AuthorTopic: Newbie needs help  (Read 5204 times)

Offline C5

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Newbie needs help

on: September 27, 2016, 04:31:47 am
So I'm a relatively new user of the forum and I've been curious as to how I can get around the pixel art medium, I've tried a few images but nothing big.

Any good tips as to how to start?
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Offline RAV

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #1 on: September 27, 2016, 05:04:22 am
Yes, use the search function of this forum. or look two topics below you. :) That's a bit snippish to say, but it's a common question that gets answered a lot. This forum has a lot to offer, but nothing is more important to your development than personal initiative. To be more helpful, the personal advise here depends on how much experience you have with arts beforehand. If you are experienced with drawing and painting, you can jump straight away to the many cool specifics of what makes pixel art fascinating, the art techniques and technical mechanics, the editors and settings and workflows. There's a whole lot interesting stuff about pixel art in particular, waiting to be played with. However, don't fool yourself for a second, if you have little to no experience with arts, pixel art is no better solution for that than any other art, and what you should learn more about first is things like gesture, anatomy, lights, perspective, etc, probably best in another way than pixel art. What's then as important is learning how to interpret your art knowledge in a pixel art way.

Offline Cyangmou

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #2 on: September 27, 2016, 08:14:08 am
Just start doing it.
Do stuff.
Do a lot of it.
Share it with the world.
Take in critique.
Apply critique.
Experiment.
Do a lot of stuff.
Acquire experience.
Get better over time.
Do more stuff.
Have fun.

Focus on doing art and enjoying the process, rather than getting depressed because you suck at it.
There are always things you will suck at, but you can have fun anyways.
If you suck at things, simply do those hundreds of times.

But if you want some valuable tips, I'd have loved to get as I started it would be those:
http://cyangmou.deviantart.com/art/5-Tips-for-the-Aspiring-Pixel-Artist-457660938
"Because the beauty of the human body is that it hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."

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Offline C5

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #3 on: September 27, 2016, 09:11:39 am
Yes, use the search function of this forum. or look two topics below you. :) That's a bit snippish to say, but it's a common question that gets answered a lot. This forum has a lot to offer, but nothing is more important to your development than personal initiative. To be more helpful, the personal advise here depends on how much experience you have with arts beforehand. If you are experienced with drawing and painting, you can jump straight away to the many cool specifics of what makes pixel art fascinating, the art techniques and technical mechanics, the editors and settings and workflows. There's a whole lot interesting stuff about pixel art in particular, waiting to be played with. However, don't fool yourself for a second, if you have little to no experience with arts, pixel art is no better solution for that than any other art, and what you should learn more about first is things like gesture, anatomy, lights, perspective, etc, probably best in another way than pixel art. What's then as important is learning how to interpret your art knowledge in a pixel art way.
 

Yes, I have some experience with paint as well mixed medium (I took fine arts as a subject) tho I don't really consider myself as an artist. I can use different kind of shades and stuff but I'm not really sure about anatomy.. tried to do studies of it.. I can post some of my "anatomical" images if you want.
Why can't skeletons play church music?
...Because they have no organs!

Offline C5

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #4 on: September 27, 2016, 09:22:02 am
Just start doing it.
Do stuff.
Do a lot of it.
Share it with the world.
Take in critique.
Apply critique.
Experiment.
Do a lot of stuff.
Acquire experience.
Get better over time.
Do more stuff.
Have fun.

Focus on doing art and enjoying the process, rather than getting depressed because you suck at it.
There are always things you will suck at, but you can have fun anyways.
If you suck at things, simply do those hundreds of times.

But if you want some valuable tips, I'd have loved to get as I started it would be those:
http://cyangmou.deviantart.com/art/5-Tips-for-the-Aspiring-Pixel-Artist-457660938

I'll try my best I suppose, kinda lost my way as an artist but eh.
Thanks for the link btw  ;D
Why can't skeletons play church music?
...Because they have no organs!

Offline RAV

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #5 on: September 27, 2016, 09:37:49 am
Don't sweat it, pal, it's fine. I'm a great fan of the "just enjoy yourself and stick with it" principle myself. It's most of all how I learn things. I was a bit blunt in my advice. We had various discussions here about various angles how to approach learning things and especially arts, and maybe a slight reality check and setting priorities can be good too. I do think that a slightly more structured approach can speed things up a bit. But it's really most important that you somehow stick to fiddling with things, hang around, soak in the atmosphere with other creatives. Check out our Daily Sketch topic, see how others go about learning things, try participate, maybe it gives you ideas and keeps you motivated.

Offline 0xDB

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #6 on: September 27, 2016, 10:16:28 am
"To begin, begin." --William Wordsworth

I found that the more I talk/write in a "I want to..., I'm gonna..., I need to..., this and that and whatnot" style, the less likely it is that I'm actually going to really do it. So my advice is simple: do it, start, gain momentum, make it habitual and don't waste too much time announcing to the world what you're going to do, just do it, dump it, rinse and repeat. Most important of all: ENJOY it.

Offline RAV

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #7 on: September 27, 2016, 11:01:44 am
There is another thing I'd like to mention here.

Everyone knows who Bruce Lee is. Famous martial artist, a guy who is great at punching stuff. What has this to do with words? What few know is, Bruce Lee was a total nerd. That guy would read every damn book about human physiology, nutrition, physical exersize, martial arts, strategy in warfare, he would fly around the world and talk to every expert he could find, whatever would give him ideas about improving his martial practice. This is an important part why he became one of the best. Of course this doesn't mean he would spend more time reading and talking about martial arts than practicing martial arts. But it doesn't mean he shouldn't do that at all because "what has this to do with beating up people and stuff?". You know what the renown boxer Vitali Klitchko is? a PHD in sports science. Know who his advisors are? doctors. So he can better whoop ass in the ring.

