deviously-dangerous - Tumblr blog

[deviously-dangerous]

⭐ So you want to learn pixel art? ⭐

🔹 Part 1 of ??? - The Basics!

Hello, my name is Tofu and I'm a professional pixel artist. I have been supporting myself with freelance pixel art since 2020, when I was let go from my job during the pandemic.

My progress, from 2017 to 2024. IMO the only thing that really matters is time and effort, not some kind of natural talent for art.

This guide will not be comprehensive, as nobody should be expected to read allat. Instead I will lean heavily on my own experience, and share what worked for me, so take everything with a grain of salt. This is a guide, not a tutorial. Cheers!

🔹 Do I need money?

NO!!! Pixel art is one of the most accessible mediums out there.

I still use a mouse because I prefer it to a tablet! You won't be at any disadvantage here if you can't afford the best hardware or software.

Because our canvases are typically very small, you don't need a good PC to run a good brush engine or anything like that.

✨Did you know? One of the most skilled and beloved pixel artists uses MS PAINT! Wow!!

🔹 What software should I use?

Here are some of the most popular programs I see my friends and peers using. Stars show how much I recommend the software for beginners! ⭐

💰 Paid options:

⭐⭐⭐ Aseprite (for PC) - $19.99

This is what I and many other pixel artists use. You may find when applying to jobs that they require some knowledge of Aseprite. Since it has become so popular, companies like that you can swap raw files between artists.

Aseprite is amazingly customizable, with custom skins, scripts and extensions on Itch.io, both free and paid.

If you have ever used any art software before, it has most of the same features and should feel fairly familiar to use. It features a robust animation suite and a tilemap feature, which have saved me thousands of hours of labour in my work. The software is also being updated all the time, and the developers listen to the users. I really recommend Aseprite!

⭐ Photoshop (for PC) - Monthly $$

A decent option for those who already are used to the PS interface. Requires some setup to get it ready for pixel-perfect art, but there are plenty of tutorials for doing so.

Animation is also much more tedious on PS which you may want to consider before investing time!

⭐⭐ ProMotion NG (for PC) - $19.00

An advanced and powerful software which has many features Aseprite does not, including Colour Cycling and animated tiles.

⭐⭐⭐ Pixquare (for iOS) - $7.99 - $19.99

Probably the best app available for iPad users, in active development, with new features added all the time.

Look! My buddy Jon recommends it highly, and uses it often.

One cool thing about Pixquare is that it takes Aseprite raw files! Many of my friends use it to work on the same project, both in their office and on the go.

⭐ Procreate (for iOS) - $12.99

If you have access to Procreate already, it's a decent option to get used to doing pixel art. It does however require some setup. Artist Pixebo is famously using Procreate, and they have tutorials of their own if you want to learn.

🆓 Free options:

⭐⭐⭐ Libresprite (for PC)

Libresprite is an alternative to Aseprite. It is very, very similar, to the point where documentation for Aseprite will be helpful to Libresprite users.

⭐⭐ Pixilart (for PC and mobile)

A free in-browser app, and also a mobile app! It is tied to the website Pixilart, where artists upload and share their work. A good option for those also looking to get involved in a community.

⭐⭐ Dotpict (for mobile)

Dotpict is similar to Pixilart, with a mobile app tied to a website, but it's a Japanese service. Did you know that in Japanese, pixel art is called 'Dot Art'? Dotpict can be a great way to connect with a different community of pixel artists! They also have prompts and challenges often.

🔹 So I got my software, now what?

◽Nice! Now it's time for the basics of pixel art.

❗ WAIT ❗ Before this section, I want to add a little disclaimer. All of these rules/guidelines can be broken at will, and some 'no-nos' can look amazing when done intentionally.

The pixel-art fundamentals can be exceedingly helpful to new artists, who may feel lost or overwhelmed by choice. But if you feel they restrict you too harshly, don't force yourself! At the end of the day it's your art, and you shouldn't try to contort yourself into what people think a pixel artist 'should be'. What matters is your own artistic expression. 💕👍

◽Phew! With that out of the way...

