Number 1

First, let me give credit where it is due.

Everything I’ve learned so far is from coursework, many tutorials, and simple practice.

Specifically, I’d like to publicly thank:

• Michael (Mikey) Bridges, a great artist and instructor – formerly at GameDev.tv and now at Canopy Games (link). He published a course through GameDev.tv on Udemy: 2D Game Artist: Design Pixel Art from Scratch (link). It is excellent, it is a broad course on (I would say) digital art generally.
• Yann Burret, a programmer and instructor. Also formerly from GameDev.tv and now at Canopy Games (link). He published courses on using Godot, available on Udemy.
• Mislav Majdandzic, also on Udemy, who published: Pixel Art Master Course – Beginner to Professional/Freelance. Also excellent (link), it focuses primarily on executing “Pixel Art”.
• Michigan State University, which published a course on Pixel Art at Coursera (link).
• Pedro Medeiros de Almeida a (phenomenal) digital artist, who’s many tutorials I constantly refer to and review before bed (link).

Second, here’s a quick list of the programs that I use:

• Godot: a free game engine software featuring the Python-like language, GDScript.(link).
• GIMP: the GNU Image Manipulation Program, a free software that Mikey uses in his course (link).
• Aseprite: a paid art program, specifically designed for Pixel Art (link). Mislav uses this in his course. It is also available on Steam.

Finally, my statement of purpose. I’d like to publish something weekly or biweekly – art or project updates. This is the beginning of a journey, so we’ll see how it develops. Ultimately, I’d love for this to take off and, I think, keeping a blog schedule will assist with forward momentum.