Hey, I’m Baron Wasteland, you may or may not know me as the artist who worked on the January 2020 Flowjam runner up game NYCTOPHOBIA (https://flowlab.io/game/play/1319512) and the July 2020 Flowjam winning game Escape the Rewind (https://flowlab.io/game/play/1454781), or maybe you just like my art that I share on instagram (@thebaronwasteland) or on twitter (@BaronXwasteland). I made a post nearly a year ago saying I’d make some art for you if you needed it. Turns out, I’m not the most active Flowlab member and I’m also prone to forgetting small favors I promise people. Since I’d rather not continue to dissapoint people, I decided I’m changing up the offer!
I WON’T be making art for you, but I’ll gladly give you feedback, advice, tips, any mentor-y stuff you need for pixel art, or just art in general! I’m always eager to help out in that way and will answer any question you may have about how you can improve your own art skills and game graphics, if you need it! If you need help with concepts and coming up with design ideas, I can also provide assistance, so ask away! (:
P.S.: I sometimes forget to go on the forums from time to time, so if I’m taking a while to respond, you can totally DM me on discord, I’m sugarcube#2019
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Well, what do we have here? Something to turn me into a super saiyan in Pixel art? Sign me up 
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But really, I am having some trouble with making depth in my pixel art
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what do you mean by depth, do you mean perspective? generally, I use tones and shading to determine depth. the darker something is, usually the further it is away from you.
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Ok, yeah that’s what I meant that helps
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glad to help (:
feel free to show me how your art progresses if you like
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Sorry to bump this topic back up, but I saw it in your summary and kinda need art advice.
just makes sense to post here because I’m more likely to get a reply here.
Anyways, got advice on 1-bit pixel art?
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not the best at art but I do know it’s not great when you’re using flowlab default sprites.
ahem, ahem… The spikes.
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Those are bases that I recolored and/or modified but ok
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All you did was flip them lol
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Sure thing! Well, since 1bit pixel art is pixel art using only two colors (for those who don’t know), it requires a bit of creativity to work with shadows and gradients. one way is to make shadows harsh and dramatic, like you’d see in the works of mike mignola (author of hellboy). but if you want to have gradients, try out dithering. it’s a way of creating gradients with only two colors by using alternating patters of both colors to make em blend together (it’s most commonly done with a checkerboard pattern but you can do any pattern you want). here’s a neat example I found by artist technisimo on reddit:
also make sure to not use too much dithering, cause that just makes it become noise. one more thing to add is don’t try to add too much detail. with only two colors, it can easily become noise if you make a sprite too complex. big shapes and solid shadow blobs is a good way to do it.
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well, these mostly look like squares with funky patterns drawn on them. I don’t know what they’re supposed to be, to be quite honest. if you’d let me know the direction you want to go in with them, I can give some advice on how you can improve your sprites
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Several of them are like that yes. But the rest of them are bricks, guns, stairs, spikes, and health packs.
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I see one brick block. you might want to add a bit of shading to the bricks to make it look less flat, just some shading around the edges of the bricks. the other blocks look like default blocks that you changed the color of, so if you want the boring basic blocks, up to you, but I’d come up with something of your own invention. the stairs might need to be redone, they’re vaguely stair shaped, but nothing more. use references for what you’re doing. it’s never a bad idea to look for some images online and use them as references. the gun looks neat, I suppose, I don’t know much about firearms so I can’t really judge its appearance. again, use references as much as you need. the spikes look cool, but they’re a completely different resolution than the other sprites and there’s a big discrepancy in styles, so I’m gonna assume you didn’t make those. keep a consistent style and resolution, if you can help it!
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oh, and the health pack is a white square with a red cross on it. it’s very simple and it works to a degree, but it’s a little basic, I think. maybe make it look like an actual medical supply kit
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Hey baron!
I’ve never been too great with the pixel art on my games (I usually just come up with design Ideas and make consepts for them), but can you maybe give me some advice on making characters? I’ll go into more detail if you need me to 
Thanks a bunch,
Mr. Ramshackle
Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.
1bit = 2 colors
is it usually black and white? or can it be any just black and white is more used than other colors.
it can be any two colors you want! folks usually like to go with pretty contrasting colors, so black and white is pretty popular. I personally like to choose colors that are just off-white and off-black, gives it more flavor
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