🔸"The Rules"

There are few hard 'rules' of pixel art, mostly about scaling and exporting. Some of these things will frequently trip up newbies if they aren't aware, and are easy to overlook.

🔹Scaling method

There are a couple ways of scaling your art. The default in most art programs, and the entire internet, is Bi-linear scaling, which usually works out fine for most purposes. But as pixel artists, we need a different method.

Both are scaled up x10. See the difference?

On the left is scaled using Bilinear, and on the right is using Nearest-Neighbor. We love seeing those pixels stay crisp and clean, so we use nearest-neighbor. 

(Most pixel-art programs have nearest-neighbor enabled by default! So this may not apply to you, but it's important to know.)

🔹Mixels

Mixels are when there are different (mixed) pixel sizes in the same image.

Here I have scaled up my art- the left is 200%, and the right is 150%. Yuck!

As we can see, the "pixel" sizes end up different. We generally try to scale our work by multiples of 100 - 200%, 300% etc. rather than 150%. At larger scales however, the minute differences in pixel sizes are hardly noticeable!

Mixels are also sometimes seen when an artist scales up their work, then continues drawing on it with a 1 pixel brush.

Many would say that this is not great looking! This type of pixels can be indicative of a beginner artist. But there are plenty of creative pixel artists out there who mixels intentionally, making something modern and cool.

🔹Saving Your Files

We usually save our still images as .PNGs as they don’t create any JPEG artifacts or loss of quality. It's a little hard to see here, but there are some artifacts, and it looks a little blurry. It also makes the art very hard to work with if we are importing a JPEG.

For animations .GIF is good, but be careful of the 256 colour limit. Try to avoid using too many blending mode layers or gradients when working with animations. If you aren’t careful, your animation could flash afterwards, as the .GIF tries to reduce colours wherever it can. It doesn’t look great!

Here's an old piece from 2021 where I experienced .GIF lossiness, because I used gradients and transparency, resulting in way too many colours.

🔹Pixel Art Fundamentals - Techniques and Jargon

❗❗Confused about Jaggies? Anti-Aliasing? Banding? Dithering? THIS THREAD is for you❗❗

As far as I'm concerned, this is THE tutorial of all time for understanding pixel art. These are techniques created and named by the community of people who actually put the list together, some of the best pixel artists alive currently. Please read it!!

🔸How To Learn

Okay, so you have your software, and you're all ready to start. But maybe you need some more guidance? Try these tutorials and resources! It can be helpful to work along with a tutorial until you build your confidence up.

⭐⭐ Pixel Logic (A Digital Book) - $10 A very comprehensive visual guide book by a very skilled and established artist in the industry. I own a copy myself.

⭐⭐⭐ StudioMiniBoss - free A collection of visual tutorials, by the artist that worked on Celeste! When starting out, if I got stuck, I would go and scour his tutorials and see how he did it.

⭐ Lospec Tutorials - free A very large collection of various tutorials from all over the internet. There is a lot to sift through here if you have the time.

⭐⭐⭐ Cyangmou's Tutorials - free (tipping optional) Cyangmou is one of the most respected and accomplished modern pixel artists, and he has amassed a HUGE collection of free and incredibly well-educated visual tutorials. He also hosts an educational stream every week on Twitch called 'pixelart for beginners'.

⭐⭐⭐ Youtube Tutorials - free There are hundreds, if not thousands of tutorials on YouTube, but it can be tricky to find the good ones. My personal recommendations are MortMort, Brandon, and AdamCYounis- these guys really know what they're talking about!

🔸Where To Post

Outside of just regular socials, Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart, Instagram etc, there are a few places that lean more towards pixel art that you might not have heard of.

⭐ Lospec Lospec is a low-res focused art website. Some pieces get given a 'monthly masterpiece' award. Not incredibly active, but I believe there are more features being added often.

