How I got into pixel art
I recently wrote a pretty long piece on the Lospec Discord server about how I got into pixel art. I thought it was pretty nice so I made a more eloborate writing on here.
This post is seperated into sections, where I answered specific questions that contributes to the main one.
Why art?
I got sick of writing and programming so I chose art as my next creative avenue.
When did you discovered pixel art?
I started discovered pixel art when I found Dotpict and tried it out. The memories with it are great, and although all of my art back then look flatter than anyone's chest, I keep going and created a plethora of works. Then I abandoned pixel art for quite some time (probably due to boredom).
Now, with the sudden rediscovery of Dotpict, my passion got revitalized, and this time I started putting in more effort into making and publishing pixel art.
Why did you choose pixel art?
I chose pixel art for several reasons:
- Studying how someone creates pixel/low-spec art is much easier than with other digital or traditional art, since it's easy to notice and to apply.
- With pixel art you can do a lot with a little, and you can still create decent-looking pixel art without being that good at art in general (like me).
- Gamedev. I had a lot of ins and outs with it before and although none of them come into fruition, it makes me even more interested into pixel art
- Because most of people who do pixel arts are also game developers (or at least programmers to an extent), so I feel a sense of belonging being in the community.
How did you learn pixel art?
I first started reading posts on forums, then watching Youtube videos about animation and the basics.
I also see other people's art and try to notice how they achieve a certain effect, and also apply that to my work if possible.
How did you post your work?
With all of the knowledge I have learned about distributing my work with writing, I chose a few select places to post my work, including Reddit (r/pixelart) and Discord (Lospec Discord Server and Aseprite's) for getting my work some attention, and Mastodon and Dotpict for long-term storage and portfolio.
When I first started posting art, I got kind of overwhelmed by the amount of options I have (Tumblr, ArtStation, NG, all other art platforms), but now I realized most pixel artists post on Twitter/Mastodon anyways, so that's why I sticked to those.
Now, pixelling is something I do in my free time when I feel like I need to throw some stress out.
And that's how I become a pixel artist, quit it, and then come back to it again.