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Discrete art is visual art (whatever "art" means) whose overall appearance is created from a composition of distinct, readily apparent components. Thus, its visual effect comes at two levels — the overall level and the componentry level. Part of its appeal comes from the artistic triumph over a profound constraint, namely, to creating the overall appearance from distinct components. This constraint (and the corresponding artistic challenge) may be compounded by further constraining the creation process to u
Classic examples of discrete art include needlepoint, quilts, decoupage, mosaics, stained glass, parquetry, paint-by-number pictures, concrete poetry, ASCII art, 8-bit art, and brickfilms.
Aspects of continuity do not necessarily preclude a composition from being discrete art. A doily may be crocheted from a continuous thread, yet the overall pattern results from stitches that are discrete components of the doily, and the choice of each stitch is also made from a discrete "palette" of stitches, even though the precise dimensions of each stitch can vary over a continuum. A house of cards (unlike a house of Lincoln Logs®) may allow some continuum of choices as to precisely where the cards are p