⭐⭐ Pixilart Pixilart is a very popular pixel art community, with an app tied to it. The community tends to lean on the young side, so this is a low-pressure place to post with an relaxed vibe.

⭐⭐ Pixeljoint Pixeljoint is one of the big, old-school pixel art websites. You can only upload your art unscaled (1x) because there is a built-in zoom viewer. It has a bit of a reputation for being elitist (back in the 00s it was), but in my experience it's not like that any more. This is a fine place for a pixel artist to post if they are really interested in learning, and the history. The Hall of Fame has some of the most famous / impressive pixel art pieces that paved the way for the work we are doing today.

⭐⭐⭐ Cafe Dot Cafe Dot is my art server so I'm a little biased here. 🍵 It was created during the recent social media turbulence. We wanted a place to post art with no algorithms, and no NFT or AI chuds. We have a heavy no-self-promotion rule, and are more interested in community than skill or exclusivity. The other thing is that we have some kind of verification system- you must apply to be a Creator before you can post in the Art feed, or use voice. This helps combat the people who just want to self-promo and dip, or cause trouble, as well as weed out AI/NFT people. Until then, you are still welcome to post in any of the threads or channels. There is a lot to do in Cafe Dot. I host events weekly, so check the threads!

⭐⭐/r/pixelart The pixel art subreddit is pretty active! I've also heard some of my friends found work through posting here, so it's worth a try if you're looking. However, it is still Reddit- so if you're sensitive to rude people, or criticism you didn't ask for, you may want to avoid this one. Lol

🔸 Where To Find Work

You need money? I got you! As someone who mostly gets scouted on social media, I can share a few tips with you:

Put your email / portfolio in your bio Recruiters don't have all that much time to find artists, make it as easy as possible for someone to find your important information!

Clean up your profile If your profile feed is all full of memes, most people will just tab out rather than sift through. Doesn't apply as much to Tumblr if you have an art tag people can look at.

Post regularly, and repost Activity beats everything in the social media game. It's like rolling the dice, and the more you post the more chances you have. You have to have no shame, it's all business baby

Outside of just posting regularly and hoping people reach out to you, it can be hard to know where to look. Here are a few places you can sign up to and post around on.

/r/INAT INAT (I Need A Team) is a subreddit for finding a team to work with. You can post your portfolio here, or browse for people who need artists.

/r/GameDevClassifieds Same as above, but specifically for game-related projects.

Remote Game Jobs / Work With Indies Like Indeed but for game jobs. Browse them often, or get email notifications.

VGen VGen is a website specifically for commissions. You need a code from another verified artist before you can upgrade your account and sell, so ask around on social media or ask your friends. Once your account is upgraded, you can make a 'menu' of services people can purchase, and they send you an offer which you are able to accept, decline, or counter.

The evil websites of doom: Fiverr and Upwork I don't recommend them!! They take a big cut of your profit, and the sites are teeming with NFT and AI people hoping to make a quick buck. The site is also extremely oversaturated and competitive, resulting in a race to the bottom (the cheapest, the fastest, doing the most for the least). Imagine the kind of clients who go to these websites, looking for the cheapest option. But if you're really desperate...

🔸 Community

I do really recommend getting involved in a community. Finding like-minded friends can help you stay motivated to keep drawing. One day, those friends you met when you were just starting out may become your peers in the industry. Making friends is a game changer!

Discord servers Nowadays, the forums of old are mostly abandoned, and people split off into many different servers. Cafe Dot, Pixel Art Discord (PAD), and if you can stomach scrolling past all the AI slop, you can browse Discord servers here.

Twitch Streams Twitch has kind of a bad reputation for being home to some of the more edgy gamers online, but the pixel art community is extremely welcoming and inclusive. Some of the people I met on Twitch are my friends to this day, and we've even worked together on different projects! Browse pixel art streams here, or follow some I recommend: NickWoz, JDZombi, CupOhJoe, GrayLure, LumpyTouch, FrankiePixelShow, MortMort, Sodor, NateyCakes, NyuraKim, ShinySeabass, I could go on for ever really... There are a lot of good eggs on Pixel Art Twitch.

