How to Become a Pixel Artist: 5 Steps (with Pictures)

Pixel Art is a form of electronic art created using a computer and a drawing software. It's associated with creating a picture by filling it in, pixel by pixel, rather than using graphic tools. In this guide, we will be using MS paint, available on any Windows computer (3.0x and up) to create your very own pixel images.
STEPS

1

BECOME FAMILIAR WITH COLORS. Color is one of the most important parts of your image in terms of effect. Even black-white images have different shades of gray, which can be counted as color. In MS paint, as in most graphics programs, an advanced color picker is available. Let's call it RGB/HSL box. So, to open up RGB/HSL box, just double click any color, or click "colors" and select "edit colors" from the menu bar. Click "Define Custom Colors". Here, you see 6 text boxes: Hue, Sat, Lum and Red, Blue, Green. After experimenting with each, you will be able to figure out what they do. You can also change those values by moving the "target" on around a big color map and by moving the black arrow up and down, you can change the luminosity of the color. Experiment with the RGB/HSL box and then move on to next step.

2

LEARN TO DITHER. Dithering is a technique that blends your colors together, making them look smoother, or just creating interesting textures. There are 3 types of dithering: Basic dithering, stylized dithering and anti-aliasing. You will only learn basic dithering here, but it is easy to learn other two thereafter.
Basic dithering is a 2x2 checkerboard pattern that is created outside of the color to make it blend with the other, lighter color (or darker) color. You can practice dithering by applying more or less to the image. See what the results look like.


Once you master basic dithering, you can move on to stylized dithering, which instead of a checkerboard pattern, creates a random pattern of dots held together. It is used to create textures and more effects.


Anti-aliasing is used on lines to make them smoother. You will not need it in basic pixel art, although sometimes it can be useful.

3

PRACTICE SHADING AND LIGHTING. When shading objects, you must always consider the lighting point, or sun. Once you decide where it is, imagine that object is in real life and shade it the way it would be shaded in real life. Decrease lum value of a color by

3

0 and increase hue by 5 and shade the area in. Then, dither it so the colors blend. Now, modify the shaded color: decrease lum value by

3

0 and increase hue by 10. Shade the area inside the shaded area; however, make it small, like 2 pixels or so. Then, dither. Now, depending on what material you're drawing (shiny or not), you need to add in lighting. This is done by increasing original color by 40 or 50 (whichever one looks better) and drawing a line or a little circle opposite from the shaded areas. It has to be about 2 pixels away from the outline and it should look real. Again, use dithering to fit it in.

4

DRAW LINE ART. Line art is the main part of your objects: it's the outline. Think of an object. Then, zoom in and draw the object, pixel by pixel. The only way you can get better at line art is if you practice a lot. Now, you can start colouring in the image using your techniques.

5

SAVE YOUR MASTERPIECE. PNG and GIF formats are preferable over JPEG because they preserve the colors efficiently, rather than creating a "muddy" look. Whereas a BMP would preserve the image, it does not compress it at all and could have a very big file size.
TIPS
Look at other pixel art works. Paste them in Paint, zoom in and see how they're made. Study them to learn about new techniques but don't plagiarize.
Learn photo manipulation. Use a photo you took yourself or get permission to use someone else's photo. Paste the photo in Paint and make it smaller. Then, outline it. After that, erase the entire inside. Re-shade it so it looks pixelish.
A great way to test out pixel art is to find out the resolution of your mobile phone screen. You can find this out in your manual or even on the phone websites.
Animations can be created in Photoshop and Gimp, which can also be played on mobile phones, msn and blogs.
Isometric pixel art is used to provide a 3-dimensional view without actual 3-dimensional processing. Objects are drawn from 26-30 degree angle although some isometric works are drawn from a 90 degree angle.
Try to make SAT values of your colors under 150 because above 150, your colors start to look too bright.
You don't have to use ms paint to create pixel art. You can use programs such as Photoshop, Gimp 2 OR for mac Pixen. Most companies that use pixel art (eg, mobile phone games) use photoshop purely for the speed. A tint can be applied over a piece of work rather than changing every single pixel to a different colour eg for water.
K.I.S.S! Keep it simple, stupid! Keep the number of colours to a minimum. Pixel art is created for devices with low processing power so the more info in the file, the harder the device has to work.
Be creative.