GB Pixel Art Jam 2023 Submission

My submission to the GB Pixel Art Jam 2023

The theme was "An Awesome Discovery"

My submission is a self portrait reacting to an awesome discovery! 

Seeing the theme instantly inspired ideas of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Pulp Fiction, but I quickly realised that what brought these kinds of treasures together was the reaction of the person looking inside. 

I used the symmetry tool in GIMP to help me draw this and I used photos of me as a references. Although I have made a few pixel portraits before, this one was different due to the fact it was me and has an extreme expression. I had fun working with shading, exaggerating my expression by making my eyes wide and changing my eyebrows, and repeatedly adjusting my mouth shape to try to form the correct vowel of excitement! I originally made hands to emphasise the emotion more, but it was above the tile count, so I chose to remove them (I have added an image with them to the side bar for you to see).  And I topped it off by adding a glowing orb and rays of light emanating from it to give the face context.

Overall, I'd like to think my submission represents the childlike joy we all feel when we discover a new game that speaks to our soul in that special way.

(Special thanks to Gumpy Function for uploading early and making the fantastic cover image example https://gumpyfunction.itch.io/gb-pixel-art-jam-2023-submission)