🔸 Other Helpful Websites

Palettes Lospec has a huge collection of user-made palettes, for any artist who has trouble choosing their colours, or just wants to try something fun. Rejected Palettes is full of palettes that didn't quite make it onto Lospec, ran by people who believe there are no bad colours.

The Spriters Resource TSR is an incredible website where users can upload spritesheets and tilesets from games. You can browse for your favourite childhood game, and see how they made it! This website has helped me so much in understanding how game assets come together in a scene.

VGMaps Similar to the above, except there are entire maps laid out how they would be played. This is incredible if you have to do level design, or for mocking up a scene for fun.

Game UI Database Not pixel-art specific, but UI is a very challenging part of graphics, so this site can be a game-changer for finding good references!

Retronator A digital newspaper for pixel-art lovers! New game releases, tutorials, and artworks!

Itch.io A website where people can upload, games, assets, tools... An amazing hub for game devs and game fans alike. A few of my favourite tools: Tiled, PICO-8, Pixel Composer, Juice FX, Magic Pencil for Aseprite

🔸 The End?

This is just part 1 for now, so please drop me a follow to see any more guides I release in the future. I plan on doing some writeups on how I choose colours, how to practise, and more!

I'm not an expert by any means, but everything I did to get to where I am is outlined in this guide. Pixel art is my passion, my job and my hobby! I want pixel art to be recognized everywhere as an art-form, a medium of its own outside of game-art or computer graphics!

This guide took me a long time, and took a lot of research and experience. Consider following me or supporting me if you are feeling generous.

And good luck to all the fledgling pixel artists, I hope you'll continue and have fun. I hope my guide helped you, and don't hesitate to send me an ask if you have any questions! 💕

[deviously-dangerous]

You can’t deserve a person’s love. You’ll drive yourself crazy thinking like that. They either love you, or they don’t. That doesn’t mean you weren’t good enough for them to love you, because love isn’t something you earn by being good enough. It isn’t something that can be quantified or doled out. Don’t blame yourself for not being loved how you need to, just teach yourself how to look for love where love lives.

[deviously-dangerous]

*pants* 🙌🏽 ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! 😂😉

@happyless @rollfor-seducethedrider

[deviously-dangerous]

could u make something sweet w astarion & karlach? pretty please? pretty pretty please? 🥺

@ryttu3k this one is for you as well lovely 💖

[deviously-dangerous]

Be my mirror... tell, how you see me?

Astarion is the vampire of my heart. I adore his voice, I adore his gestures, I adore how much work the writers did to show his character so multifaceted and touch on psychology. I love to appreciate and anger Astarion. And I understand all those who admire him or cannot tolerate on their team!

[deviously-dangerous]

[deviously-dangerous]

Not Yours

(tw s/a mention after read more link) (I needed to share this somewhere and didn't know where so here it is) (my writing, please don't use)

I am broken

As a shattered tree limb

Shattered

As sand turned to glass and thrown

I was once something beautiful

I think

But that was so long ago

I am no longer sure

Even now

In the darkness and chaos

Is beauty

Or so I think

But when your hands touched me

They found only cracks and flaws

They pushed in deeper and deeper

Tearing me apart

And then blaming me

For the blood spilling down my skin

I’m sorry I hurt you

I can only say

So many times

For so many years

When you are the one

With the knife

In the end

You brought the end

I never leave

Not until I know the next time

Will mean death

And even then

Sometimes

I wish

That I had stayed

Because living like this

Isn’t living at all

And they say it gets better

But it only gets worse

It just cycles

Maybe I know better finally

Than to place myself under your knife

But the world doesn’t care

And will cut me anyway

And as I bleed

Everyone will say

That’s just the way it is

Just like they did

When he touched me when I was 5

It’s alright

It’s normal

What are you making such a fuss about

And so I let them do it

Over and over

One couldn’t fit inside me

One broke me

One gagged me

One disgusted me

But I didn’t scream no

So surely I wanted it

Surely it’s all my fault

The pain doesn’t wash away

It stays

Hidden beneath the skin

Constantly bleeding

And you ask me why

Why then was I such a whore?

