mosaicmuses

[mosaicmuses]

⭐ So you want to learn pixel art? ⭐

🔹 Part 1 of ??? - The Basics!

Edit: Now available in Google Doc format if you don't have a Tumblr account 🥰

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 (30% off with code 'tofu'!!)

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.

⭐⭐ ReSprite iOS and Android. (free trial, but:) $19.99 premium or $$ monthly

ReSprite is VERY similar in terms of UI to Aseprite, so I can recommend it. They just launched their Android release!

🆓 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❗❗ << it's a link, click it!!

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!

🔸 How to choose a canvas size

When looking at pixel art turorials, we may see people suggest things like 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64. These are standard sizes for pixel art games with tiles. However, if you're just making a drawing, you don't necessarily need to use a standard canvas size like that.

What I like to think about when choosing a canvas size for my illustrations is 'what features do I think it is important to represent?' And make my canvas as small as possible, while still leaving room for my most important elements.

Imagine I have characters in a scene like this:

I made my canvas as small as possible (232 x 314), but just big enough to represent the features and have them be recognizable (it's Good Omens fanart 😤)!! If I had made it any bigger, I would be working on it for ever, due to how much more foliage I would have to render.

If you want to do an illustration and you're not sure, just start at somewhere around 100x100 - 200x200 and go from there.

It's perfectly okay to crop your canvas, or scale it up, or crunch your art down at any point if you think you need a different size. I do it all the time! It only takes a bit of cleanup to get you back to where you were.

🔸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! 💕

My other tutorials (so far): How to draw Simple Grass for a game Hue Shifting

[mosaicmuses]

Acrylic on Canvas

Ref @tofupixel

Thank you @tofupixel for making this cutie

Sooo, yes... I drew square net on my canvas by hand of 2mm. I think it turned out to be 1100 square because of the size of my canvas.

The most difficult part was the colour match because it is absolute torture trying to replicate the colours -especially the brightness of a digital art, some shades are definitely off but when the subject is so cute I don't think it can go wrong ❤️.

Some WIPS

[mosaicmuses]

[mosaicmuses]

people on here r rly like 'attraction to big people is fetishistic, attraction to small people is pedophilic, having sexual thoughts about a real person is objectifying and basically harassment (and having them about fictional people is perverted), kinky sex is immoral, if youre open about your sex life in any way youre a pervert, if youre not open about them you are queerbaiting. basically you should be completely sexless while everything you do is sexualized and up for debate/speculation. this is good for the lgbt community'

[mosaicmuses]

“In his whole life he had been honest and righteous and immaculate—you were the only mistake he made!”

[mosaicmuses]

(Picture from Pinterest credits to the owner)

The red string that joins the fated

Present but broken

Unknown to both

The future they hold With those strings

Thinking being unlovable

Fell first was the red rose

For the white light was too innocent to know

Conquering the darkness they went

On the journey

Hands in hands

With the heaven's blessing

as they go

[mosaicmuses]

Hi

The mxtx books read like fanfiction is making a comeback and I really can’t tell if people say it to degrade their writing or not but wanted to ask what do you think of it ?

I have a lot of annoyances with this since it was used to dismiss not only the success of a woman in mainland china, but also to have the audacity to say she didn't think of anything deeper than "writing fanfic of her own OC's from high school".

This is already grossly misogynistic to imply that women who write in high school, have no value in creativity, but also classist to say that women who do write fanfic have no want of further literary experience or have anything else to say because they happen to use the romantic genre as a device for themes. Or, because they have been in the fandom sphere, it means their own original works, are lesser despite having gained wide spread international attention. At this point, for close to a decade now.

This also started with the audacity of a fanartist, who uses said author's characters, for profit. So forgive me if I have no sympathy or refuse to see this fanfic derision from them as anything but bad faith, and just utterly demeaning to MXTX, as well as her fanbase for daring to say that this is more than just a "fanfic romance to get to guys to sleep together". It's pretentious, rude, and damn what balls you must have to dismiss another's work that they worked hours on by trying to say "it's just fanfic and nothing deeper".

[mosaicmuses]

I find it very pointless to say that Xie Lian and Jun Wu look alike. Xie Lian's story is only similar to Jun Wu's because Jun Wu started that war.

"Ah but they were princes known to be the gem of their kingdom".

Yeah... So... Fuck it, some things being similar doesn't make them a reflection of each other. If so, then I would be the 2.0 version of someone I don't even know because that someone has a short fuse and is homegrown.

And Xie Lian not accepting his second ascension shows how different he is from Jun Wu, because unlike him, Jun Wu wanted to be in the Celestial Realm and after everything that happened in Wuyong, he disappeared for a while to remake his identity to go back to being a god with a clean slate, and every time a god came along that could surpass him in power he limited that god. Pei Ming, for example, was constantly receiving one mission after another, Shi Wudu was killed with a little help from Jun Wu, and Xie Lian continued with the cursed shackles after the third ascension, something that did not happen in the second ascension.

Jun Wu tried hard to make Xie Lian his successor, a 2.0 version of him, and he failed. Why would it be?

The plot of the story is basically this: Jun Wu making Xie Lian's life hell because he wants him as his successor, but Xie Lian refused to be corrupted, he did not accept the second ascension because he had recognized his mistakes and continued his life helping who needed it. Jun Wu failed at what he wanted.

