Drag wrote:
I like all of this artwork, but I don't know why and it's bothering me.

Well, I can list the things I like about his work and maybe you'll agree with me:
- The use of colors other than black to connect things, like purple. This reduces the overall contrast and makes the common color to be interpreted differently depending on the surrounding colors, creating the illusion of more colors.
- The use of non obvious colors for shading, like pink highlighting stones or magenta darkening brown. This gives the environments more realistic lighting than using different shades of the safe hue like many NES games do, and also contributes to the illusion of more colors.
- The use of irregular shapes in blocks and patterns make things look less predictable and more organic. Even 1-bit silhouettes in the background gain a lot of depth because of this.
- Very efficient shading and highlighting, even without dedicated colors or in areas with only 2 colors. Everything appears to have depth, even when the hardware limitations make this hard.
There are certainly more reasons for why I like surt's art so much, but the masterful use of color is certainly one of the most prominent. The surreal environments are also very captivating, much more so than attempts at more realistic settings.
Please keep the awesome art coming, surt!