A Duo of Jesters – Character Art Exploration on Onion Pixels

Every now and then, a drawing comes along that feels like it has its own atmosphere—its own little pocket universe. This new illustration I created brings together two stylized jester-inspired characters, each with a distinct expression and visual energy that plays off the other. It’s a portrait of contrasts: sharpness against softness, confidence against melancholy, and bold color against gentle pastels.

At first glance, the left character stands out with striking, flame-shaped hair in deep red and violet tones. Their expression is sly—almost mischievous—highlighted by the iconic tear-shaped marking under one eye and a pink star under the other. The angular features and confident smirk give them a lively, unpredictable personality. They look like someone who knows more than they’re letting on.

The character on the right offers the opposite emotional temperature. With pale blonde hair peeking out beneath a large jester-style hat in soothing lavender and blue, this character has softer, rounder features. Their expression is calm, reflective—maybe even quietly troubled. Like the other, they also wear star and teardrop motifs, but their eyes carry a gentler, more vulnerable aura. Together, the pair feels like two halves of a thematic equation: chaos and calm, performance and truth, mask and emotion.

Color, Style, and Mood

The pastel background gives the drawing a dreamy, surreal tone, helping the characters pop forward. The limited but bold palette—lavenders, pinks, reds, and blues—creates a playful yet dramatic visual rhythm. The line art style is loose and expressive, leaning into a hand-drawn, personality-heavy aesthetic that fits perfectly into the Onion Pixels art sensibility.

The mixture of anime-inspired features and exaggerated clown/jester themes adds a layer of visual storytelling. It suggests whimsy, but with emotional undertones that give the piece a sense of depth beyond the surface.

Critique & Artistic Notes

As with any artwork, there are areas that shine and areas that can be pushed further:

✔ Strengths

• Strong character contrast – The emotional and visual differences between the two figures make the piece engaging.

• Bold color choices – The saturated hair and hat details draw the eye and create immediate impact.

• Expressive line work – The loose, organic outlines give the characters personality and charm.

• Unified motifs – The shared star and teardrop markings tie the characters together narratively.

🔧 Areas for Growth

• Shading and depth – Adding more shading or varied line weights could create stronger volume and dimension.

• Background refinement – While the soft purple background works, introducing subtle texture or gradient might help anchor the characters more firmly.

• Facial proportion exploration – Because the faces are so expressive, experimenting with slightly varied proportions could enhance the emotional storytelling even further.

Final Thoughts

This drawing is a fun mix of character design, emotional contrast, and vibrant stylistic choices. It reflects the spirit of Onion Pixels—whimsical, bold, and a little mysterious. These two jesters feel like they have a story waiting to be told, and this piece is a great step into exploring that world.

If you’re following along with my art journey, stay tuned—more character concepts and expressive illustrations are on the way!

A Prickly Showdown – New Mario-Inspired Fan Art!

Every so often, a drawing comes together that perfectly captures the quirky, chaotic charm of classic video-game enemies—and this latest piece does exactly that. Inspired by the whimsical world of Super Mario, this illustration brings two familiar baddies into a fun and dynamic confrontation.

On the left, we see a red-shelled, heavily armored creature crouched low to the ground. Its massive gray spikes jut outward with a menacing weight, and the expression beneath the shell is priceless—a mix of irritation, concentration, and readiness. The thick, textured outlines and rough shading give it a hand-drawn personality that feels right at home in the retro era.

Across from it, leaping through the air, is a startled green fish-like enemy, eyes bulging as it reacts to the danger flying its way. A spiked ball—drawn mid-air with a comedic wobble—soars between them, adding a sense of motion and tension. You can almost hear the sound effect that would accompany it in an old-school platformer.

What makes this drawing shine is the energy between the characters. The poses, expressions, and bold coloring capture that classic Mario humor where even enemies can feel alive with personality. The sketch-like texture adds just the right amount of charm, giving it the look of something found in a concept art notebook or a forgotten Nintendo-era manual.

