Kaz:

  You know that phrase everyone uses, “no one said it would be easy,” when doing like literally anything, and it’s pretty true. I started my career in Pixel Art around 7-8 years ago, when making retro games was my thing, but it took around 3-4 years later just for me to be considered as a good artist. Those first few years were tough, especially when a lot happened during that time. I think what got me the most from that was the lack of anyone to recognize my roots, or say anything about my progress. Before I moved into the new site to create Pixel Art, I was on another site called Level Palace (now defunct), which housed many Super Mario Flash games, ranging from themes to art styles, and the big selling factor was that you were able to create your own custom Mario levels for free. Yeah I loved that place, especially the community, since we all shared some similar mindset of Mario, Imagination, and Retro Gaming, hence, my growing passion for making pixel art. Long story short, I grew up, and strayed away from making levels that took a lot out of you, to just drawing simple sprites, which should’ve given me the same level of enjoyment and satisfaction as what Level Palace did, but after the first and second drawing having 0 views, it was kinda upsetting that I moved out of a place that knew who I was, and pushed me to contine improving, now alone, into a new environment with a skill I haven’t mastered yet. I guess I’m one to blame, those drawings weren’t gonna win any contests, but I thought they were cute, tho sadly, those original pixel art drawings are now gone, so I guess no one can really judge. I was so upset thinking maybe I was actually bad, I just deleted each upload a week later after receiving no views over and over and again. I just wanted some mentor to teach me where to go and what to do, instead of always relying on my weak artistic instinct and just “winging it” all the time.

  Good thing I found one, just one, but he’s a damn cool Penguin. TIME SKIP

  2021:

  A year later into my art career, I finally found stable footing, I have a few friends, a couple of likes on my recent uploads, very simpler times I tell you what, but it was also a time I wanna expand on my world of drawings since before then, it was most if not all video game related, and I knew that I wanna continue improving, I had to start going in different directions, but what? That’s when I got my first glimpse at one of the community’s celebrities in the city, found in the “Highlighted Art” category. (A section where really good art doesn’t really deserve or fit in the hall of fame of Staff Picks (most of the time), but still worthy enough to be seen everywhere else on the site). His drawing was just a cloud, but that was the direction I felt like I needed to go. I mean, nature is pretty damn cool, and his cloud drawing was soooo cool, and it paid off well since it became a recurring theme in my art later on.

  And so I stepped in, starting my first interaction with a celebrity.

  How do you make a cloud so detailed?

  “”

  Thanks

  “Yw!”

  Okay, nothing noteworthy about the convo other than the video, but I think it’s the impact after it is what made it special for me. A few weeks went by, I think it was around June, and I decided it was time to start actually drawing something of nature, so I went with clouds, because I remembered the video link the Penguin sent me, and DAMN it helped a lot. I was struggling with figuring out how to get the shape and lighting, but that video helped a ton, so much so that I still use it now and then as a reminder of what to do when drawing clouds. Something that looked scary and complex to draw became so simple and fun, thanks to this Penguin named Kaz! The cloud drawing was a success! And for a while, it was one of my most popular drawings, being highly praised and a big step towards my art progression. Even the PIXEL ART WEBSITE NOTICED

  “you gotta atleast put this as a staff pick, LOOK AT THE DETAIL!!!!!!!!!!”

  “nice!!!!!”

  “cools”

  “Nice clouds!”

  “oh wow great job”

  “Woah these look... AMAZING”

  “Those clouds look very cool”

  But I still had a long way to go to become a Great Artist, but Kaz was still happy to see me grow, as any mentor would. (Tho fun fact . . . that title was never official- I don’t think he even remembers I told him about him being my mentor lol. And even worse- he didn’t see my cloud drawing . . . but eh I don’t care)

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  Before I go to the next story, I do wanna talk about Kaz first, so you guys can understand why he’s cool. For starters, he’s a penguin, and it shows a lot in his art, being very stylized and very cute! I guess that’s why he was so popular, he was the cute one among the dozens of artists, I mean, who doesn’t like Penguins? Happy Feet was sweet, Surf’s Up was fire, and Pingu is the greatest guy ever. He also had a huge range of what he drew. Yeah, he has the talent to make the most abstract art, but he wasn’t afraid to show off his goofy side that some artists shy away from, like memes, derpy cats, and swords! (He drew a lot of swords, which is a very good exercise to think creatively.) He was also one of the more silent types, only saying what needed to be said, but he was always cheerful at least, he was very clearly one of the bois. Happiness goes a long way in having a healthy life, and the dude was happy to be with us. It was around October of ‘21 when the dude got his first POTD (Picture of the day) award for one of his aquatic drawings, and ‘moi was the first person to congratulate him about it.