If I didn’t truly want it?

And I’ll tell you

It’s how I knew to love

It’s how I knew to live

It’s how I knew to be

It’s all I knew

For as long as I can remember

And from even before that

(I slept in a bed with a child molester)

My first memories were of hands

At least they were my own

But before and after

There were so many others

More than I can remember or count

My life is a haze

That I think I don’t want to remember

It only hurts when I do

And they say it gets better

But it doesn’t get better

People just expect you to learn how to

Handle it better

Fake and pretend

Be what they want you to be

Sell yourself, all over again

Sell your body, your mind

It doesn’t really matter

None of it is ever yours

From beginning to end

[deviously-dangerous]

"I will never tire of sitting on dead men's thrones." & Penelope will never tire of sitting on Minthara's lap <3

thank you to @imperial-agent for bringing my war criminal babies to life <3

[deviously-dangerous]

enough sexy art, time for stupid low-effort chibi comics made purely to amuse myself

[deviously-dangerous]

#loveisbiting

i’m a lover. AND a biter

[deviously-dangerous]

#itreallyis #suchamess #relatable

You can be traumatized AND horny

Yes, this is about Astarion. What I noticed is that people seem to stumble over Astarion's many party interactions where he flirts or is generally horny. Like for example when in a Durge playthrough he offers to show Alfira his tent. It seems to counteract the fact he doesn't want sex because of his trauma.

There's three possible explanations to this. First, he flirts on instinct because he was trained to. Second, it's all just banter and bullshit. But I personally believe him. My take is that he really is horny. He wants to reclaim his body so bad. Now that he's free and amidst of attractive people he wants to try everything. That's why he also always runs head first into things he's not ready for. Like the drow twins incident.

He especially wants to be intimate with Tav. Underlined by him saying "it sounds like a challenge" when you offer an asexual relationship. He probably fantasizes about it a lot. But he can't. His psyche blocks him and he's probably so mad about it. But there's no way around so he has to wait, despite patience never having been one of his strengths.

What you want and what your psyche decides is best for you can and do differ often. They are not seamlessly linked. They even counteract. And you are in the middle trying to find a compromise and just trying and trying again until it finally works once, just to be set back the next time.

Tldr: Recovery is a chaotic mess.

[deviously-dangerous]

#trueromance

Dark Urge: if I died, would you eat my heart

Gortash *without missing a beat: i'd swallow every last piece raw and warm and wet

Ketheric Thorm who's in the room watching and hearing this: the fuck is wrong with the both of you

[deviously-dangerous]

"Astarion: Redemption" — Baldur's Gate 3 (fanart) 🌒

Just another close-up!

Thanks you so much for your reactions, guys! 😳💓

[deviously-dangerous]

Astarion never felt more comfortable than in your arms. It was strange to him, a foreign thing after his enslavement. For centuries he’d had nobody. Now he had you, and you wanted to share these quiet moments with him. You didn’t look at him as the façade he showed the world, grinning and beautiful and confident. You also didn’t look at him as some broken thing to be pitied. He couldn’t stand being pitied.

That was why it was easy, he supposed. You didn’t hold him like he was breakable, yet you held the shattered pieces of him together in those tight, warm hugs. You let him rest his head on your chest and listen to your heart beating, warm beneath his freezing body. His corpse.

It shouldn’t have been this easy to love you. He didn’t think he was capable of such a thing anymore. But you were infuriatingly easy to love. You were terrifyingly close to his heart. If he lost you…

You let him sleep in your arms every night. On top of you, really, with his head on your chest and your hands in his hair. The fact that you let your guard down around a predator baffled him. He’d almost killed you the first time he claimed your neck, and yet you let him so close to it every night, draping a blanket over your bodies so he didn’t freeze you to death. He imagined you sharing a warm bed sometimes, curled up together on a cold winter’s day under a heavy duvet, entwined like strangling vines. And then he’d imagine what it would be like if he was alive, if he were the one warming you rather than the one stealing your heat. Rather than crushing you with his corpse. Would you want that more?

