# Dithering × Pixel Art — composed image prompt
# IndexStyle — https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=dithering+pixel-art
# Dithering carries the structure and Pixel Art appears as the accent.
# Style descriptors only. This prompt names no artist, studio, brand or work.

Produce four original images that take their structure from Dithering (technique, 1960s–) and their accent from Pixel Art (technique, 1970s–).

## What to make

Make the kind of thing Dithering exists for: preserving photographic tone on low-color displays and e-paper, or using the grain of early computer images as deliberate digital material. Choose one subject and hold it across all four.

## Structure comes from Dithering

- Two or more pixel colors mixed as checks or grain
- High-frequency dots spreading around tonal boundaries
- Apparent gradients made from a fixed palette
- A pattern up close that becomes an intermediate color at normal distance

Composition: Build broad tonal fields but control diffusion around contours and copy. Type and lettering: Use bitmap or simple sans type that remains intact at low resolution.

## Accent comes from Pixel Art, used sparingly

- Visible pixels
- Limited palettes
- Tiles
- Sprites

Let one material quality come from it: Limited palette, dark outlines, neighboring hues to soften the steps.

## Colour and feeling

Build the ground on #F2F0E8, carry the structure in #6E65A8 and #141414, and let a single accent come from #ef6a55. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.
Feeling to carry: technique, nostalgia, play.

## Where they fight

- Dithering and Pixel Art both belong to Digital Image Techniques, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Dithering and Pixel Art are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.

## What goes wrong

- Dithering: Adding monochrome noise is not dithering. The limited colors must approximate the source value.
- Pixel Art: Downscaling a photograph skips the decision behind every single pixel, and the contours turn muddy the moment the image is enlarged.

## Across the four

Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture.

## Constraints

- Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work.
- Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work.
- Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.

Design specs for each entry: https://indexstyle.org/styles/dithering/design.md · https://indexstyle.org/styles/pixel-art/design.md