Talking Pixels, Fire, and Hopes and Dreams with The Internet’s Pixel Art Hero, @Sadface_RL
I recently had the opportunity to sit down and ask Luke some questions about how and why he creates free pixel art tutorials for anyone and everyone to use, and found a man that is sweeter than sugar, trying his best to make the world a better place everyday, and holds the dream of owning a home with a garden one day. I believe the world is a better place everyday that Luke is in it and am thankful for the work that he puts in purely to share with others, and hope that one day, sooner rather than later, he can tend to his garden in the backyard of his home.
Since starting to make pixel art tutorials, Luke has released 147 completely free pixel art tutorials, covering everything from dirt textures and treasure chests, to waterfalls, snowfall, and isometric tiles! It has been really heartwarming to see the community he has cultivated all learning and sharing their work through him, and watching the things they have created. (This one is especially cool!) It has been a blessing in my life to continue to watch Luke create art and share his tutorials and I wish him nothing but success in the future. I wish there were more Luke’s in the world.
Without further ado, let’s jump into the interview:
Note: This interview took place on October 7th, 2021
B: First off, thanks for taking the time to sit down and talk for a bit! We will jump right into it. I’ve been curious, what does your Twitter handle, @Sadface_RL mean?
L: It is actually more personal than it looks from the outside. I originally wanted to just go with just SADface, the reason being is that I suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder and Depression, but it is really hard to get just SADface anywhere so it had to evolve into something nobody was using. I ended up adding RL because my second name is Elliot and my sisters call me “Our Ell” or in Yorkshire where I live “R L”. People often think that the “R L” means Real Life or Rocket League, but nope. I hope to rebrand at some point because I never thought I would have so many followers.
B: What are your dreams/goals with Sadface_RL? Do you view it as a stepping stone? Or would you be happy to do this forever?
L: It will not last. I have hundreds of tutorials covering everything and there are hundreds more out there covering other things. I have tried to expand but I think it is coming to an end, I will most likely continue personal artwork, the odd tutorial here and there and move onto new adventures.
B: Is this your first time being interviewed?
L: Second, although the first one was not so much about me but about the comic that I work on, Fabled Four.
B: How long have you been creating pixel art?
L: Personally I have done it on and off since I was young. Professionally maybe 5–6 years now.
B: What was it about pixel art that initially got you interested in it?
L: I found it relaxing and calming. It helped my panic attacks and took my attention away.
B: Did you go to any schooling for it? If so, where?
L: I did not — I taught myself, just like other forms of art. If I wanted to draw something I would take a wide variety of references and will spend days learning about the subject and how to go about creating it. When I made some of my tutorials I knew nothing about before I started creating them, like The Fire Animation for example. I went into that knowing nothing. I pulled up slo-mo videos on YouTube of fire burning, I sat in a dark room and lit a candle so that I could watch the flame, studying how it moves and trying hundreds of times to replicate it. Then I tried more to simplify it the best I could and finally completed the tutorial, it took about a month. Nobody sees all the behind the scenes work. I think they assume I just know this stuff. I purposefully set out to learn it so that I can teach it on request.
B: When did you first start making tutorials?
L: 2017/2018 — I started posting art to Twitter to get feedback on stuff I was trying out, to see what styles people liked best, I got a ton of requests for a “How To” on the trees and rocks I were doing, Those very early tutorials were the first ones I did, They got a lot of attention so I continued to do them.
B: What is your favorite tutorial you’ve made?
L: I love my animation tutorials, I love to animate! My most popular and one of my favorite is Animating Fire.
You can find all of Luke’s animation tutorials here: https://www.patreon.com/user?filters[tag]=Animation
B: Looking at the first tier you have on Patreon, I see something that I wish I saw more of, and that is your statement, “Learning should be free and I am trying to keep it that way!” I know a lot of people who would think otherwise, and that you should have to pay for that ‘opportunity’, what would you say to someone like that?
L: I could write a book on this but will try keep it short. I think everyone should have the opportunity to learn and grow as a person, nobody should be denied education because of their financial situation.
People take advantage where they can, I try to be one of the few that are selfless, which people also tend to try to take advantage of. I do not stand for that.
B: What is your best piece of advice to a budding pixel artist?
L: Do it for yourself first. If you ever feel overwhelmed then you are doing too much. Start small and check out my getting started guide.
B: Besides doing tutorials, do you do art for other things? If so, what are they?
L: I do art for the comic Fabled Four. It’s a comic my friend, @JamieMeWrites writes, and another friend of mine, @W4RCRY777, letters. I also sometimes get requests to do odd jobs for games, profiles, and other miscellaneous stuff.
B: Do you do art full time? Or do you work another job?
L: Art is my only work. I have done some odd jobs like being paid to look at concepts, paid to read someone else’s story and give my ideas on it.
B: Who/What are some of your biggest inspirations? What about them did you find so inspiring?
L: Mostly My Dad (RIP), and the artwork from childhood games such as Jet Set Willy and Maniac Mansion. Fun Fact: The guy behind Maniac Mansion and creator of Monkey Island, Ron Gilbert, was a patron of mine at one point.
B: How old are you, and where are you from?
L: I am 37 years old and England, West Yorkshire, Born and bred.
B: What is your favorite snack? What is your favorite food/homemade meal?
L: I like Stew, I like many things at different times. It changes a fair bit, I think my favorite meals are my Mum’s sausage casserole, Lamb, or Quiche with cheese sauce.
B: What do you like to do in your free time?
L: A little bit of everything, currently playing games or watching movies/tv-shows.
B: What are some games you’ve been playing lately?
L: Dead by Daylight
B: What are some of your favorite games of all time?