And then he stops thinking about it.

“Darling,” your voice shatters the silence, heavy with sleep as you gently card your fingers through his hair. “Mmmm… did you get too warm?” “Warm?” he repeats the word before he realizes he’s rolled off of you, and only his head remains on your chest. He wants to say something suave to explain it away, but nothing comes to mind. Your hands keep moving through his hair, and he stops himself from nuzzling into them. It’s so hard to be suave, to put up his façade when you break through it so easily. “Just worried I was too heavy,” he offers. It’s a half-truth, he supposes.

You pull him back on top of your body and wrap your arms around him again. “I sleep better with you in my arms,” your voice is still heavy with sleep, honest as you slur your tired words. “Helps my anxieties. Like a weighted blanket.” Your fingers explore their way up to the tips of his ears, gently massaging. Soothing him.

His eyes are wide despite your ministrations as he relaxes once more against you as you sink back into sleep. He wraps his arms around you and plays with your hair as a smile tugs at the corners of his lips. Oh.

Maybe he was broken. Maybe you were too. But your broken pieces fit so perfectly together that they almost formed one whole.

And maybe that was enough.

[deviously-dangerous]

Ok so apparently in Astarion’s solo spawn ending he becomes a wandering adventurer/bounty hunter and takes a shine to being a hero. Talking about how it’s a nice change of pace, inspiring hope instead of terror…well, a little terror. He’s still him.

But here’s the fun bit: according to the monster manual, vampire spawn still have regenerative abilities (outside of sunlight), resistance to non-magical piercing/slashing/bludgeoning damage, and spider climb. The tadpole removed those buffs in addition to the nerfs (also it would have made him too strong). So Astarion has spider climb and can climb upside down along walls and ceilings in…well, lizard fashion.

But imagine Astarion stalking some corrupt baron in the middle of the night. He’s got guards in his pocket controlling the grounds.

None of them think to look up.

The corrupt baron goes to his chambers. Deliberate motion catches his attention. He looks up to see something on the ceiling.

Red eyes. A gleaming, fanged, vicious smile.

“Hello.”

And then there’s a great deal of violence.

[deviously-dangerous]

dip your head and feel your antlers, worn, moss-dripping, gouge the earth below. you are stirring things forgotten. They are dark. They are lovely.

[deviously-dangerous]

PLD: Man fuck this Roegadyn, biggest asshole in all of Ul'dah. WAR: Man fuck this unyielding rage, I got a partner to protect. DRK: Man fuck Ishgard, biggest assholes in all of Coerthas. GNB: Man fuck the Garleans, especially that Sephiroth wannabe...biggest asshole in all of Garlemald now that Asahi is dead. MNK: Man fuck Gridania, biggest assholes in all of the Shroud. DRG: Man fuck Ishgard, biggest assholes in all of Dravania NIN: Man I'd fuck this Crow guy, but he's a loveable asshole. SAM: Man fuck the Sekiseigumi, biggest assholes in all of Kugane. RPR: Man Emet-Selch really just trolled this guy leading to generational trauma. Biggest asshole in Elpis. WHM: Man FUCK the Padjal, biggest assholes literally anywhere. SCH: Lets help this guy fuck this tonberry. AST: Man fuck Sharlayan and Ishgard, biggest assholes ever. SGE: No, seriously, FUCK. SHARLAYAN. BRD: No, serously, FUCK. GRIDANIA. MCH: No, seriously, FUCK. ISHGARD. DNC: Man, fuck cringe, embrace it, expel it and look cute doing it. BLM: Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, YOU'RE COOL! AND FUCK YOU I'M OUT! SMN: Man fuck Allag, ruining everything for everyone. RDM: Would you care to fuck this catman? BLU: FUCK THIS IM OU--*BOOM*