Spriting and You

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about something regarding the art of spriting.  Obviously, with the many styles of art out there, everyone has their own techniques to doing things.  What I really wanted to point out is that everyone that has an imagination and even the most basic artistic talents can be a great pixel artist. 

Pixel art is a popular art form for many and easy for most artists to get into thanks to the lack of insane hardware and software requirements.  A beginner pixel artist could start out by using ordinary MS Paint.  It is such a basic software but it has all that you would need.  This is one of the things that sets pixel art from other art forms and can be an introduction into much greater and fun opportunities. 

The thing I would like to point out is that in my tutorials and everyone elses tutorials, we describe different ways of approaching the end result.  To be honest, all that matters is the end result.  When you want to learn how to do things, your best bet would be to learn all possible ways to do that task.  The same goes for pixel art and all sorts of spriting work.  Any tutorial that I post by myself or another individual, take that as only one method to doing it because afterall this is art and we all are just doing what we enjoy, how we enjoy it.  With that said, here are a few tips that you always want to keep in mind:

• When you are given the option to use layers, use them.  This helps save you time if you mess up.
• Free isn't always the best but it can get you by.  Use programs like Graphics Gale Free Edition if you have the opportunity (you won't regret switching to it from MS Paint).
• The hard way isn't always the best way.  Try to think of all the different ways to achieve your end result without jumping through hoops.
• Practice daily!  Even if it is for 30 minutes, practice makes perfect.  A good exercise is to get an 8bit palette and practice with only those colors.  This will help give you an eye for colors and ideas on how to make the most out of such a limited palette.
• Everyone has a bad day.  If your pixels aren't coming together to form that image in your head very well one day, step away for a bit and do something else and wind down.  Chances are if you stress yourself out over it, you will never finish it and you will lose interest really easily.

I guess that is really all I have to say on that matter.  From what I said, take what you will out of it.  My only goal with this is to help you succeed in finding your path to success with your hobby.  I hope some of the information I gave is enough to get you started or keep you going, no matter what skill level you are.