The world was given a slight reprieve from the unbearable antics of April Fools’ Day this year given the festivities fell on a Saturday. But Reddit also did its part to make April 1 a little more bearable with a collaborative art project that saw thousands of users painstakingly creating pixel art, one tile at a time, on a giant million-pixel canvas.


Reddit Place started off with a gigantic blank canvas where the site’s users could color individual pixels, but were limited to one modification every five minutes. This led to a slow and methodical battle for pixel art supremacy that went on for 72 straight hours, eventually recreating masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and countless pop culture references.


By the time the project was complete, many contributors had created automated drawing tools to help preserve their tiny mark on the massive canvas. But the final results, compiled into a giant 4K timelapse, are fascinating to watch as they unfold over three entire days.

[YouTube via Waxy]



