Personal Project
Portlandia portraits
I made pixel portraits of my favorite characters from Portlandia. This procrasti-work project was a fun and agonizing exercise in patience, attention to detail, and more patience.
Toni & Candace
My loves. Probably my favorite characters on the show. They are fierce feminists and terrible bookstore owners.
Kath & Dave
Kath and Dave are tightly wound and very purposeful people. They are in a constant state of earnestly doing, or preparing to earnestly do something.
Lance & Nina
Lance is a no-nonsense, alpha male mechanic. Nina is a fun-loving, sweet, social media addicted girly-girl. Like two peas in a pod.
Nance & Peter
Peter is a recovering pasta addict. Nance always stands by “her guy.” I love them, but frankly, sometimes I think she deserves better.
Irys & Spyke
Lovely, punk couple. Aggressively allergic to the status quo and hippies.
Carrie & Fred
The creators and stars of the show!
Tools + references
- Adobe Illustrator
- Alex Griendling’s pixel art tutorial.
Inspiration
I’ve always loved pixel art. A lot of it probably has to do with being a child of the 80’s and growing up playing video games on my classic Nintendo.
I was very curious about the creative process of pixel art and what kinds of tools, techniques, and programs people were using. I found resources online, but there was one tutorial by Alex Griendling that was particularly helpful.
Curiosity, in practice
Sorry, Carrie :/
It’s painful to look at these first drafts, but it’s where I started and it was an important part of my process. Carrie was the most challenging to pixelate. It took a while to figure out how to translate her soft features using pixel blocks. Choosing the right colors and transparency to illustrate shadows, depth, and highlights, especially her eyes, was probably the most challenging part of this entire project.
There are a few drafts missing between iteration four and five and I didn’t always start a new document when I decided to start over. This happened pretty frequently. I found myself burning out a few times and decided to take breaks from the project to recalibrate. Revisiting the project after studying a little more and working on something else, always helped.
Fred was a little easier to render. It helped that I had so much practice drawing Carrie already. Fred’s face is also simpler in a sense. His features, like his eyebrows and lips, for example, are more defined. His eyes are very round and his eyebrows are thicker, so I didn’t have to worry about rendering arcs.
Rendering Carrie and Fred’s head structure and facial features were the main milestones. Once they were finalized, I could begin working on their subtle character expressions, e.g, Lance’s furrowed brow, Toni’s pouty lips, and Nina’s smile. It’s like playing a Mr. Potato Head game except I have to make all the pieces.
This was a fun project.
Last but not least...
I leave you with some gifs..
I put a bird on It 🤡
Play
© 2026 Christine Komatsu
Have a nice day :)
Personal Project
Portlandia portraits
I made pixel portraits of my favorite characters from Portlandia. This procrasti-work project was a fun and agonizing exercise in patience, attention to detail, and more patience.
Toni & Candace
My loves. Probably my favorite characters on the show. They are fierce feminists and terrible bookstore owners.
Kath & Dave
Kath and Dave are tightly wound and very purposeful people. They are in a constant state of earnestly doing, or preparing to earnestly do something.
Lance & Nina
Lance is a no-nonsense, alpha male mechanic. Nina is a fun-loving, sweet, social media addicted girly-girl. Like two peas in a pod.
Nance & Peter
Peter is a recovering pasta addict. Nance always stands by “her guy.” I love them, but frankly, sometimes I think she deserves better.
Irys & Spyke
Lovely, punk couple. Aggressively allergic to the status quo and hippies.
Carrie & Fred
The creators and stars of the show!
Tools + references
- Adobe Illustrator
- Alex Griendling’s pixel art tutorial.
Inspiration
I’ve always loved pixel art. A lot of it probably has to do with being a child of the 80’s and growing up playing video games on my classic Nintendo.
I was very curious about the creative process of pixel art and what kinds of tools, techniques, and programs people were using. I found resources online, but there was one tutorial by Alex Griendling that was particularly helpful.
Curiosity, in practice
Sorry, Carrie :/
It’s painful to look at these first drafts, but it’s where I started and it was an important part of my process. Carrie was the most challenging to pixelate. It took a while to figure out how to translate her soft features using pixel blocks. Choosing the right colors and transparency to illustrate shadows, depth, and highlights, especially her eyes, was probably the most challenging part of this entire project.
There are a few drafts missing between iteration four and five and I didn’t always start a new document when I decided to start over. This happened pretty frequently. I found myself burning out a few times and decided to take breaks from the project to recalibrate. Revisiting the project after studying a little more and working on something else, always helped.
Fred was a little easier to render. It helped that I had so much practice drawing Carrie already. Fred’s face is also simpler in a sense. His features, like his eyebrows and lips, for example, are more defined. His eyes are very round and his eyebrows are thicker, so I didn’t have to worry about rendering arcs.
Rendering Carrie and Fred’s head structure and facial features were the main milestones. Once they were finalized, I could begin working on their subtle character expressions, e.g, Lance’s furrowed brow, Toni’s pouty lips, and Nina’s smile. It’s like playing a Mr. Potato Head game except I have to make all the pieces.
This was a fun project.
Last but not least...
I leave you with some gifs..