Divinity for Jun Wu was a matter of power and vanity.

For Xie Lian, divinity was a matter of serving people, so much so that he feels it is wrong for believers to have to prostrate themselves before the gods.

And that's why they are so different. Jun Wu didn't get what he wanted precisely because of how different they are from each other.

[mosaicmuses]

YongAn was being neglected for 3 years by the ruler himself, when Xie Lian learned about the situation he was the only one who really tried to do something about it.

With the outbreak of war, Xie Lian made the mistake of actually participating, but he was only 20 years old and had no guidance. No one had the courage or the will to raise him properly, his parents didn't talk to him well, and Mei Nianqing, his Guoshi, spoke cryptic undertones and thought he was kicking ass. The king knew that the money he sent to YongAn was stolen and he didn't do anything about it because "every kingdom has corruption". Feng Xin and Mu Qing weren't enough to make Xie Lian see all the possible consequences of his actions. Mu Qing was the one who questioned Xie Lian the most, but he never delved into it (for obvious reasons).

Yushi Huang was the only one who really helped Xie Lian, but he was practically on his own as no one was really interested in helping YongAn.

Xie Lian may have been wrong to effectively participate in the war, he probably chose to fight alongside the Xianle soldiers even though he unconsciously tried to help the YongAn rebels, after all that was his home. But it's no use pointing the finger at the mistakes he made without taking into account the whole context, after all, he wasn't even the one who created the war, it was Jun Wu.

And it wasn't just Xie Lian who acted unfairly, Lang Ying himself cast the disease from the human face by allying himself with Bai Wuxiang, also killing innocents. Both of them used unfair methods and Xie Lian did that while trying to find a solution to all these problems, so much so that his sanity became more and more fragile.

This point in Xie Lian's life is extremely important for character development because it shows that divinity does not automatically make you someone omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, so much so that he understands after that that there are not many differences between gods and humans and does not accept his second ascension, preferring to remain in banishment. And it also shows that Xie Lian's intentions have always been good and genuine, he has always set himself up as someone who is here to serve humanity and that hasn't changed even after being heavily defeated.

[mosaicmuses]

have you just ever wondered how mindblowing tgcf is? like, their dynamics are so good, and i’m not even talking about hualian only. all of the characters just work together harmoniously. hualian? peak romance right there. beefleaf? gay angst and tragic love story. fengqing? give me IT please. ling wen? girlboss. jun wu? creepy ass who is a mf god. qi rong? the annoyingly ass character that you just grown into liking (to death). pei ming? a big ass whore who sluts sluttily.

[mosaicmuses]

The genuine, sincere romance that is the foundation of Fruits Basket, between Tohru and Kyo, is leagues beyond the commercial idea of love that I get from every other romcom movie that I've ever seen.

[mosaicmuses]

is THE best ship dynamic

[mosaicmuses]

Tohru & Kyo - New Year Dance🎍✨

My head canon is that although Kyo was never invited to the jyuunishi New Years celebration he was always in fact an amazing dancer. Now he and Tohru are married and they get to perform the New Years dance together for the Sohma family 🐱🍙🥺💕

[mosaicmuses]

For those of you not watching along at home, Steve Harrington actually did not bite the head off of a demobat. I know Eddie references Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat when he's talking about what Steve did, but Steve didn't do that. The bats were too large for him to have done that.

What Steve DID do was sink his teeth into the long, serrated tail a demobat had around his neck, causing it to release him from its stranglehold as it tries to escape him. What he DID do is grab it by that serrated tail - because he's not trapped in upside down with them, they're trapped in here with him - and swing it in an arc to bash its head against the ground 3 times before he stepped on one side of it and pulled on its tail until he fully just ripped the thing in half.

Then he spat the blood from the tail out of his mouth and looked around for the next one.

It goes far beyond biting a monster's head off. He fuckin' obliterated it. With his literally bare hands and feet, he was not even wearing shoes. Or a shirt. I feel like it's important we all understand he wasn't even feral enough for head biting. He was just fed up with being fed on, and was not going to take any chances.

[mosaicmuses]

despite what popular opinion may lead you to believe, some rocks actually do have scientifically-proven auras! Unfortunately, those rocks are uranium and the aura is cancer. 

[mosaicmuses]

i hate you ai art i hate you "unalive" i hate you youtube premium i hate you twitter 8$ checkmark i hate you nfts i hate you therapy app advertisements i hate you non-chronological timelines i hate you instagram reels i hate you subtle tiktok filters that cant be turned off i hate you family bloggers i hate you ads on true crime episodes i hate you facebook i hate you vr glasses on chickens i hate you dystopian social media

[mosaicmuses]

as some guy very early into studying graphic design, this whole ai art thing has me *seriously* concerned.

i look over my classmates, as i sit here, and wonder how all of these wonderful artists will feel. some may never find jobs because an ai replaced them. some may have their work stolen and ripped of a soul. some may leave the field because of this. i worry for their future.

i worry for the future of everyone in art school. you're taught you need to be a corporate slave making simple minimalist designs to get by. if you make anything greater people will yell at you for "overcharging" your honest work, dismiss your efforts, and steal your creations.

art has been made unsustainable. it's sad to say, but you cannot make it as an artist. i am already convinced i will have to leave the scene and study something else just to get by.

it's sad to see how people treat artists, and it's outright disgusting that they are seen as disposable