Do I need hand-drawing skills to make pixel art?
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19717
Printed Date: 14 September 2025 at 3:13am
Topic: Do I need hand-drawing skills to make pixel art?
Posted By: xorgate
Subject: Do I need hand-drawing skills to make pixel art?
Date Posted: 04 September 2014 at 7:32am
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The question is clear. I'm a programmer and have been doing sh*tty pixel graphics for a while when I needed it for my games. I'm a mess at hand drawing, and I just wanted to know your opinion on the need for hand drawing skills to make decent pixel art.
I guess it may depends on what level I would like to stand at. I'm a bit worried about this, because if I had the time, I would start now on hand drawing if it were necessary, but programming still takes much time. I also don't want to make super-hyper-duper-cool pixel art like stuff I see on people here, just something that feels more or less right for my tiles and simple characters. Thanks in advance! Nice community btw! 
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Replies:
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 04 September 2014 at 7:48am
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It does help but is not really needed.
Just pixel away and see what develops. Don't compare your art to others as you experiment. Post WIP thread for feedback and help. ------------- |
Posted By: jtfjtfjtf
Date Posted: 04 September 2014 at 8:27am
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You need the mentality of someone who does 2d art but not really the physical skills. Traditional skills associated with drawing like arm control for strokes and pressure and precision for detail don't really come into play. I'm left handed but I do pixel art with my right hand since I use my mouse. I'm not ambidextrous. If you can move your mouse and click it those are all the physical skills you need. |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 04 September 2014 at 10:08am
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As a kid I thought I sucked at drawing, and thus at making art.
When I discovered isometric pixel art it felt like I could cheat my inability to draw, everything was straight lines and just made sense. This was kind of a rediscovery, I had also very good experiences with perspective building drawings. Now I know that you can't really cheat the hand part. It all comes down to what information is in your head, and pen and paper is really the quickest way to pass this information on to your physical eye. If your inner eye thinks something is awesome but you can't draw it, your inner eye is probably wrong... Of course there is more to it, you also need to train your fine motor skill for example in order to draw good on paper... At least with pixel art you can correct your mistakes over and over and it leaves no visible marks. This allowed me to develop to the level I am now. Could I have done this with paper too? Probably yes, if I had believed in myself. Is pixel art a short cut? probably not. ------------- |
Posted By: xorgate
Date Posted: 04 September 2014 at 9:57pm
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Both answers helped me a lot on clearing my head.
Thank you two! |