There is sometimes this shallow attitude in arts, and even a vulgar pride, in total illiteracy. Get over it. it's useless. There are a lot of great books on the arts. They are there to help you. Universities offer practice facilities a normal person may not be able to have at home. Institutions are there to connect with people and exchange ideas, have conversations, discuss, debate, for exposure and inspiration. Hell, that's even what Shaolin Monks do about interpretation of faith and practice. Make use of everything that has something to offer. There are valid critiques on problems with centralized academics etc. But so are there on everything else. Words can confuse and deceive you? Well yeah, but so can feelings of pretty pictures, which you then can only escape with the truth of rational thought. Learn to make the best of things, not to be afraid of things.



I once had discussions with friends about learning skill, and this too is relevant here I think:

Because the thing is, you need to get knee deep into stuff to really understand it, there is no best way, where is different cases and a lot of experience coming from coding, coding and more coding, bold experimentation, gone awry and astray, that's where you build up understanding, you need to build up intuition. There is this misunderstanding that only arts are about your guts and feels and stuff, and then there is science that is all thinking. The truth is, any kind of mastery is about intuition that came from exercise and thinking. A good chess player or mathematician feels where the most promising and brilliant solution is before he (in)validates the intuition in detailed rationale. But intuition must be earned with hard work. You feel intuitive solution because you have mastered a difficulty, and that which you haven't mastered yet you must think and exercise until you masterfully feel solutions. Well, ho-hum, of course, right. Plenty of trends have been coming and going, and they are all good, if you critically investigate them, their right measure and best cases of use. I find it amazingly interesting when people do extreme (ab)uses for project study, but in the end their true achievement should be understanding how it connects the many dots, than to make a single point.

But when it is about building skills, it's important to stay in continuous touch with your craft. And that you do by embracing its rhythm: a project consists of many aspects, some more difficult than others. Some deeds feel recreative, some exhausting. It is important to switch between tasks of varying scope, difficulty and playfulness, to go along with your various conditions of fitness, than to drop the craft for long on self-destruct. Phases of ambition rise naturally out of curious playfulness; but switching from a mindset of serious accomplishment to playful experiment is something you need to remind yourself again at times; why you love your craft, not learn to hate it in hunting after a certain idea of progress.


« Last Edit: September 27, 2016, 11:05:06 am by RAV »

Offline C5

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #8 on: September 28, 2016, 03:32:32 am
There is another thing I'd like to mention here.

Everyone knows who Bruce Lee is. Famous martial artist, a guy who is great at punching stuff. What has this to do with words? What few know is, Bruce Lee was a total nerd. That guy would read every damn book about human physiology, nutrition, physical exersize, martial arts, strategy in warfare, he would fly around the world and talk to every expert he could find, whatever would give him ideas about improving his martial practice. This is an important part why he became one of the best. Of course this doesn't mean he would spend more time reading and talking about martial arts than practicing martial arts. But it doesn't mean he shouldn't do that at all because "what has this to do with beating up people and stuff?". You know what the renown boxer Vitali Klitchko is? a PHD in sports science. Know who his advisors are? doctors. So he can better whoop ass in the ring.

There is sometimes this shallow attitude in arts, and even a vulgar pride, in total illiteracy. Get over it. it's useless. There are a lot of great books on the arts. They are there to help you. Universities offer practice facilities a normal person may not be able to have at home. Institutions are there to connect with people and exchange ideas, have conversations, discuss, debate, for exposure and inspiration. Hell, that's even what Shaolin Monks do about interpretation of faith and practice. Make use of everything that has something to offer. There are valid critiques on problems with centralized academics etc. But so are there on everything else. Words can confuse and deceive you? Well yeah, but so can feelings of pretty pictures, which you then can only escape with the truth of rational thought. Learn to make the best of things, not to be afraid of things.



I once had discussions with friends about learning skill, and this too is relevant here I think:

Because the thing is, you need to get knee deep into stuff to really understand it, there is no best way, where is different cases and a lot of experience coming from coding, coding and more coding, bold experimentation, gone awry and astray, that's where you build up understanding, you need to build up intuition. There is this misunderstanding that only arts are about your guts and feels and stuff, and then there is science that is all thinking. The truth is, any kind of mastery is about intuition that came from exercise and thinking. A good chess player or mathematician feels where the most promising and brilliant solution is before he (in)validates the intuition in detailed rationale. But intuition must be earned with hard work. You feel intuitive solution because you have mastered a difficulty, and that which you haven't mastered yet you must think and exercise until you masterfully feel solutions. Well, ho-hum, of course, right. Plenty of trends have been coming and going, and they are all good, if you critically investigate them, their right measure and best cases of use. I find it amazingly interesting when people do extreme (ab)uses for project study, but in the end their true achievement should be understanding how it connects the many dots, than to make a single point.

But when it is about building skills, it's important to stay in continuous touch with your craft. And that you do by embracing its rhythm: a project consists of many aspects, some more difficult than others. Some deeds feel recreative, some exhausting. It is important to switch between tasks of varying scope, difficulty and playfulness, to go along with your various conditions of fitness, than to drop the craft for long on self-destruct. Phases of ambition rise naturally out of curious playfulness; but switching from a mindset of serious accomplishment to playful experiment is something you need to remind yourself again at times; why you love your craft, not learn to hate it in hunting after a certain idea of progress.

I'm sorry but I did not understand the point that you wanted to state.
Why can't skeletons play church music?
...Because they have no organs!

Offline RAV

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Re: Newbie needs help

Reply #9 on: September 28, 2016, 03:55:32 am
Don't mind. I ranted a bit off tangent here. I tend to do that.