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.