This piece is a playful celebration of retro gaming design—full of attitude, nostalgia, and personality. It fits perfectly into the spirit of Onion Pixels, where the joy of old-school games continues to inspire new art, ideas, and creativity.

Stay tuned for more fan art, game-inspired designs, and pixel-flavored creations right here on Onion Pixels!

Floppy Art 002: Peachy Storage

Welcome back to Onion Pixels, where nostalgia meets creativity one pixel (or pencil line) at a time! Today’s spotlight entry in the Floppy Art series is a playful and cheeky design that mixes retro tech with bold, colorful expression. This piece features a classic 3.5” floppy disk — that chunky icon of the past — decorated with a stylized peach and two stamped handprints, all wrapped together with vibrant rainbow lettering.

🖌️ About the Piece

The illustration immediately draws the eye thanks to its rainbow-gradient words FLOOPY ART, which frame the floppy disk and set the tone for the rest of the composition. The typography here is energetic and wavy, almost graffiti-like, giving the piece a youthful, expressive vibe.

Front and center sits the floppy disk itself, rendered with textured shading that gives it a hand-drawn, almost tactile quality. Instead of a standard disk label, this one proudly displays a peach symbol — complete with two large handprints impressed onto it. Whether interpreted as a playful joke or an abstract symbol, this element adds humor and personality to the piece.

The brownish-red background choice complements the muted gray tones of the disk while allowing the colorful lettering to stand out even more.

🌈 What Works Well

• Vibrant Typography: The rainbow letters are one of the strongest design elements. They capture attention instantly and give the artwork a bright, fun identity.
• Texture & Line Work: The sketchy lines and rough shading give the floppy disk real character. It feels both retro and handcrafted.
• Concept: Mixing a nostalgic object with a humorous, unexpected graphic on the label is very on-brand for the Floppy Art series — quirky, bold, and memorable.
• Color Balance: The neutral background smartly balances the vivid lettering, letting the eye bounce between elements without chaos.

📝 Constructive Critique

Even strong pieces benefit from refinement, and this one has room to grow in a few areas:

• Lettering Consistency: While the wavy, loose style fits the mood, tightening the thickness and spacing of the letters could elevate the overall polish.
• Disk Perspective: The floppy disk’s shape is recognizable but slightly uneven. Sharpening the geometry — especially around the top corner and label area — could help it look even more intentional.
• Peach Symbol Detail: The peach graphic is charming, but the handprints blend slightly into the peach’s color. Adding a bit more contrast or line definition would help them stand out clearly.
• Shadow Work: The soft shadow beneath the disk is nice, but more defined shading could anchor it better and create a stronger sense of volume.

🧅 Final Thoughts

This entry in the Floppy Art series is lively, humorous, and bursting with personality — exactly the kind of piece that makes Onion Pixels such a fun space to explore. It carries that signature blend of nostalgia and attitude, transforming the humble floppy disk into a canvas for creativity.

Keep pushing these weird and wonderful ideas — the series keeps getting better, and this piece adds another layer of playful charm to the collection.

Leonardo: A Slice of Turtle Power

Today on Onion Pixels, I’m excited to share a fun new illustration straight from my sketchpad — a bold, dynamic take on Leonardo, the blue-banded leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This piece was a blast to create, blending my love for expressive line art with that classic Saturday-morning-cartoon energy.

🐢 About the Drawing

In this illustration, Leonardo steps forward with one katana raised high, giving the impression that he’s just about to leap out of the frame. The pose is heroic and energetic, with the sword cutting right through the border for extra punch. The bright, saturated greens and blues capture that familiar TMNT palette while keeping the mood fun and lively.

The hand-inked outlines add a raw, comic-book feel — thick, intentionally uneven strokes that give Leo a gritty texture that contrasts nicely with the flat, bold colors. The background stays simple with a cool blue tone, letting Leonardo’s colors speak for themselves without distraction.

