I would just like to take a moment here and share my thoughts.  As someone completely new to art, I feel that I had pigeon holed myself into being a "pixel artist".
It is the style I want, so the hell with everything else right?

no...

About a week ago, I reluctantly decided to do something I should have done from the beginning.  I put a pen in my hand, and sat in front of a piece of paper, and started drawing basic lines, shapes, and forms.
I hooked up a cheap drawing tablet and began to invest time in front of the computer drawing as well, freestyle.  At first, I got juvenile looking shapes and wobbly lines both on paper and on my screen.  but as the hours past, things started (and continue) to improve for both my regular drawing, and pixel art.

I understand a big part of all of this, is finding something that works for the individual.  But even this seems kind of a blurred line.  With all kinds of information available on the internet, and kind of a green and naive view about everything, it seems pretty easy to fall into "you have to do it like this" mentality.

So, what it boils down to is this -

Where does pixel art stand in the spectrum?  If i strictly draw and sketch the old fashioned way, will my pixel art improve at the same rate as well?
right now i am pretty content pixeling way less than I draw.   Should I pixel more?  are traditional art and pixel art apples and oranges, or granny smiths and red Delicious?