I put a bird on It 🤡
Play
© 2026 Christine Komatsu
Have a nice day :)
Personal Project
Portlandia portraits
I made pixel portraits of my favorite characters from Portlandia. This procrasti-work project was a fun and agonizing exercise in patience, attention to detail, and more patience.
Toni & Candace
My loves. Probably my favorite characters on the show. They are fierce feminists and terrible bookstore owners.
Kath & Dave
Kath and Dave are tightly wound and very purposeful people. They are in a constant state of earnestly doing, or preparing to earnestly do something.
Lance & Nina
Lance is a no-nonsense, alpha male mechanic. Nina is a fun-loving, sweet, social media addicted girly-girl. Like two peas in a pod.
Nance & Peter
Peter is a recovering pasta addict. Nance always stands by “her guy.” I love them, but frankly, sometimes I think she deserves better.
Irys & Spyke
Lovely, punk couple. Aggressively allergic to the status quo and hippies.
Carrie & Fred
The creators and stars of the show!
Tools + references
- Adobe Illustrator
- Alex Griendling’s pixel art tutorial.
Inspiration
I’ve always loved pixel art. A lot of it probably has to do with being a child of the 80’s and growing up playing video games on my classic Nintendo.
I was very curious about the creative process of pixel art and what kinds of tools, techniques, and programs people were using. I found resources online, but there was one tutorial by Alex Griendling that was particularly helpful.
Curiosity, in practice
Sorry, Carrie :/
It’s painful to look at these first drafts, but it’s where I started and it was an important part of my process. Carrie was the most challenging to pixelate. It took a while to figure out how to translate her soft features using pixel blocks. Choosing the right colors and transparency to illustrate shadows, depth, and highlights, especially her eyes, was probably the most challenging part of this entire project.
There are a few drafts missing between iteration four and five and I didn’t always start a new document when I decided to start over. This happened pretty frequently. I found myself burning out a few times and decided to take breaks from the project to recalibrate. Revisiting the project after studying a little more and working on something else, always helped.
Fred was a little easier to render. It helped that I had so much practice drawing Carrie already. Fred’s face is also simpler in a sense. His features, like his eyebrows and lips, for example, are more defined. His eyes are very round and his eyebrows are thicker, so I didn’t have to worry about rendering arcs.
Rendering Carrie and Fred’s head structure and facial features were the main milestones. Once they were finalized, I could begin working on their subtle character expressions, e.g, Lance’s furrowed brow, Toni’s pouty lips, and Nina’s smile. It’s like playing a Mr. Potato Head game except I have to make all the pieces.
This was a fun project.
Last but not least...
I leave you with some gifs..
I put a bird on It 🤡
Play
© 2026 Christine Komatsu
Have a nice day :)
Personal Project
Portlandia portraits
I made pixel portraits of my favorite characters from Portlandia. This procrasti-work project was a fun and agonizing exercise in patience, attention to detail, and more patience.
Toni & Candace
My loves. Probably my favorite characters on the show. They are fierce feminists and terrible bookstore owners.
Kath & Dave
Kath and Dave are tightly wound and very purposeful people. They are in a constant state of earnestly doing, or preparing to earnestly do something.
Lance & Nina
Lance is a no-nonsense, alpha male mechanic. Nina is a fun-loving, sweet, social media addicted girly-girl. Like two peas in a pod.
Nance & Peter
Peter is a recovering pasta addict. Nance always stands by “her guy.” I love them, but frankly, sometimes I think she deserves better.
Irys & Spyke
Lovely, punk couple. Aggressively allergic to the status quo and hippies.
Carrie & Fred
The creators and stars of the show!
Tools + references
- Adobe Illustrator
- Alex Griendling’s pixel art tutorial.
Inspiration
I’ve always loved pixel art. A lot of it probably has to do with being a child of the 80’s and growing up playing video games on my classic Nintendo.
I was very curious about the creative process of pixel art and what kinds of tools, techniques, and programs people were using. I found resources online, but there was one tutorial by Alex Griendling that was particularly helpful.
Curiosity, in practice
Sorry, Carrie :/
It’s painful to look at these first drafts, but it’s where I started and it was an important part of my process. Carrie was the most challenging to pixelate. It took a while to figure out how to translate her soft features using pixel blocks. Choosing the right colors and transparency to illustrate shadows, depth, and highlights, especially her eyes, was probably the most challenging part of this entire project.
There are a few drafts missing between iteration four and five and I didn’t always start a new document when I decided to start over. This happened pretty frequently. I found myself burning out a few times and decided to take breaks from the project to recalibrate. Revisiting the project after studying a little more and working on something else, always helped.
Fred was a little easier to render. It helped that I had so much practice drawing Carrie already. Fred’s face is also simpler in a sense. His features, like his eyebrows and lips, for example, are more defined. His eyes are very round and his eyebrows are thicker, so I didn’t have to worry about rendering arcs.
Rendering Carrie and Fred’s head structure and facial features were the main milestones. Once they were finalized, I could begin working on their subtle character expressions, e.g, Lance’s furrowed brow, Toni’s pouty lips, and Nina’s smile. It’s like playing a Mr. Potato Head game except I have to make all the pieces.
This was a fun project.
Last but not least...
I leave you with some gifs..
I put a bird on It 🤡
Play
© 2026 Christine Komatsu