Invisible Cities: KLDPXL

Kldpxl is a pixel artist from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He creates pixel art illustrations that focus on various environments, and landscapes. 

The cities in my artworks while based on real exciting cities aren’t real places, but rather my interpretation of the city itself. A mix of colors atmosphere, architecture, and design that gives that city and the specific place the feeling I’m capturing,

I’ve always been interested in exploring cities and urban scenery with my art. Largely due to me growing up and currently living in a big city. So it’s always been a source of inspiration. And what really fascinates me about cities is the contradictory feelings that it gives at times and even sometimes simultaneously. It feels complex and simple. It feels crowded and empty, and It feels busy, and relaxed. All of these feelings are within a concentrated place.

Cities to me are places of concentrated diversity be it places, people, places, and feelings. 

I have a lot of favorite cities because my art focuses on the small space within a large environment, so I find beauty in almost every place. If I have to pick, I’d say Riyadh because I grew up and currently live here and have a lot of personal memories. Tokyo with all its small alyaways and tall buildings it’s an amazing representation of the small space with a huge city. Lately I’ve been also fascinated by Manchester because of the mix of architecture in that city. It feels dark and modern in a good way. I have to add though I’ve never visited Tokyo or Manchster.

I try to express the emotion through space and atmosphere in every urban artwork I do. It’s an ongoing process and it led me to know more about a lot of stuff including myself. For me, I try to make my personal feeling come organically to the artwork and so many of my artworks carry with it whatever mood and feelings I had during the period I was making the art in. I really like that approach because it’s like a journal and when I look back at the art later I get to relive these memories briefly both the positive and the negative.

The medium I draw it is pixel art. I use a stylus . Other than that my process is fairly traditional. I start with a sketch, I then build my artwork starting with big shapes and get smaller as I work on ot more. This is a gif showcasing the process of one of my artwork on the exhibition.

To be honest I don’t know what my ideal city would look like. imperfections is a big part of my city art because I don’t try romnsize cities but rather show beauty in that imperfection be it a construction blocking a main road or a dirty asphalt parking lot in an industrial area. I guess aesthetically speaking my ideal city won’t look too repetitive and too orderly. But rather diverse and organic. 

All of my city artworks have some plants and trees in them. The relationship between green and urban spaces are something that I’m always exploring in my art. They are in fact inseparable. So nature in that sense is an essential part of my design when I draw cities.

I sometimes put little details in my art in small sections. I’m always happy when people notice them.

My dream project is something that will make me travel and learn more about the world while being creative. Also I really want to draw pixel art on a really big canvas like a tall building with LED lights. I think this would be a cool thing to work on.