🎨 What Works Well

• Strong pose: The upward striking motion gives the drawing a sense of movement and power. It’s a great choice for Leonardo, who’s often portrayed as disciplined and ready for action.
• Breaking the frame: Having the katana extend past the border gives the artwork an extra dimension and adds personality.
• Color balance: The classic TMNT palette looks vibrant here. The contrast between the green skin, blue bandana, and yellow plastron works perfectly.
• Expressive line work: Your outlines convey attitude and help define the muscles and shell details cleanly.

📝 Constructive Critique

As with any illustration, there are areas that could be refined even further:

• Sword perspective: The katana has good presence, but the perspective could be pushed more to emphasize depth — either sharpening the foreshortening or adjusting the hilt to better match the blade angle.
• Anatomy rhythm: Leonardo’s torso and arms look solid, but tightening the connection between the shoulder, bicep, and forearm could give the figure stronger anatomical flow.
• Shell shading: Adding a bit more texture or shading on the shell would give it more weight and contrast, especially since Leonardo’s pose leans toward dynamic lighting.
• Typography: The hand-written “LEONARDO” header has charm, but exploring a more stylized or comic-inspired font might make the title pop even more.

🧅 Final Thoughts

This Leonardo illustration is full of energy, personality, and that unmistakable TMNT spirit. It showcases a confident evolution in your art style — bold colors, expressive lines, and a willingness to play with composition. With a few tweaks in anatomy and perspective, future pieces in this style could hit an even stronger professional polish.

A great addition to the Onion Pixels gallery — cowabunga! 🐢✨

Michaelangelo – A Bold Turtle Tribute in Retro Ink

Every now and then I create a drawing that instantly transports me back to the sketchbooks, comic books, and cartoon marathons of my childhood—and this latest piece is absolutely one of them. For today’s post on Onion Pixels, I’m excited to share my new illustration of none other than Michaelangelo, the fun-loving, nunchuck-wielding hero from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe.

This artwork is a vibrant homage to classic TMNT style. Michaelangelo stands confidently in the center, framed by a simple line border that lets the character’s personality steal the spotlight. The orange backdrop sets a warm, energetic tone while also echoing his signature bandana color. His expression—gritted teeth and focused eyes—captures that perfect blend of ninja determination with just a touch of his wild, goofy edge.

The nunchucks are one of the standout details here. The exaggerated chain links give the weapon a dynamic presence that feels stylized, almost comic-book explosive in its design. His muscular arms, outlined with bold strokes, add that retro cartoon charm that fans of the classic TMNT era will instantly recognize.

The hand-drawn typography across the top gives the piece even more personality. The playful, uneven lettering of “Michaelangelo” feels like something straight off an old-school comic cover or VHS box art. And down in the corner, your signature sits proudly—another reminder that Onion Pixels is all about creative expression, nostalgia, and the joy of fan art.

Overall, this illustration captures everything that makes retro fan art so fun: bold colors, dynamic poses, and a character that practically leaps off the page. It’s a tribute not just to Michaelangelo himself, but to the timeless inspiration of 80s and 90s animation.

If you enjoyed this piece, stay tuned—more artwork and pixelated nostalgia are always on the way here at Onion Pixels! Cowabunga! 🐢🍕

Floppy Art 001: Launching a New Retro-Inspired Art Series

Today marks the official start of a brand-new art series here on Onion Pixels—Floppy Art, a playful, nostalgic, and fully digital celebration of an era when creativity fit on just 1.44 MB of magnetic memory. Each entry in this series will spotlight a hand-drawn piece placed on a classic floppy disk, and Entry 001 sets the tone beautifully.

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What Is Floppy Art?

Floppy Art is my new ongoing creative project where I illustrate all kinds of subjects—retro references, modern ideas, characters, logos, and anything my imagination drifts toward—placed directly onto the face of a floppy disk. It’s a fusion of digital illustration, retro computing aesthetics, and a fun reverence for the tech artifacts that shaped so much of early digital culture.

