Today I decided to experiment with different styles of generating pixel art, in hopes of combating the usual slow-format creation technique with something more readily available. I typically produce pixel art in the meticulous, pixel-by-pixel manner, and so doing a group-scale render like this was an interesting experiment. I still did some solo pixel detailing into this piece, but I managed to work a lot faster than I usually would.
I took reference from a photo of the Chicago skyline from a blog post here I tried to emulate the style of pixel artists such as @SOFTWARING, who use a lot of tonal shades in their work.
Overall, this method works well to create a strong 'mood' to the image, but I think it would translate better for skylines and landscapes such as this as opposed to characters, which I do in my usual work. I especially like the effect created with the reflection of the buildings in the water. I will revisit this method and see if I can create similar effects on a more natural scene - perhaps mountains or fields.