How did you start out? What would you do if you started over again

Artwork
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Hello, I recently transitioned from regular drawing to pixel art and I’m struggling to improve past the beginner level.

My big issue is working with small resolutions (32×32 and especially 16×16). I constantly feel the beed to add more detail, but i cannot or more like, don’t know how at such a little scale. I think this is because of my background in regular drawing. Because of that, my pixel art is often looking flat or lifeless.

I’d really appreciate hearing how more experienced artists approached this phase:

  • How do you handle detail in small resolutions?

  • What does your process look like when creating characters or tilesets?

  • How do you make pixel art feel more alive even though you’Re very limited through scale?

I understand that improvement mainly comes from practice, but right now I feel like I’m stuck in a loop and not improving.

I’ve attached one of my first pieces (a dwarf character with beard jewelry and an axe). If you notice any obvious mistakes or things I should focus on improving, I’d really appreciate your feedback.

Thanks a lot!

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I would add shadows on clothes and light on bald head.

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Your form here and fundamentals are already good (especially a strong silhouette + outlining logic) Some things I would do, especially if I came from a drawing background:

  • Study! Find your favourite artists or artworks, and look at how they’re composed, redraw them as reference.
  • Look into ‘pillow’ shading and ‘clusters’ - two major differentiators in ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ art (though, no art is bad :wink: )
  • In a limited palette it’s all about giving it as much bandwidth as possible. High contrast, strong definition, letting the eye do the blending.
  • Small artwork largely relies on exaggerated proportions, e.g. if the beard and the jewellery are what makes that character identifiable, then go large.
  • Practice practice practice, many small steps make something big, never forget that.

Just some things off the top of my head!

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