There is a huge overlap in skill between all forms of art, that people call fundamentals. Perspective, lights, composition, anatomy, gesture, colour theory, etc.
Most of these you can effectively train with pencil and paper, which will have a direct impact on the overall quality of pixel art you are making, or any other art medium.
Someone can throw you a stick and some shit, and you'll still be able to make beautiful art with it, if your fundamentals are well practiced.
For this reason, there is a catchy phrase going: "Tools don't matter". But what it really means to say is "The most important art skills carry over".
Because at some point you will have to answer another important question. Why implementing your vision in this form of art, not the other?
Why pencil? why painting? why pixels? why sculpting? Why modeling? What exactly do each of these add to the basic idea of the vision?
It is the point you will dive into the creative technicalities of a specific art form, that justify your art choice.
That means your fundamental art skills are expressed in a unique way with the choice of your art form.
On one hand this means, if you got no art fundamentals, what is there to express in pixel art?
On the other it means, if you have no creative ambition with what makes pixel art technically interesting, you make pixel art weak.
Having said that, I like the suggestions given earlier, that you should use the opportunity of having to travel outside for classic observation studies on the real world with quick pencil sketches.