I have made pixel art for years. not much though. as such i still consider myself 25% beginner. I will be updating this post every now and place the best tips on the first post. #1 Don't fix what isn't broken. when creating art remember that as a beginner...it will likely suck. or be decent. but even as a good or great artist... you will rarely be satisfied. as such try not to improve too much on it. think the original star wars trilogy. editing something already good...can make it bad. very bad. #2 The feel,the Theme. if you have a theme for your art or a feeling for it...try listening to music. if you want to make something that FEELS like it came from a desert...listen to something that SOUNDS like it came from there. #3 outlines can be an ugly duckling. even though outlines can look bad...and can seem impossible to fix...try to color it the way you intended at first. it may look better than it would have without the initial bad outline. example. i recreated the fierce deity sword from Majora's mask. it took three tries. on the third try the outline looked had 4 ugly spots i gave up on making it look good and just colored it... but when colored in...it was beautiful. better than without it. #4 keep the originals. never lose them. if you make an outline save it as its own file,then keep going. save the finished project as its own file. down the line it can save time when making something new or remaking it. #4.5 the older art is refreshing or educating. it can be a learning and refreshing thing to look back at what you made earlier and see how much better you became. if you make good art and earlier was not as good...use that to refresh yourself. feel good at how much better you have become. if you make crappy art but earlier it was good...look back. figure out what made your earlier stuff better. and learn from it. If you make good art and earlier was on a close level...well that shows that you've done very well. your style is likely defined and you need keep it honed and sharp. #5 get other opinions.especially untrained ones. sometimes the strongest opinion,comes from the weakest source. and sometimes the worst ones come from the best... If you find someone who is not an artist...get their opinion on your artwork. get them to talk about everything that is good or bad. Good artists can expect more out of you and overwork you. those untrained can sometimes find gems or faults in your work that even the best will overlook. value those more. but not too much more. #6 Experiment. every once in awhile there will be screw ups. but sometimes those screw ups...look interesting. keep them. save them as you would the outlines and finish your current project. then go back to the strange thing you made. expand it. do everything you can with it. for example. while drawing a protoss pylon for a furniture mod, i made a few mistakes with editing. i tried to hasten the progress and made the center upside down to make it look right. i took too much space... but then it looked...odd...but better. much better. i found a new method of creating art. totally by accident. i found that the finished 2nd pylon looked so much better than the first pylon. #7 sometimes faster is better. usually not though. occasionally the process to find a method is to slow. sometimes it will be impossible to keep going by going slowly. if you cannot do it slow, try it fast. not to fast but fast enough. always use it as a semi last resort. if it still doesn't work go back to being slow and try some other way if it worked only half way...keep the good half and remake the other slowly. Example. i made some spiky grass. but every time i took it slowly it looked unnatural. so i speed up the process a little. i drew the first few lines quickly. finally i had a good base outline. or at least half of it. i drew the rest of the outline slowly. now i had a decent outline. which turned into decent grass. (never said i was more than a decent artist) #8 small doses of negativity can be inspiring. but be wary. sometimes a little bad can do lots of good. if you feel down or angry draw something that comes out of that. sometimes you can make something good. never draw when you are more than slightly sad or mildly irritated. example. Too much sadness can make it worse for you. and i don't mean for the art. i mean your mental health. drawing depressing things can make you feel worse. As for being angry...small things can easily set you off. messing up art can end up with smashing something valuable... I've nearly been there. trust me. if you start getting angry, then stop drawing. Closing. That is all i can think of for now. if anyone thinks of good art tips,send em my way. via PM or comment. its more likely i will see it via PM then comment. try both just in case. I might reword it but i will still put your name on it.
