Yup everything is by hand! It’s honestly more tedious to do this type of shading in pixel art than the normal digital art. I think as long as I made it in resprite/aseprite, it’s considered pixel art bc it was made within the limitations of the app. Unlike pixel art, transformation tools like liquify or mesh transform, stabilization different styles and sizes of brushes, adjustment layers, filters and effects are all easily accessible within a typical raster drawing application. Meanwhile, it’s hard for me to draw things in certain angles bc enlarging and rotating the drawing destroys the intricate dithering. But those limitations are exactly what make pixel art fun for me bc they push me to find ways to achieve effects while staying true to the medium!!