Nintendo fan Chris Olian takes well known, beloved video game characters from your childhood and immortalizes them with acrylic paint on canvas. Checkout some of his amazing artwork.

KD: How long have you been doing this type of art?

CO: I’ve been painting since 2005 and recently got back into it. I have some big things planned for 2014 like a Wind Waker remake painting and a Shovel Knight painting. I was actually featured in Nintendo Power way back in the day and its awesome to come full circle and get featured in the spiritual successor of that great magazine! I do perler beads as well, although it was just alot of single sprite stuff. something to sell at cons or shows to people that couldnt afford paintings, you know? Pixel painting is pretty meticulous. I basically do each painting 3 times. The 1st time is getting all the colors down, the 2nd time is putting on a really thick coat to cover the grid underneath and the 3rd coat I clean it up and make it look like a screenshot.

KD: Is it a long process?

CD: It’s kind of a long process. a little tedious. I’ll see a scene I like and then decide what size pixels I want to paint in and what size canvas I want to paint on. Once that is decided, I’ll crop the scene down to fit the mathematics so the screenshot and the canvas have the exact same number of pixels. Then I’ll use a ruler and t-square to grid the canvas and start painting. I put 3 coats of paint on my paintings. First coat is to get all the color down, second coat is thicker to cover up the grid underneath and the third and final coat is when I paint slower and make it look crisp and screenshot like.

.KD: What made you decide to start painting over the perler beads themselves?

CO: Painting is what I started with so it is more near and dear to me. Perler stuff started just to be able to sell something at shows when people couldn’t afford a painting. Plus the paintings are more durable and easier to hang on a wall than massive perler bead sprites!

CO: The 3-d pixelated goomba is made from wooden cubes. I glued them together one by one to make the 3d sculpture, then I sanded it a little bit and then painted it. That goomba is over 1000 cubes. The link to the past one piece is another mixed media piece using a painted acrylic background and then having the sprites be perler beads with magnets on them. The chalk guys were done with sidewalk chalk down in baltimore. We placed link over the bench so he would downstab people waiting for the bus. The picture showcases this perfectly. Mario is almost 8 feet tall.

KD: A lot of your artwork is inspired by Nintendo. What is your favorite, or one of your favorite Nintendo games?

CO: I love the old school NES and SNES games the most. My top loader NES works perfectly and usually the carts work only after a few blows! Haha. My favorite NES game might be Contra. Favorite SNES game is a little harder to decide. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 3(US) and Super Metroid are all amazing.

KD: Where can our readers purchase some of your pieces?

CO: You can message me on Facebook/DevianART or email me directly at eightbitartist@gmail.com