About Spriting

[Gors]

I just have a list of questions, I'd like to here from you guys.
1-Why do you do pixel art?
2-Does anyone on here make a living by simply doing pixelart alone or at least have had a job or been hired to make some?
3-Did you ever take classes? did they help?
4-How much time a day do you think you spend making pixel art?
5-Whats your recommended program for doing pixel art?
You don't have to answer them all, but I'd like some input.

1-I do pixelart mainly for fun. It's an art medium I'm familiar with, and I've been doing them for a long time. For me, it's relaxing to place the dots and see them form complex shapes. It's really fun.
2-I have never been hired for money, but I was involved in some projects before, not necessarily games. It's nothing major though; most of my sprite work goes to my own personal projects.
3-I never took classes for pixelart, and sincerely I have never seen or heard of one before. My techniques and knowledge came from analyzing official sprites, editing them, studying traditional media techniques (anatomy, color theory, shading) and of course, tSR. The fact that I always enjoyed drawing since the kid days must have helped me too.
4-Since I work and do other stuff, I don't spend a lot of time spriting. I stream my spriting to help me keep motivated and focused though, and they can get over 3 hours long (showing your progress really helps, for some reason). In the end, it really depends on my motivation and free time.
5-I use MS Paint and Graphics Gale combo, and personally, that's all what you need. Gale does everything Photoshop does, without dumbing down your computer performance and simplifying the animation process. It's a really handy tool and I reccomend it.