by Richard Hutten

Isometric pixel art is an odd sub-niche in the illustration world, a tribute to jaggedy proto-3D video games of the 80s that used the projection. Without pesky vanishing points, you could scroll a background forever, while retaining more depth than a frontal (Duck Hunt) or birds-eye (Spyhunter) projection.

Of course many of these new pieces are taken to the extreme: start with the German collaborative eBoy, and continue on. And if you’re really inspired, try your hand at it. It’s probably the only form of illustration that’s best suited to MSPaint. A couple hints: in Photoshop, lock a guide layer with an isometric grid, and work with the non-anti-aliasing pencil tool (the only good use for that, as well!)

But it does help to really understand the projection, and mechanical illustrator Cody Walker has written two extremely good tutorials on creating isometric illustrations in illustrator. They are non-pixellated, but the same principles apply. Enjoy!

Working with Orthographic Projections and Basic Isometrics

How to Create Advanced Isometric Illustrations Using the SSR Method

Real-life Photoshop. Print and poster work for software-asli.com, by Bates141 in Jakarta.
Check out the Flickr set for cool shots of how it was made. The diorama was much larger than I’d imagined.

I’ve been meaning to write about this one for a long time. The Superest is an ongoing drawing game between Kevin Cornell and Matthew Sutter. Kevin once drew a superhero called The Unopposinator, and Matthew responded with Someone. (Someone: He’s Not No one)

Kevin drew a hero to defeat Someone, and the madness has continued ever since. There are now dozen upon dozens of heroes. Visit, get the feed, and enjoy.

Much applause goes to Axel Peemoeller, who design this painted signage for the parking garage in Melbourne’s Eureka Tower. Trompe l’oeil, indeed!

The second post in my car exterior-themed series is this: a Porsche covered in gold leaf. A gold-plated car would be cool, but gold leafing is an old world craft I enjoy practicing and reading about.

Gold leaf is only a few microns thick, so a little goes a long way. One booklet of 100 sheets of 3.5″ x 3.5″ gold leaf (23 carat) currently costs about $50, and a pack of 20 books is around $600. Assuming it takes 100 sheets to coat one fender, and assuming one fender equals approximately 10% of the surface area of the car, it may have taken no more than $1000 to finish this car surface with gold leaf.

Of course the edges are visible, as with any flat surface gilding.

Okay, the main reason I haven’t posted in some time is that restoring my ‘63 Falcon takes lots of time. But it’s currently at the body shop for paint, so I have some free time again. Now for a couple of car paint-themed posts.

First, I thought this was pretty neat: someone had a full vehicle wrap done on their BMW 3-series; not completely unheard of, except that the wrap contains no graphics. That’s right, this was done simply to change the car’s color. Brilliant, until you factor in the 2-4k cost of such a labor-intensive job. I still think it’s a neat idea, and could lead the way to instant color changes for your car.

Found on cardomain.com.

This is holy amazing. The imagery is pretty disturbing, but anything that takes as long to produce as this must’ve is worth a peek. I’m floored.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

From designer Marion Bataille comes this fantastic alphabet pop-up book that belongs in your library. Young children need to be exposed to this book!

Buy your copy today on amazon.com.

Yeondoo Jung is a Korean artist who reinterprets childrens’ crayon drawings as live-action tableaus, then photographs them. His website is currently down, so I’ve compiled some of his work here for your enjoyment.