Every piece is numbered and treated like a collectible card—a small relic with big personality.

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Floppy Art 001 – MS-DOS

The first entry in the series proudly displays a classic 3.5" floppy disk drawn with a sketch-like, hand-textured style. The body of the disk is shaded with soft graphite-like strokes, giving it a tactile, almost physical quality despite being digital art.

At the center, the label features a colorful, stylized version of the MS-DOS logo. Instead of a flat recreation, the letters intertwine and overlap in shades of red, yellow, purple, and gray, giving the logo a playful, energetic twist. It feels retro, but also lively—almost like the operating system itself is being reimagined through the lens of modern indie art.

Above the disk, the word "FLOOPY" (intentionally spelled with some whimsical flair) bursts in a rainbow gradient—bold reds, greens, blues, and pinks with rough, lively outlines that match the doodled energy of notebook sketches. The bottom of the piece repeats this multicolor energy with "ART" in similarly expressive letters.

The composition as a whole strikes a balance between structured nostalgia and creative looseness: the rigid geometry of a floppy disk contrasted with uneven, hand-drawn, color-popping text.

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Critique of the Artwork

Floppy Art 001 succeeds as both a standalone piece and the foundation of a new series. The strongest element is its personality—nothing about it feels sterile or purely technical. The disk has life. The rough pencil-like texture adds warmth and charm, while the exaggerated colors in the text punch through the muted blue background.

The MS-DOS logo is a highlight. By reshaping the familiar letters into a more cartoon-like arrangement, it becomes more than a reference—it becomes a reinterpretation. It invites viewers to remember the past while appreciating something new.

One interesting contrast is how the floppy disk remains mostly grayscale, anchoring the art in its retro roots, while the surrounding text explodes with rainbow hues. This duality creates a sense of creative rebellion bursting from old technology, which feels perfect for a series about rethinking forgotten formats.

If there is one small critique, it’s that the floppy’s shadow could potentially be deepened or softened to give the piece slightly more dimension. But even without that adjustment, the artwork stands strong stylistically and visually, especially with its sketchy, grunge-meets-playful aesthetic.

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What’s Next for the Series?

With Entry 001 now complete, the possibilities are limitless. Future floppy disks might feature:

• game logos,

• characters (original or retro-inspired),

• pixel art motifs,

• pop culture references,

• or even surreal, abstract concepts.

Each floppy will serve as a miniature canvas—a digital relic holding a piece of modern imagination.

Stay tuned for Floppy Art 002, and thank you for following along as this series takes shape. Retro tech deserves new life, and this project is just beginning to spin.

Super Bros. 8 – A Retro Fusion of Imagination and Humor

Here’s a fun new piece I just finished called “Super Bros. 8.” It’s a playful reinterpretation of classic platforming adventure art with a humorous twist. The piece blends nostalgic video game vibes with my own original cartoon style, full of color, exaggeration, and energy.

At first glance, you can see a familiar mustached hero in red gear, but with a slightly quirky and rugged look — almost like a woodcutter-turned-adventurer! He’s leaping across a vibrant green landscape, swinging a heavy log weapon toward a startled, spiky creature. The background features bright skies, lush greenery, and even a pumpkin-faced tree, giving the scene a fun mix of whimsy and chaos.

The title, “Super Bros. 8,” along with the Japanese lettering on the trees, adds a nice retro feel — like something you’d find on an obscure Famicom cartridge discovered in a dusty corner of a game shop. It’s that strange mix of familiar and mysterious that makes this piece stand out.

This drawing represents what I love most about creating for Onion Pixels — taking bits of gaming nostalgia and remixing them with odd humor and hand-drawn personality. The idea is to make something that feels like a lost piece of gaming history but with my own flavor of absurdity and fun.

What do you think? Does this feel like the kind of game you’d want to play — or at least see in action? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

🎨 Art by: Luis Zena
🕹️ Blog: Onion Pixels