that of a mouse, stylus, or other form of user input. In essence, Selectors are focused on pixels as individual units while Drawers work in groupings of pixels that suggest a continuous mark. This distinction is more philosophical than enforceable, but it is a convenient way to think about art that looks organic and hand-drawn.

Much of the work in TzAR: Pixel Art Review looks manual, and I mean manual in the literal sense: of the hand. This is significant because manual work is bodily, creating a direct visual connection to the artist as a real person with a body and a history driving the creation of the image. I am especially interested in how this human touch is cultivated in a medium as quintessentially digital as pixel art.

“In these Pixel Art Profiles, we take a look at the hand-drawn style of three pixel artists I suspect are Drawers. No doubt they are aware of the import of each individual pixel in the overall composition, but the sense of their hand on the canvas takes precedence.”


Dan Anthony Kelly

Tangled Dogs by Dan Anthony Kelly, minted November 7, 2022

Artist statement: “Dan Anthony Kelly makes lo-fi dog animations every Tuesday. The weekly series began in the spring of 2013, and each one is drawn on a Nintendo 3DS using the "Inchworm Animation" app. Each looping dog animation is drawn on a 100x100 pixel canvas. The themes range from a reflection of his daily activities to abstract expressions or in some cases ‘dog-gif-ied’ reinterpretations of other artist's works. If it’s Tuesday, he will draw a dog.”


Gulce Kuter

Church of red by Gulce Kuter, minted May 31, 2023

Artist statement: “I’ve been playing video games since childhood, but I only realized how soothing pixels could be when I grew older. That’s why I took a break from sculpting to learn pixel art, and now I just can’t stop. As a child, I played with fire a lot too. One day, my friend and I were playing with matches, and we ended up setting their house on fire—just a little. It was such a thrill for me, and that’s why my first pixel collection was all about burning every object in the world. And of course, I had so much fun making it. I usually work with dark themes—occultism, gothic art, and the like. That’s why I define myself as a dark pixel artist. Combining the perfect simplicity of pixels with the chaotic, eerie nature of my themes excites me beyond words.”


Lubitel Bliznih

Artist statement: “I love classic pixel art with its smooth sinuses up and down and checkerboard desiring. I like a clear, crisp image, bordering on primitive. I can't stand abstract art. If you can draw a butt in some part of the image and the picture won't change significantly - it's not my art. For my works, I use a size of 200x200 (or 250), which is quite a lot for pixel art, but the minimum necessary to tell a story, which is why I draw.”


TzAR: Pixel Art Anthology will be published by The Blasted Tree Publishing Co. in August 2025. Stay tuned for more Pixel Art Profiles in the coming weeks as we prepare the book for publication!

Previous
Previous

HIGHLIGHTED #4 – Art on Tezos at NFC Summit, Lisbon

Next
Next

VAULTED Art Collector Profile #15 - Anika Meier