AuthorTopic: Beginner artist and pixel artist in need of assistance  (Read 2476 times)

Offline Street

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Hi! I've been drawing pixel art (and dabbling with art in general) for 2 months now. Found out that art is a deep passion of mine and so I've been practicing pixel art at least 3 hours a day through a really good course with a really great and responsive teacher. It's really funny to say, but I want to get really good. Is there anything you can recommend me on doing (even besides pixel art) that will improve my art skills by a whole lot? Although I am seeing huge progress with my art and with the help of this teacher, I feel like I'm missing something that'll boost my art skills. Any help is superbly appreciated!

« Last Edit: August 30, 2018, 10:09:06 pm by Street »

Offline Kiana

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Re: Begginer artist and pixel artist in need of assitance

Reply #1 on: August 30, 2018, 06:11:49 am
It’s great that you’ve discovered a passion of yours and have the drive to practice regularly! You’re on the right track with that and seeking resources.

In terms of general advice, any art fundamentals you learn will apply to pixel art, so it definitely helps to learn them. That is, concepts such as gesture, structure, tone/value, perspective, color theory, the 12 principles of animation, design principles, composition, shape language, etc. There are many resources on each of these, which I’m sure some members can recommend to you if there’s anything specific you struggle with or want to learn about.

However, that advice is pretty basic and you can easily get lost without a goal. It’s also easier to give you advice if we know what your goals are. So what are your goals? What kind of art do you aspire to create? Is there a particular subject matter or style you really like, or something that really inspires you? Where do you hope to see yourself skill-wise in a few years?

If you don’t know how to answer those questions, don’t fret, but knowing what resonates with you and what you want to create will help in both the short and long term.
To achieve mastery is not to be able to work without thinking; rather it is to have total control of one's choices.

Offline Street

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Re: Begginer artist and pixel artist in need of assitance

Reply #2 on: August 30, 2018, 06:52:34 am
It’s great that you’ve discovered a passion of yours and have the drive to practice regularly! You’re on the right track with that and seeking resources.

In terms of general advice, any art fundamentals you learn will apply to pixel art, so it definitely helps to learn them. That is, concepts such as gesture, structure, tone/value, perspective, color theory, the 12 principles of animation, design principles, composition, shape language, etc. There are many resources on each of these, which I’m sure some members can recommend to you if there’s anything specific you struggle with or want to learn about.

However, that advice is pretty basic and you can easily get lost without a goal. It’s also easier to give you advice if we know what your goals are. So what are your goals? What kind of art do you aspire to create? Is there a particular subject matter or style you really like, or something that really inspires you? Where do you hope to see yourself skill-wise in a few years?

If you don’t know how to answer those questions, don’t fret, but knowing what resonates with you and what you want to create will help in both the short and long term.

Thank you really for answering it warms my heart :). For now I really want to get good at everything that is expected of a pixel artist working for the game dev industry. Whether that'll be  sprite creations, animation, weapons, backgrounds, tilesets, textures, and so on.
Long term I really want to get into 3d animation, but that is something I discussed with my parents so I will go to school for that. Something that I really want to understand is color theory. Seeing art created with a cohesive color palettes was amazing to see, and I seriously want to be able to pick colors for my game art that way. Right now I decided on doing 3-4 hours of something else everyday, for example creating textures on Monday and creating simple backgrounds on Tuesday just so I can keep track of what I'm doing. It helps focus on one thing at a time.