Hands-on workshopBeginner6 min

Start from a template

Take apart a finished sprite to learn its palette and shading, then remake it in your own colors.

You finish with

A recolored, re-exported version of a finished sprite.

01What you will learn

Recognize color roles in a small finished sprite.
Recolor an asset without losing its light and shadow structure.
Save a personal variation as an editable project.

Start with: Choose a finished sprite from the template gallery. You do not need an existing project.

02See the technique

What gets in the way

Replacing every green with one new color removes the contrast that made the template feel rounded.

The useful change

Change the body, shadow and highlight as a family while keeping their lightness order. The shape stays readable and the palette becomes your own.

03Follow the steps

1
Pick a sprite close to what you need
The gallery holds finished characters, pickups, icons and tiles. Each one opens inside the editor, nothing downloads. Start with the coin if you want shapes, the slime if you want shading.
Browse templates
2
Read the palette before touching pixels
Open the Palette tab. Most of these sprites use 4–8 colors: one outline, two or three body tones, one highlight. That limit is doing most of the work — learn it before adding colors.
Open the slime sample
3
Recolor, don't redraw
Swap the body tones for your own using pipette + fill. Keeping the same structure while changing hue is how you build a coherent set: a second coin variation costs two minutes, not twenty.
4
Save it as your own project
Renaming and saving stores it in your browser (and to the cloud if signed in), so it shows up in the Workspace next time instead of in the gallery.
Open workspace

04Practice in Pikanim

Open a tool, follow the steps with your own asset, and come back when your result is ready.

Template Gallery Pixel Art Editor

05Check your result

Compare your own work with these checkpoints. Check each one when your result is ready.

I identified the outline, body, shadow and highlight colors.My new colors keep the template's original lightness relationships.I renamed my variation, saved it in the Workspace and exported a PNG.

0 of 3 checked

Progress saves in this browser. No account needed.

06Continue learning

Next workshop

Clean edges, alpha and palettes

The editor habits that separate an asset from a drawing: hard edges, honest alpha, and a palette you control.

Your saved projects

Pick up the asset you made and keep building.

03Follow the steps

Pick a sprite close to what you need

The gallery holds finished characters, pickups, icons and tiles. Each one opens inside the editor, nothing downloads. Start with the coin if you want shapes, the slime if you want shading.

Browse templates

Read the palette before touching pixels

Open the Palette tab. Most of these sprites use 4–8 colors: one outline, two or three body tones, one highlight. That limit is doing most of the work — learn it before adding colors.

Open the slime sample

Recolor, don't redraw

Swap the body tones for your own using pipette + fill. Keeping the same structure while changing hue is how you build a coherent set: a second coin variation costs two minutes, not twenty.

Save it as your own project

Renaming and saving stores it in your browser (and to the cloud if signed in), so it shows up in the Workspace next time instead of in the gallery.

Open workspace