Each picture is made up of either dots, lines or surfaces – or any combination of these. The most basic elements of creating a picture are dots – but how to create a full picture using nothing but dots? You might be familiar with the way modern computers and screens work. Every digital picture is made of pixels, tiny coloured squares. The smaller the squares (or pixels), the clearer the picture, as you can see from the photos below. The amount of pixels is usually shown in the image information as ppi (pixels per inch). A clear, professional quality image is at least 300 ppi.


But this way of composing a picture was not invented during the digital era. Artists have used it as a way of making art for a long time. The technique of creating a picture using only dots or small coloured areas is called pointillism. Pointillism was a popular technique in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century. The idea is to apply small dots or strokes of different colours close together, so that when you look at the picture from a distance, the colours blend together.

Georges Seurat, 1884. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.


Check out these contemporary artists who use the idea of pointillism and dots in their art today!

Sami Lukkarinen
who creates "pointillist" paintings from social media photos

Miguel Endara
who draws huge drawings using millions of tiny black dots
Video: The Making of "Hero"

Federico Pietrella
who uses date stamps to create "pointillist" artworks

Think 1.1 Look at the following pictures. What can you see? What is pictured here? What colours have been used? Write down or discuss with a partner. To see a "pointillist" image more clearly, you might try to take a step backwards. Can you see better now? Take a peek at the answer key to see what the original photographs look like.
























Create 1.1 Create your own "pixellated" art!

1. Choose an image. You may take a photo, or use an existing image.
2. Print it out and draw a grid over it, or use photo editing software to create a grid. The more squares you have in your grid, the clearer the image will be! A good amount might be 10x15 squares or something similar.
3. Draw a grid of the same proportions on paper. 
4. Look at each of the squares. What is the dominating colour of that square in the original image? Paint in the colour on your paper. Alternatively, you might use cutouts of magazines or coloured paper to fill in the squares!