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i used to think that pixel art was something you could do without a solid background of art knowledge and to some degree that is true but it also sort of seems like writing sheet music for piano without knowing how to play the piano
like both of these are things that can be carried out with enough time and rearranging notes/pixels but they will certainly be a lot faster and better if you have that core supporting knowledge and execution, in my personal opinion
like does this mean you can't or shouldn't do pixel art if you have no art experience? absolutely not, i would never discourage someone from art of any kind, but you would be remiss to not also practice things like color theory, anatomy, perspective if you want to get Good at it
this isnt unique to pixel art, like... certain forms of abstract art are just blobs on a canvas. and is that something you can do without art knowledge? absolutely. and if you WANT to do it, i support that 100%, art is about expression and joy of process, not about skill.
but will your art look better if you understand *why* certain groups of shapes and color look better together? yes, 100%. the same is true for pixel art.
and i have seen a lot of pixel artists visibly try to get away without studying fundamentals while trying to go professional
and i have seen a lot of pixel artists visibly try to get away without studying fundamentals while trying to go professional
it creates this bizarre contrast where someone is pretty good at rendering (that is to say, the process of spending a lot of time on a piece to make it look good) but their underlying concepts like anatomy are super jank ass.
again, i'm not trying to police anyone's art, but -
again, i'm not trying to police anyone's art, but -
generally, if there is an artform you want to become very good at, you will not get away without studying the stuff that makes people good at other artforms just because this is an artform that you can spend theoretically infinite time on to create a finite combination of pixels.
speed, also, is a huge factor. i have been told a million times, 'i wanted to get into pixel art but it just takes so much time!' if you know how the underlying concepts work, that cuts down SIGNIFICANTLY on the amount of time it will take. so does practice, shortcuts etc but yea
i'm thinking about this because -i- was one of those pixel artists, who was better at pixel art than i was at "normal" art, who thought i could get away without studying... but learning more art concepts in the process of improving my non-pixel art significantly improved my work
learning stuff while doing pixel art also benefitted my normal art as well, for example i dont think id have such a strong fundamental understanding of coloring and contrast if not for pixel art. but yeah. my pixel art has benefitted SIGNIFICANTLY from normal art study.
proportions, i think, are the biggest stumbling block for a lot of pixel artists, because certain styles require it. i've seen a lot of pixel artists try and fail to make chibis... and ive been one of them... that is something that requires a strong understanding of proportions.
also things like the alignment of shoulders versus hips and how they tend to stand opposite to each other... how the weight settles in a figure... those are all things you need to make appealing sprites, which are one of the most popular pixel art subjects
you can luck into those things by sheer force of will, redrawing something over and over until it looks right, but if you logically know *why* one thing looks better than the other, why something is the way that it is, your sprites become a lot more consistent, in my experience
anyway this is a long meditation to say that nobody is *required* to study anything, people should do what they want, art elitism sucks especially pixel art elitism, but if you want to get REAL GOOD at art, studying stuff good, lol.
