What it takes to learn a new skill

January was a month full of challenges.

For those who don't know, I'm making a game all by myself that requires a lot of artwork, and without having the budget to hire an artist I decided to learn pixel art and do it myself. Today I'm going to tell you about that experience. It may be useful to someone who is wanting to follow the same path, but also to those who have to work with a skill that they don't master or feel insecure.

Context

I'll start by giving some context. Last year I started the demo of my game and in October I finished it. All with asset placeholders but with in the direction that I wanted.

When I quit my job to dedicate myself to my projects at the end of December, I set a goal: to publish the demo on Steam with all my artwork. Doing a bit of planning, I decided to have the page with trailer updated by April 6th and the demo published by May 15th.

Once I had a definite date, I got organized and defined that in January I should finish all the scenarios, in February all the characters with their animations, and in March UI, integrations and other details. Again, having very little idea of pixel art, it was a very big challenge.

January

I had started looking at a couple of things about pixel art after the release of my demo. With a lot of effort in November and December I had this Living to start with:

I'm going to start directly with a tip. In general, the hardest thing to do is to start, so it worked for me to start with something simple, and over the days to increase the difficulty.

In my case, I decided to start with the sofa.

First sofa I made

I have to say this: I don't consider myself to have an artistic eye. I admire those who work in this field because, as a programmer, to know if what I did works I simply have to play it and test it. Here it is very subjective, and starting from zero it seems that you have to build that eye.

Myy second advice is ask for feedback. You can ask for feedback online, there are many discord channels and communities on Reddit that may help you. In my case, I have several artist friends so I could ask them. Note, they don't need to be artists to ask for feedback. As my game is pixel art, I also asked people who play this kind of games.

Here is the process that this sofa went through until its final version.

In my experience, not having art knowledge, it was a lot of trial and error until I got a version that I liked.

Another tip that helped me a lot was to work every day. Nothing helps more with a skill as much as working on it every day. I relate this tip to the first one and say the following: what you do does not need to be perfect or final, but just do it. This helped me a lot because I internalized that nothing in art is final, I can come back at any time and change it if something doesn't convince me in a few months.

So, step by step, asset by asset, with a lot of feedback and trial and error I was able to finish the living room. Here is process and final version:

Other things that I didn't comment but helped me a lot:

• Dimensions. What I did to draw the dimensions was to make an object to serve as a reference, in my case the character and I drew everything based on it. For the character, I basically drew a 32x32 square in the drawing program and drew inside it.

• Color palette. For the whole color theme in the game I looked for a diverse color palette that conveyed what I wanted: something warm and familiar.

• References. For someone with no knowledge of art, I can't create without references, either from other pixel arts or from objects in real life.

• Tutorials. I didn't watch all the tutorials because in my case I feel that it helps me more to start working, but there are many cheap courses on the internet (or even free on youtube) that help a lot for the basics. They also help a lot when you have a specific doubt to solve.

• Pixel Logic. It is a book that has a lot of content for someone new and to solve specific doubts. I didn't finish it, I read mostly the first chapters and then specific chapters when I had doubts, but it shows a huge work.

Here are other processes of other scenarios that I did.

Basement:

Yard:

Cardboard box combat:

Others:

The most difficult thing

My goal is to make the whole game with my art. It's very clear and even simple from one point of view. But the most complicated thing is not learning pixel art, or seeing what colors to use, what dimensions, or anything. The most complicated thing really is learning to deal with frustration.

Being very demanding with myself, nothing is more frustrating for me than wanting to draw an asset and feeling that there is no way that I can draw a nice asset of this.

Frustration is hard, because it is blocking, it is discouraging and it is very difficult to move forward with it. Everyone finds their own way to deal with it, but I will share with you what worked for me. In my case, first of all a psychologist, but the most practical day-to-day advice is to move forward despite the frustration, at least 30 minutes. Because at the end of the day, I looked at what I had done and realized: "I was able to make these advances without having any idea of Pixel Art and dealing with frustration". What you do NOT have to do is give up, because you will end up getting used to the fact that whenever something is a little difficult you have to give it up.

On the other hand, there is a book I am reading called The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday that talks about these experiences. He narrates how an obstacle does not block your way, but rather the obstacle is part of the way, and it is impossible to have a path without them. In addition to that, he teaches how to push yourself through obstacles. This book is very helpful for people like me who can get stuck with obstacles whether they are external or internal.

Summary

I leave then the marked tips on what to do when learning a new skill.

• Start with something, anything, no matter how small.

• Work on it every day, no matter how little it is.

• Ask for feedback from people either close to you or from the internet in forums, social networks, etc.

• Know that you are going to get frustrated but move forward in spite of that.

I add one last free tip: you are not alone. We are all in the same and no one masters all the known areas and skills. The community we have is very friendly and I'm sure if you ask anyone they will help you in some way.

Don't panic and keep moving forward.

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What about you?

What skills are you learning or want to learn that you don't have?

What advice would you give to someone in your situation?

If you found it interesting, remember that you can subscribe to be notified when I make a new post. I will be posting on the 7th of each month.

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