DEFINITION Judging by the name, we might assume that pixel art is any art that's made up of pixels. But not every digital image is pixel art. Pixel art is a very specific sub-category of digital art. It isn't what it's made of so much as how it's made. Why not all digital art is pixel art Pixel art is set apart from other digital art forms by its focus on control and precision. The artist has to be in control of the image at the level of the single pixel, and every pixel should be purposefully placed. When pixel art is done purposefully, offsetting just a few pixels can have a dramatic effect on the image: The features of this parrot change drastically, but only a few pixels are different. Other digital art forms use many tools you won't find in pixel art. The reason pixel artists don't use these tools is because they place pixels in a manner that the artist can't predict. Any tool that places pixels automatically, is generally frowned upon in pixel art. An automatic tool has been used to blur the edges of this grey blob You'll often hear people complaining "This isn't pixel art, it has too many colors!" This isn't because there's some unwritten rule in pixel art that says "It's only pixel art if it has [X] number of colors", you're allowed to use as many colors as you want. The main reason that people complain about color count is that a high amount of colors can indicate the use of dirty tools. People also mention high color counts because larger palettes are more difficult to control, but we'll get to that later. Why it's not just about the tools It's not the program that determines whether or not it's pixel art, it's how it is made. If you can create the image without zooming in, chances are it isn't pixel art. While the most common misconceptions about pixel art are due to too loose of an interpretation of the medium, there are some who have too strict a definition of what makes pixel art. Every pixel does not literally need to be placed by hand You aren't expected to behave like a robot, filling in large areas with thousands of single-clicks of the pencil tool. The bucket tool is fine. The line tool is fine. What's important is that the artist has control of the image at the level of the single pixel , not that you create the image one pixel at a time. FIFI LE FORMATTSS Always save your pixel art as a GIF or PNG.. Never save it as a JPEG. Both GIF and PNG files use lossless compression. GIF files support animation, but limit you to 256 colors and no partial transparency. The PNG format was designed to replace GIF, and supports as many colors as you can put on a canvas, as well as alpha transparency. JPEGs are terrible for pixel art, because a JPEG's compression wreaks havoc on the content of the file. It's not usually noticeable in things like photographs, but it can devastate the quality of your pixel art. SI ZE & SCAALLE E When it comes to pixel art, tiles are incredibly useful. It can be for a game, or even just for a specific style! But not only are tiles useful, they help with scale. SCAALLE II S THE MMOST I MPORTANT TH II NNGG.. The reason why scale is important, is because it helps us make sure what we're drawing isn't ridiculously unrealistic! Though saying this, if you're purposely drawing unrealistic things, then scale is up to you! But for the most part, you want to pick a canvas size that will fit everything you'll need in a piece. As for tile sizes, refer to this image: Almost all tiles I have ever drawn are 16x16, due to the fact that it's easy to express enough detail without using a large space. “Doing more with less” never rings more true than when pixeling: even very large sprites rarely exceed 200x200 pixels. You may want to pick a sub-scale ~ telling yourself that you must only draw sprites that are a multiple of 8, or 4. This ensures that what you're drawing is cohesive! Another thing that might be good to watch for is to keep your dimensions/colors/anything to a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, etc.) if you plan on using it for video-games (some technical stuff here) When you’re learning, it’s better to minimize the size of the sprites (and color count too). Even if it increases the trouble of conveying what you want to, it reduces pretty much every other possible trouble that may come with bigger pixel art If you're drawing a sprite sheet, a good canvas size is 16x the size of your tiles: 8x8 --> 128x128 canvas 12x12 --> 192x192 canvas 16x16 --> 256x256 canvas 24x24 --> 384x384 canvas 32x32 --> 512x512 canvas HUE, SATURATI ON AND LUMI NESCENCE Hue refers to the identity of a color. Whether a color is defined as blue, red, orange, etc. depends on its hue: In the above picture, hue is represented along the x-axis. Just as you can change how bright or dark a color appears by surrounding it with lighter or darker pixels, the perceived hue of a color depends on its environment. In this picture the green in the trees is actually not green at all, but the same neutral grey as the picture beside it. Because the background is so purple (which is the opposite of green), the grey looks greener than it actually is: Saturation is the intensity of a color. The lower the saturation of a color, the closer it gets to grey: The most common problem new artists encounter is regards to saturation is using colors with too high of a saturation. When this happens, the colors start to burn the eyes. Because the colors in pixel art are made up of light, instead of pigment as in paint, the potential for colors being too bright or irritating is much higher. Luminescence (also known as brightness or value) is how dark or light a color is. The higher the luminescence, the closer the color gets to white. If the luminescence is 0, then the color is black. Here's a palette arranged as a luminescence scale: low luminescence (darker colors) on the left, high luminescence (brighter colors) on the right In a given palette, you want a wide range of values. If you only have colors in the same range of luminescence, then you won't be able to create good contrast- a full range of values allows you to use highlights, mid-tones, and shadows. The difference between the brightness of two colors is known as contrast. A common problem newer artists have is not using enough contrast. Here's an example (bad and good contrast, respectively): There are very little changes to the sprite itself, but the updated colors make a huge difference. It pops, it looks like it has real depth to it. It’s the colors – the contrast, more precisely – that bring a sprite to life. To make this clear, look at how the same yellow is used in different situations: In the first two, there is a buffer color between the yellow and red/green, which makes everything seem the same whole. In the third, there are no buffer colors between the yellow in the hair and the skin or the hat, which makes each element stand out and rightly so: the hair, skin and hat aren’t supposed to look like a whole, they need the depth The value of a color is a set number, but colors can appear lighter or darker depending on their background. So you won't always use your brightest color for every highlight. A color that makes a good highlight on one object might be too bright to use on another Luminescence is especially relevant to pixel art: The brightness of a pixel or line determines how thick it appears: Color Ramps A color ramp is a group of colors that can be used together, arranged according to luminosity. A palette can consist of a single ramp of many different ramps. Here's a palette: And here's that same palette, arranged according to its color ramps (of which there are two): It isn’t necessary that you actually cr eate a model like the one above. What is important is that you understand your color relationships – shown by the color ramps. Notice how each color flows into the next, then to next and so on. This makes for a unified palette It isn't necessary that a color be restricted to a single ramp. Often, ramps will share colors. Frequently, the darkest or lightest color will belong to most or all of the palette's ramps, as in the example above, in which both ramps share the same darkest and lightest shades. It’s also possible for mid-tones to work in multiple ramps. In these cases, the versatile color takes the place of two or more separate colors, aiding in palette conservation. In the case of multi-ramp shadows and highlights, the extremes in luminescence allow the color to be flexible (because they approach black or white). Since mid-tones are not afforded this advantage, they are often more neutral colors, meaning they are closer to brown or grey.