I have some pixels for you

For me the best way is to start small and simple and with rough masses. I do not have a real work in progress of my self portrait as I only have the finished product now, but I can show you roughly how I proceeded.

For a pixel art of this resolution (I don’t bother with my very low res ones) I usually start with human anatomy basics:

1 - Draw a circle.2 - Add the jaw to make the oval of the face.3 - Be careful not to make the jaw too long, you should be able to divide the face into equal thirds.4 - The eyebrows sits on the 2nd line, and the ears are positioned between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose (but only when the face is level).

Of course you can adapte the contour of the face to suit the one you are drawing (thin, round, angular…)

Add the general traits like the rough masse of your hair, clothes… Then you can add the features and the details that make you, you. 

This gif doesn’t show all the things and pixels that I changed here and there, sometimes it can take time to find the one pixel that will make the portrait works. For example, at one point my portrait looked like this:

But I wasn’t satisfied with it, it had too many details that made the lecture less clear, and my face was too long and too round. So I had to change it a few times too get it right.