  Oh. My. Lordy. Lord. Congrats on getting POTD ??

  “Thank you! That means a lot! ??”

  Like I said, such simpler times, when we had real memories like this.

  Balloon:

  Something ain’t right with these Balloons, but I don’t know what. Son, do you know?

  “Yeah I know, it’s complete BOOTY”

  No shit, any idea on how to fix it??? Hmmm

  “Hmmmmyeaahh nah, you’re the artist, how weird of you to think that I would know lmao”

  Jeez thanks =_=

  “No problem!”

  It was Fall of ‘23, I remember the day it was announced that the original voice actor of Mario would step down from his role. Poor Charles, he was the voice of videogame childhood, and I remember the community was upset, both the Pixel art and Mario Fandom. I was upset too, and of course, I had to pay homage to the guy, and coincidentally, I already had a Mario-related drawing in the works, and what better time than now to start finishing it as soon as possible. Things went smoothly at first, until I went to the balloons, and . . . WHAT THE HELL???

  HOW IS THIS HARD???

  “My guy it’s Balloons, how could you mess up badly with this?”

  I DON’T KNOW?? I did everything right, but this still looks like-

  “BOOTY, yeah I know, I’m like right here”

  SON I NEED HELP, I’M ON A DEADLINE HERE

  “Well keep screaming and maybe whatever idea left in that head might come out 7_7 “

  SMHSHGS WAIT, I GOT IT

  “oh shit that actually works 0_0 “

  KAZ, THE PENGUIN, MY MENTOR!!

  “woah woah woah, you have a mentor???”

  Yeah. Before your time, he helped me draw clouds

  “that’s lame, just clouds?”

  You can’t draw clouds

  “Okay fine just go ask him for help, Ima go relax as always”

  As I left my son behind, doing his “things” there was a user still around that’s perfect for the job to be my mentor again . . . Kaz!

  Things really went well with him after that POTD. He earned 8 more!! And despite the extreme rise of fame, he still had time to help me out, personally too! Not just some YouTube link.

  We discussed the Balloons and a little bit of Charles Martinet, and he asked for a preview of the drawing. I was kinda worried what he would say about my work- or how much he would critique- but I needed my work done, so I shared a preview with him, and he was sooooo nice about it. He explained everything I needed to do step by step on how to properly shade balloons. Since in real life, balloons are made of rubber, it needed to be implied that as well in pixel art, so it can’t have the same lighting method as the rest of the objects, like ground or Yoshi. That was my problem, WOW, so he taught me how to do more round shading instead of flat ones, and OHMYGOSHIT’SBEAUTIOFULWHAT. Now you see why I consider him as my mentor. And the cherry on top, he also helped me on how to do reflections on the ground . . . which is basically just making a new layer, copying the subject, flipping it upside down, changing the opacity, and voila. Easy, but I didn’t knew and he still helped me because he’s my mentor :)

  So what felt like a fear of delaying a special drawing, now changed to joy that I got the work finished on time, thanks to Kaz! Of course, I had to credit him for the contribution.

  “(Special thanks to Kaz for the help of balloon lighting and reflection)”

  And just like the cloud drawing, this Mario Tribute was a complete success.

  “I'm a simple man. I see Yoshi, I click.”

  “Mario…is…number one….??”

  “What a wonderful drawing. I don't feel like it's sp worthy but it's definitely highlight and trending worthy, I also will miss Charles Martinet ??”

  “He will always be our star of the mario bros.”

  “OMG I LOVE THIS!! Charles Martinet wOULD be proud!!! :D”

  “epic”

  “the man who carried our childhoods”

  “This is really good, the game is really nice too, also Charles Martinet will not be Forgotten. "Gone but never forgotten.”

  “His voice will be ever so greatly missed ??”

  And this time, KAZ RESPONDED, and not only liked my drawing, but RESPOTED IT AAAAAAA

  “LETS GOOOO this looks fantastic :O (told u the reflection would be easy)”

  THOINKS :D (Yeah I absolutely love it, thank you for everything ???♂?)

  That night, I looked back to where I started, once needing a person to validate who I was, or someone to help guide my path on what to do with the power of the pencil. Now, I didn’t need someone to just hand me success. I’m glad I stayed independent for so long, but I’m also glad to meet someone like Kaz who gave me that extra push and handed me the tools to keep going and to keep on improving. Even years later, when I was no longer with Kaz, or the community, I still draw, because of the guidance he and the others gave me, reminding me of them every time I see the canvas.

  If someone asks if there was an artist I ever looked up to, I’ll tell them about a very cool penguin who pointed me toward the clouds.