Well, thats not that easy to answer. There are many types as you mention above, and each will have 'techniques', then theres colour theories and what not. i suppose it will depend on a few things. What your most comfotable doing and what you find easy. however 'easy' is not so easy to define, some may find some meduims difficult, some may find them easy. :) then theres drawing free hand and using software, which again, some will find it easy, some find it hard. So finding the way to create your chosen meduim and the tools to help you create a particular art is going to take time. Some Tools you may not get on with, may make you feel like you don't like a particular meduim, or vice versa. it really does depend on what your goal is in terms of the art you want to produce, but then saying that, will a certain game idea dictate the way you want the art because you want to depict a certain feel to a game?

My advice to you is decide what art meduim you like. Learn about it, practice it, then when your comfortable try and see what too(if you need one)l you like which will help you move forward when creating assets for your game project. And there could be many ways to do this, many tools to do the job. But it will be up to you to discover what works best for you. :)

Personally, Pixel art is my preference, but i knew not a lot about it, so i have been on a journey of learning and discovery with the origins of pixel art. My goal is to produce 16bit game assets, but i couldn't just jump in doing it until i started from the bottom, or where i was most comfortable with. I currently create 8bit assets. Ive have learnt many things and i am still learning. Ive been here on OGA for 5 years, which is as long as ive been doing the 8bit stuff. My work is still not perfect, but it has come on leaps and bounds since starting and i'm well on the way to reaching my goal. One of the biggest issues for me was using software to draw. I hated it. I like to use freehand, with a pencil, but creating digital art with a pencil doesn't quite work. So i tried some tools to help me draw free hand and, transfer them to a format where i could use for my game assets with software. it took some trial and error, but eventually found something i really like.

I use my Ipad to draft,draw,practice my work. it gives me the freedom to move around, research without being stuck at a PC screen allday, take it everywhere with me, incase inspirations hits me, and most importantly, the abilty to use a stylis as a pen, giving me the freehand i so desperatly wanted. :) i can also export my drafts & drawings via email, photo,png, GIF and import them straight into my project, where i can then use the software to make small edited changes, correct mistakes and create animations etc. As a result of doing this i have become more confident in using software to create some of my drawings so i don't hate it as much. :)

The App i use is called Pixaki. It set me back £30 and it was the best investment i ever made. There are many Free alternatives outthere as well, but again this will all depend on your preferences.

If pixel art is not the way to you want to go, you could always try Procreate. you can do a lot of meduims on there, graffiti, oil painting, skecthing, water colour, theres so many to choose. So whatever you want to do. Again, the softwares can do all that to, Blender, Photoshop, Gimp, illustrater. It's what ever you feel comfortable with doing. I often find that some softwares can take a while to learn themselves. It could take time to learn there features and how they work which can be frustrating.

When you first start learning to do something, nothing can seem 'easy', or can be easily done. It takes time, perserverence & patience. but the more you learn the easier it should become. :)

Most important thing to do first is learn the basics in what ever you decide to do. :)

Just to add some stuff: if speed is important to you, then it helps to watch some tutorials on how to use things like keyboard shortcuts. For programs like Gimp or Photoshop, this might not make a huge difference, but for something like Blender it definately does. I would recommend Blender Guru's channel on youtube.

EDIT: BTW, if you're doing pixel art, don't get frustrated if your stuff doesn't look like the works from people you admire. This applies to everything actually, but I feel like it's especially true for pixel art. Despite first impressions, getting really good at pixel art is insanely difficult. Heck, scratch that, getting somewhat decent at it is difficult by itself. Consider a game like Battle for Wesnoth. I can make some decent 3d stuff in Blender, but I have never been able to make a single sprite that even comes close to Wesnoth's quality. Pixel art is deceptively sophisticated. It is often taken for granted, as if it was a "simple" style. It's really not. But it's worthwhile to pursue it as a goal. At least it's one of my goals.

Excellent! Deciding to take the plunge is the hardest part. You are already miles ahead of those still thinking about it :)

I highly recommend taking a dedicated course(s) about art. I use Udemy personally and it's great. Each course costs around 12 bucks. I like them because they are structured well for complete beginners.

you will learn about colour theory this way as well, but an excellent resource for ready to go colour palettes is lospec. There are also lots of tutorials on the website too.....

Pixel art is a fantastic medium. It is easy to start with because you get by with the mouse and don't need to develop your drawing arm. It is difficult to master but if you stick to the same palette and follow along with a course you will learn to create good looking assets in no time ;) Even simple pixel art looks great when it's cohesive.

I completed this course so far and it's decent. I plan to take them all eventually and use the best bits from each one ;)

https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-professional-pixel-art-animation-for-...

Hi. I am a programmer so maybe we have the same problem.
Maybe If you choose low poly textureless graphics, there are so many free game assets and you can start programming. (example: https://poly.google.com/user/4aEd8rQgKu2)
I made the assets myself (I choosed voxels) but that was 2500 hours and 3 years (in my free times). So if you want to focus programming download the free assets.

Hmmm where to start, now that's a good question, my normal answer for it would be, what feels the easiest for you, I tend to use pixel art quite often since it's relatively fast to make, I am also somewhat decent at vector art too and know a thing or two about digital painting

I feel it's less of a what style to learn and more of a what software to use however, I personally can't make many reccomendations, mainly due to mostly/only using a certain one which I have used ever since I started since it is what feels the most comfortable to me, which also many I know don't feel comfortable using, it's even discontinued (good ol fireworks 8) so welp there's that, I know and have used some others though

From my experience, Pixel art is really easy to get into, and make somewhat decent works with some time spent in, hard to master however, I have practiced it for many years and there's stuff that surprises me every now and then, and I feel my abilities are still lacking quite often, Vector art might feel intimidating at first, but it's actually not as hard as it seems, that part is more of "how skilled are you at handling the program you are using" for me, if you are fairly good with it, it's not going to be very hard, since you can constantly change your traces and stuff, digital painting is... depends on the tools you have at hand and your personal skills, voxel art is about as easy as pixel art, probably easier to master, 3D modeling has been a nightmare to get into so I won't speak much of it, it's probably more of a case where I still haven't found the program I can be comfortable with for it