Pixel art has been around since the birth of the ENIAC. I became aware of it once as a user of Gaia Online. There I started to explore the art section and began to expose my works. It took me a while to aim for a specific audience and style, that’s when I saw for the first time pixel art food. Ice Pandora and AnimeJet became the pioneers and influences of my pixel art. Sugaruni and many more came along which made a huge impact on my progress.

Building Up An Empire

I decided to make an account for my pixel art called Juicy Zone (I’m either conflicted with confused users searching for the porn site, a controversial 2D artist, or the rapper Juicy J) and started by putting some works, including great tutorials and commissions. It took me a lot of time and effort to build up my little empire. I love to post lots of tutorials, from explanatory ones to non-detailed ones. Most of my tutorials gained a lot of attention and reaction, and I’m very happy with the results. My first submission was this tutorial about the general concept of doing pixel art.

My first tries were awful, I usually got desperate with my work because I didn’t like what I was doing. So to improve my technique I had to study other artists’ works, replicate photo references for practice, and make a comparison with my progression to see what results were better suitable for my style.

Something Else Caught My Attention

Later on, I stumbled upon more elaborate pixel artworks like Apomix and Gullacass. Their work is completely astonishing! As I was blown away by the magnitude of their works, I started to practice and study what other things you can create with pixel art.

Still, even though I have a large number of followers today, gaining attention and more active commission is quite a task. Since I’m moving more to freelance and marketing, I still have a lot to learn. The one thing that I need to compromise and make better is my activity and consistency in my social platforms. I want to improve those small bumps and continue with success!

Overall

Pixel art it’s not that easy, especially from the beginning. You can make it either with a mouse and MS Paint or buy a tablet and use Photoshop or any other program. This type of art will break down your gauge of patience, drive you mad with colors, and probably will be cruel to you when working with dimensions. Be patient, explore, question everything, and enjoy it.