Pixel art is made one square at a time. Zoom out after a hundred hours and it’s a whole world.

At the resolution you work at, nothing looks like progress. A square is a square, and an evening of squares is indistinguishable from the evening before. The picture only exists at a scale you never occupy while making it, which is why the work feels pointless right up until it does not.

Build in a way to see the distance. A dated folder, a photo of the first version, a log with one line a day. Then leave it alone for a while and look back deliberately. Your feelings about your progress are measured at the wrong zoom level. The record is not.