Learning How To Pixel: The Evolution of My First Two Weeks of Pixel Art

[Terbografx]

So I've been teaching myself these past two weeks, using different resources as reference, how to make pixel art. Here are a couple pieces, posted in chronological order, showing how my technique has changed. I welcome and encourage a lot of critique and tips! Thank you!















As you can tell in this next one, I've only started ditching the black outlines and messing with selout/AA:

[r1k]

not a bad start.  Heres some basic observations:


check here for some more info on banding:
http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

as far as I understand, selout is just AAing into a background when you dont have a consistant background (the background is transparant, it is a game sprite etc).  Selout is generally considered to be a bad practice.  AAing into a background on the other hand is fine, provided the background is consistant.

On the last image, without outlines, heres some basic observations:

1. Consider contrast and saturation.  High saturated colors can look too similar within a given value range.  High saturated blue and red are notorius for this.  See youre hat doesnt have enough contrast. 
Also consider: Does everything have to be saturated?  Also should the light areas and shadow areas both be highly saturated?  Try to create a light logic (more saturated lights, lower saturated shadows, or vice versa).

2. Color ramps and  hue shifting.  For example greens could become more yellowish in the lights and more blue in the shadows, rather than being the same hue at every value.  Warmer lights and cooler shadows is the norm, but it isnt an unbreakable rule.

[Terbografx]

Thank you so much, r1k! This really helps! Can't wait to make some revisions using your tips.

[Âme]

This is an alright start but I would consider working on some smaller pieces. When you have a smaller area to work with it takes less time to finish, meaning you have less time to get frusterated with something not turning out. Plus it's a bit of a challange to learn how to get all that detail into a smaller space so it helps you learn what techniques work and how to conserve your pixels. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so for my work I feel that every pixel has to be placed just right. Anyway, it would probably be best to start small and practice till you feel confortable with it, then work your way up. If your small art is good, your big pieces will turn out better.

You have a lot of courage though. when I started pixel art I was afraid to post anything on this site for ever and just lurked for a year.
Good luck and good pixeling!

[Cupcake]

You're off to a good start!

R1k has some good advice, and I want to reinforce the shading suggestions - you're doing relatively little with shading so far. Don't be afraid of it! Shading is an excellent way to really define the form and volume of an object or figure while relying less heavily on your linework.


This is a messy edit, I haven't reworked the fine details like you really ought to with pixel art, but I think it gets the idea across!
You'll also notice that my colors follow the hue shifting advice r1k gave you. Generally speaking, you want the shadows to be a contrasting color to your light source and your highlights to take on more of the light's color. "Default" for this tends to be yellow highlights/blue or purple shading. This is because most common light sources tend to be yellowish - like sunlight, for example!

You should try playing around with color and contrast, see how an image changes when you alter something... for instance, here's my above edit, but with the warm/cold shifts for the shadows and highlights reversed.

[Terbografx]

This is all great advice. Thank you all!

[Terbografx]

I tried something simpler/smaller. I tried using as much of the great advice I got from everyone in this thread!



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