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+I've always been an admirer of pixel art, because of it's
+simplicity and it's resemblance to bitmap font design.
+Recently, I decided to take the dive and make some art of my
+own.
+
+I used GIMP because I am fairly familiar with it. Aseprite
+seems to be the editor of choice for animated pixel art
+though.
+
+### Setting up the canvas
+
+Picking a canvas size is daunting. Too small, and you won't
+be able to fit in enough detail to make a legible piece. Too
+big and you've got too many pixels to work with!
+
+I would suggest starting out with anywhere between 100x100
+and 200x200. [Here's](https://u.peppe.rs/u9.png) a sample
+configuration. 
+
+Sometimes I use a 10x10 grid, `View > Show Grid` and `Edit >
+Preferences > Default Grid > Spacing`, but that can get
+jarring at times, so I throw down a couple of guides, drag
+right or down from the left or top gutters for vertical and
+horizontal guides respectively.
+
+### Choosing a Brush
+
+The most important part of our setup is the brush. Use the
+Pencil Tool (`n` on the keyboard) for hard edge drawings.
+Here's a small comparison if you don't know the difference
+between a hard edge and a soft edge:
+
+![hard edge vs soft edge](https://u.peppe.rs/kz.png)
+
+I turn the size down all the way to 1 (`[` on the keyboard).
+Set `Dynamics` off. [Here's](https://u.peppe.rs/Fs.png) a
+sample brush configuration.
+
+### Laying down the pixels!
+
+With the boring stuff out of the way, we can start with our
+piece. I usually follow a three step process:
+
+ - draw a rough outline
+ - fill in the shadows
+ - add highlights
+
+But this process are better explained with an example: an
+onigiri. Let us start off with a 100x100 canvas.
+
+#### Drawing the outline
+
+For the most part, our figure will be symmetric. If you are
+on GIMP 2.10+, you can take advantage of the Symmetry
+Painting feature. Go ahead and enable vertical symmetry,
+`Window > Dockable Dialogs > Symmetry Painting` and
+`Symmetry Painting > Symmetry > Mirror > Vertical`. Your
+outline might look something like this:
+
+![rice_outline](https://u.peppe.rs/mn.png)
+
+Go ahead and fill it in with the fill tool (`Shift + b` on
+the keyboard), add in some seaweed as well, preferably on a
+different layer. You can toggle symmetry on and off to save
+yourself some time.
+
+![with_seaweed](https://u.peppe.rs/xu.png)
+
+#### Shadows
+
+For now, let us focus on the shadows on the object itself,
+we'll come back to the shadows cast by the object on the
+surface later.
+
+Shadows on any surface always follow the shape of the
+surface. A spherical onigiri would have a circular shadow:
+
+![riceball_shadow](https://u.peppe.rs/FU.png)
+
+A couple of noticeable changes:
+
+**Layers**: The layer containing the seaweed has been hidden.  
+**Color**: The color of the shadow is just a slightly
+lighter version of the original object (reduce the Value on
+the HSV scale).  
+**Area**: The shadow does not go all the way (notice the bottom
+edges).  
+
+The shadow does not go all the way because we will be
+filling in that area with another, darker shadow! An image
+might explain better:
+
+![shadow_all](https://u.peppe.rs/Br.png)
+
+To emulate soft lights, reduce the value by 2 to 3 points
+every iteration. Notice how area `1` is much larger than
+area `4`. This is because an onigiri resembles an oblate
+spheroid, a sphere that is slightly fatter around the
+middle, and areas `1` and `2` catch more light than areas
+`3` and `4`.
+
+Do the same with the seaweed. The seaweed, being a smaller,
+flatter object, doesn't cast much of a shadow, so stop with
+1 or 2 iterations of the gradient:
+
+![shadow_weed](https://u.peppe.rs/T3.png)
+
+We're getting there!
+
+#### Highlights
+
+This step handles the details on the strongly illuminated
+portions of the object. Seaweed is a bit glossy, lighten the
+edges to make it seem shiny. The rice is not as shiny, but
+it does form an uneven surface. Add in some shadows to
+promote the idea of rice grains. Here is the finished
+result:
+
+![highlights](https://u.peppe.rs/VE.png)
+
+### Finishing Touches
+
+Some color correction and `a e s t h e t i c` Japanese text
+later, our piece is complete!
+
+![small_onigiri](https://u.peppe.rs/cn.png)
+
+Hold on, why is it so tiny? Well, that's because our canvas
+was 100x100, head over to `Image > Scale Image`, set
+`Quality > Interpolation` to `None` and scale it up to
+700x700, et voilà!
+
+![big_onigiri](https://u.peppe.rs/CH.png)
+