Digital Painting

A couple of months ago I asked a friend of mine to help me color a pattern in using photoshop or illustrator because I did not own or have access to those programs. He did use those programs, but he also used microsoft excel. I was intrigued and made modifications to his color schemes. Then I discovered a man named Tatsuo Horiuchi. He uses the program to paint large seasonal landscapes. I tried my hand at it and found the process to be painstaking and argues, but worth it. I do not have the technical skill to round my objects and I am unsure how to do that function. However with time i am sure to find a way. The process reminded me of an old game I used to play called Mario Paint. Where one could paint things in pixels. microsoft excel is just a more complex version, without the fancy music and gameplay.
Here are the fruits of nintendo's, Horiuchi's, and my own labor respectively.