This is the second post in my series on how I’m learning Pixel Art.
It’s rare I have a side project last longer than 21 days, but learning how to draw has gotten me hooked. It’s fun.
I logged my first 21 days in another post:
Revisting Bite
When I first started with pixel art, I drew the following image of a caterpillar on a leaf:
I decided to re-draw the image with some of the things I learned.
Examining the image
My lines weren’t ‘pixel-perfect’ - I eye-balled pretty much everything, and you can notice some jagged edges against the background - I could clean those up with additional passes.
I also think I made the half-leaf shading too subtle. Say what you will about the original 16x16 Bite - you knew where the lighting was coming from. This one has more of a diffused light - it matches the new environment, but not the original.
I also made the colors more muted and slightly more red than the original, which had more of a cartoonish orange hue. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that change - the orange one had a bit of fun melancholy whimsy but this one probably veers more towards melancholy.
Regardless - I think it turned out pretty good!
My approach
Before I drew the final leaf, I drew a couple of variants of leaves to practice different styles and try to figure out a bit more precisely what a leaf was about.
I ended up with my green leaf, turned it orange, and added a scene to it to match the vibes that Bite had.
Funnily enough - Bite v2 took me almost the same exact amount of time as the original Bite!