L: GTA series, Red Dead Redemption Series, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, Rocket League, Resident Evil 7, Tenchu, the Age of Empires Series, Aliens Vs Predator, the Fallout Series. I preferred the 2D Fallouts, but the newer stuff is OK. I just wish that they would change engines.
I love competitive games and I love horror games, but I also love a open world that is brought to life by a great story. These are just some that I can think of but I have probably missed something really special to me, however my favorite game of all time is Red Dead Redemption 2.
B: What is your relationship with social media? Do you find it to be mostly positive? Or more of a ‘necessary evil’ if you will?
L: Tough one, The community which I am part of is great, almost every person from the pixel art and indie dev community is a pleasure to get along with. There are a few that seem to think they are better than everyone else, elitist and arrogant. But they are rare and very wrong. As for the comic community, it is just a warzone. I have never seen so many toxic hateful people.
B: What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about pixel art/pixel artists?
L: That it is outdated and simple — It is not outdated and it is not simple, at least not when you dive deeper into stuff like Anti-Aliasing that you do manually or sub-pixel animations.
B: What was your best day ever?
L: I do not think it has happened yet. The best time I can remember as an adult was probably at the beach one day, for a moment I was truly happy, in that one moment I was truly happy and it made me cry. If you knew me you would know I rarely if ever cry. As a child, there were many happy times because you’re a child and everything is bright and new to you, at least for most children.
B: What is the biggest challenge you’ve had in terms of art?
L: Posters for the comic. The images take weeks and are often very complicated. It makes it worse when the direction changes and the image is scrapped.
B: Coming out of a crazy past almost two years… How has the pandemic shifted your work and/or your life?
L: Depression was deep and I was suicidal. I had a real hard time and I am slowly recovering now, this is why my activity has picked up on socials.
B: In talking about working through social anxiety, depression, and even feeling suicidal, what has kept you going through it? What would you say to others who are struggling with similar things?
L: Hope, and I really do not know how I kept it together. It is an ongoing battle that I have had since I was a teenager. I have months where I just get really bad and then I come around again… no doubt it will come back as it always does. I just feel useless, always asking why, what’s the point, doubting myself in every way I can. I just have hope, and I try hold onto that, even if it is the smallest sliver of hope, and that is the only way I know how to keep going.
I do not think I am in any position to give advice but surround yourself with others; friends, family, and children especially because they are a joy. The happiness they show over even the smallest things reminds me of being young and that helps, it reminds me that I can be happy again.
B: Seeing things like VR and Cryptocurrencies pop up, what are your thoughts on them? Have you ever created art in VR? Would you ever be interested? Have you ever created/been approached to do something like art for an NFT? Would you ever be interested?
L: I get asked about NFT’s all the time. Right now I am not interested in them. I do get asked to do them a fair bit for other people, if I were ever to do NFT work it would be for profit for myself and it would be a last resort right now. I have not done any VR work at all, VR makes me sick but I do hope it continues to grow and I can get past the sickness.
B: What is something that is frustrating you?
L: Being poor. I get a few donations which I really appreciate. The work for the comic that I do covers shopping expenses for a week once a year. All my earnings go straight to bills and my little girl. I always said as long as I feel secure I am fine, but it is more about my family now and I think I really need to start looking at other ways to move forward and make money.
B: What is something you are working on improving?
L: I work on little things all the time. Currently I am working on my motivation and trying to live for tomorrow. Sounds weird but more often than not, Today sucks for me, so I live for tomorrow. I try to eat well for tomorrow, I exercise for tomorrow, I tell myself if I do good today then tomorrow I will feel much better and so on.
B: What is something you are excited for coming up?
L: I have not been excited about the future for awhile, I used to be looking forward to games and movies or a holiday or party… I guess if I had to pick something that I do have an interest in, it would be the new Hellraiser Movie, the new Halloween movie, Evil Episode 13, my Daughter’s birthday, and Christmas.
I find joy in the simple things now. I look forward to going to bed, having a relaxing bath, peace and quiet, waking up at 3am and realizing I have at least 3–4 hours more sleep before I need to get up.
B: Do you dream? Have you ever dreamt in pixel art?
L: I dream 3–4 different ones per night, never in pixels no. I have had a few lucid dreams though, they are the best ever and you wake up feeling brand new. Most of my dreams have great ideas in them, but they are usually disturbing. I rarely have good dreams, but I have had bad dreams for so long that I am comfortable with them and I still find them enjoyable.
B: What project/piece/tutorial are you the most proud of?
L: Most of my animated tutorials, especially the fire and explosion ones, I have some NSFW work I am proud of, part of the comic posters and other stuff, I really like some of my non-pixel anatomy study work.
The work I like the most is the one I call “Comfort” . It is my header on Twitter and Patreon currently, the two kneeling people. All my emotion went into that when I was in a bad way. It is the only piece I have ever named.
B: It’s a little cheesy, but if you won/were gifted £10,000,000, what would be something you would do with that?
L: Buy a house. Nothing special mind, just a nice house with a garden so my little girl can play in the garden. I would probably invest in others like myself that are doing good work. I am all for supporting others. It would be good not having to worry about money and where it is going to come from. After that I would probably have to look for advice on moving forward. I would love to fund some of my game ideas.
B: What would be your dream project to work on?
L: Probably one of my own game ideas. If I were to do that I would prefer to outsource everything though, so that there is less pressure on me, but I obviously do not have the money for that though. Haha!
B: What is one of your game ideas you’d like to work on?
L: I would rather not say, I have a couple and they are golden, but someone might steal them…
B: Fair enough! We’ll leave them be.
B: My last question for you is, what would you wish to be known for?
L: Been kind, Good — At least right now that is all I ask.
B: That’s beautiful. That is all the questions I have for you. Thank you for taking the time and agreeing to do this interview Luke, and I wish you all of the success in your future endeavors!
