Building Engagement with Pixel Art Last modified 1707278109000 ago by Wayne Starr Click into the slideshow and press f to go fullscreen. ### Building Engagement with Pixel Art (Aseprite) #### The 7th of February 2024 #### `Wayne Starr` ----- ## Why Pixel Art? For technical people, Pixel Art can be nicer than other forms of art in that it is a relatively discrete problem space with fewer "solutions" than other art forms. There are only so many colors, positions and things you can use to solve the drawing you are trying to make. This makes Pixel Art a great way to introduce more analytically oriented people to the world of art! It also helps that our company uses [gather.town](https://app.gather.town/app) so you can view and enjoy your art every day! ----- ## So how do you "Pixel Art" Pixel Arting comes down to a few simple steps that are not to dissimilar from other art forms: 1. Determine Scale 2. Sketch an Outline 3. Add Colors (Palettize!) 4. Add Lighting And when in doubt... steal! I mean "draw inspiration." ----- ## Determine Scale The first step to starting a new piece of pixel art is to determine how big it needs to be. Usually this is done in base2 sizes like 16x16, 32x32, 64x128, 256x32 to make scaling easier. If you are targeting gather you should keep in mind that its tile size is **32x32** so most things you make will be multiples of that. ----- ## Sketch an Outline Once you have your blank canvas it is time to start drawing your object or subject. This can be done roughly at first with a basic pen tool in black (or any other starter color). As you refine you should consider the following: - Make sure that extra blobs of pixels are cleaned up and your lines smoothly transition from one to the next. - Consider perspective and how what you are drawing will fit in the space, i.e. is it isometric, profile, or something different? - Consider proportions and make sure that you still have space in the rest of your canvas for what you want to draw. - Symmetry is often considered beautiful so consider how you can introduce some within your outline. And as you go don't be afraid to test out what you have early and experiment! ----- ## Add Colors (Palettize!) Once you have a basic outline sketch you are happy with its time to add color! For pixel art it is nice to build a pallette of colors and to carefully consider the colors you want to use. When shading you will want to reuse the same colors / shades to create a clean and consistent look, and if you are building art to fit in with other art you will want to match the pallette of other objects in the space to get them to fit together. For shading it is usually best to pick a base color that you like and then use a tool like [ColorHexa](https://www.colorhexa.com/0159a0) to find lighter and darker shades of that color to add to your pallette. You will want to choose colors that are a consistent distance away from each other to maintain consistency in shading. ----- ## Add Lighting Now that you have colors its time to finalize your lighting. You can start by filling in your outline with the base colors that you chose, and then fill in the corners and edges as appropriate for the direction of your light source. For this it is really good to look at reference images to see how light interacts with the object / subject you are modeling and then replicate it in your piece. Some transitions will be sharp and others gradual and you may need to go back to your pallette as you go to adjust the colors you have selected. ----- ## Let's Pixel Art! Now that we have the basics let's pixel art!