How to Make Pixel Art
The complete pixel art workflow for beginners: choose a canvas, block a silhouette, place base colors, then shade — with the mistakes to avoid at each step.
Quick answer
Silhouette first, colors second, detail last. Draw the outer shape until it reads, block in base colors, add shadow and highlight with hue shifting, then clean up stray pixels.
The workflow
- 1
Choose canvas and palette
16×16 or 32×32 to start. Pick 4–6 colors before drawing: dark outline, base, shadow, highlight.
- 2
Draw the silhouette
In the darkest color, draw only the outer shape. Zoom out — if the silhouette is not recognizable, nothing added later will save it.
Exaggerate one feature (big hat, wide body). Memorability beats accuracy.
- 3
Block in base colors
Fill regions with flat base colors. No shading yet — just decide which areas are which material.
- 4
Add shadow
Pick a light direction and shade the away side with the shadow color from your ramp. Keep shadow areas connected; scattered pixels read as noise.
- 5
Add highlights
Small highlight clusters on the light side — top edges, cheekbones, metal glints. Highlight area should be visibly smaller than shadow area.
- 6
Clean the pixels
Remove orphan pixels, fix jagged staircase edges ('pixel lumps'), and make outline weight consistent.
Working zoomed out
Draw at 4×–8× zoom, but check at 1×–2× every few minutes. Most pixel art problems (noisy texture, unreadable shapes, broken faces) are invisible at drawing zoom and obvious at display zoom. The editor's zoom presets make this a two-keystroke habit.
Put it to work
Common mistakes
- Detailing before the silhouette reads.
- Shading without a fixed light direction — light must come from one place.
- Outlining every interior seam instead of letting color boundaries do the work.
Related
What Is Pixel Art?
Pixel art is digital drawing where every pixel is placed on purpose. Learn what defines it, how it differs from digital painting, and why small canvases win.
OpenGuideHow to Draw Pixel Art Characters
A step-by-step approach to pixel art characters: proportions that read at small sizes, where the face pixels go, and how to keep a character animatable.
OpenTutorialYour first pixel asset
Start on an empty grid and finish with a transparent PNG — the shortest path through the whole pipeline.
Open