What does a pixel art look like? Pixel Art

Drawing at the pixel level has its own niche in the visual arts. By using simple pixels real masterpieces are created. Of course, you can create such drawings on a sheet of paper, but it is much easier and more correct to create pictures using graphic editors. In this article we will analyze in detail each representative of such software.

The most popular in the world graphics editor, which is capable of working at the pixel level. To create such pictures in this editor, you just need to perform a few preliminary setup steps. Here is everything an artist needs to create art.

But on the other hand, such an abundance of functionality is not needed for drawing pixel art, so there is no point in overpaying for the program if you are going to use it only for a specific function. If you are one of such users, then we advise you to pay attention to other representatives who are focused specifically on pixel graphics.

PyxelEdit

This program has everything you need to create similar paintings and is not oversaturated with functions that an artist will never need. The setup is quite simple, in color palette It is possible to change any color to the desired tone, and free movement of windows will help you customize the program for yourself.

PyxelEdit has a feature for setting tiles on the canvas, which can be useful when creating objects with similar content. The trial version is available for download on the official website and has no restrictions on use, so you can try the product before making a purchase.

Pixelformer

In appearance and functionality, this is the most ordinary graphic editor, only it has several additional features to create pixel images. This is one of the few programs that are distributed absolutely free.

The developers do not position their product as suitable for creating pixel art, they call it an excellent way to draw logos and icons.

GraphicsGale

In almost all such software they try to implement a picture animation system, which most often turns out to be simply unusable due to limited functions and incorrect implementation. GraphicsGale is not so good with this either, but at least this function can work normally.

As for drawing, everything is exactly the same as in the majority of editors: basic functions, a large color palette, the ability to create several layers and nothing unnecessary that could interfere with work.

Charamaker

Character Maker 1999 is one of the oldest such programs. It was created to create individual characters or elements that would then be used in other animation programs or incorporated into computer games. Therefore, it is not very suitable for creating paintings.

The interface is not very good. Almost no windows can be moved or resized, and the default layout is not the best in a successful way. However, you can get used to it.

Pro Motion NG

This program is ideal in almost everything, starting with a well-thought-out interface, where it is possible to move windows independently of the main one to any point and change their size, and ending with an automatic switch from an eyedropper to a pencil, which is simply an incredibly convenient feature.

Otherwise, Pro Motion NG is just good software for creating pixel graphics of any level. The trial version can be downloaded from the official website and tested to decide whether to further purchase the full version.

Aseprite

Can rightfully be considered the most convenient and beautiful program to create pixel art. The interface design alone is worth it, but that’s not all the advantages of Aseprite. There is the ability to animate a picture, but unlike previous representatives, it is implemented competently and easy to use. There is everything you need to create beautiful GIF animations.

Back in the 20th century, computer games became a wide area of ​​application for pixel graphics, especially in the 90s. With the development of 3D graphics, pixel art began to decline, but then came back to life thanks to the development of web design, the emergence of cell phones and mobile applications.

Pixel art represents special technique creating an image in digital form, performed in raster graphics editors, in which the artist works with the smallest unit of a raster digital image - a pixel. This image is characterized by a low resolution, at which every pixel becomes clearly visible. Pixel art takes a long time and painstakingly, depending on the complexity of the drawing - pixel by pixel.

Basic rules of pixel art

The most important component of pixel art is the so-called line art - in other words, its contours. Pixel art is done using lines - straight and curved.

Straight lines

The rule for constructing lines in pixel art is that they should consist of segments that move to the side by one pixel as the drawing progresses. Avoid the main mistake of beginner pixel art artists: the pixels should not touch each other, forming a right angle.

In the case of straight lines, you can make your task easier by using one of the well-known examples of inclined straight lines:

As can be seen from the figure, all straight lines presented on it consist of identical pixel segments, shifted to the side by a distance of one pixel, and the most popular ones are segments of one, two and four pixels. Such simple straight lines in pixel graphics are called “ideal”.

Straight lines can have a different pattern, for example, you can alternate segments of two pixels with a segment of one, but such lines will not look so beautiful, especially when the image is enlarged, although they do not violate the rules of pixel art.

Curved lines

Straight lines are easier to make because they avoid kinks, which is not the case with curved lines. Their construction is more difficult, but curved lines have to be drawn much more often than straight lines.

In addition to the same prohibition on the formation of right angles from pixels, when drawing curved lines, it is necessary to remember the nature of their displacement. The length of the pixel segments should change evenly, gradually - rise smoothly and fall just as smoothly. Pixel graphics do not allow kinks.

You are unlikely to be able to draw an ideal curved line with one movement of your hand without breaking a single rule, so you can resort to two methods: draw lines by drawing one pixel after another, or draw a regular curve and then correct it by removing extra pixels from finished “frame”.

Dithering

In pixel art there is such a thing as dithering. It represents a specific way of mixing pixels different color to create a color transition effect.

The most popular method of dithering is to arrange pixels in a checkerboard pattern:

This method owes its appearance to technical limitations in color palettes, because in order to obtain, for example, purple, it was necessary to draw red and blue pixels in a checkerboard pattern:

And subsequently, dithering was often used to convey volume through light and shadow in images:

For dithered pixel art to work well, the color mixing area must be at least two pixels wide.

Programs for pixel art

To master creating art in a pixel style, you can use any graphic editor that supports this type of drawing. All artists work with different programs, based on your preferences.

Many people to this day prefer to draw with pixels in the well-known standard program operating system Windows - Microsoft Paint. This program is really easy to learn, but this is also its disadvantage - it is quite primitive, for example, it does not support working with layers and their transparency.

Another easy-to-use pixel art program whose demo version can be found online absolutely free is GraphicsGale. The downside of the program is, perhaps, that it does not support saving pixel art in .gif format.

Owners of Mac computers can try working in free program Pixen. And users of the Linux operating system should test the GrafX2 and JDraw programs for themselves.

And of course great option to create pixel art - program Adobe Photoshop, which has wide functionality, allows you to work with layers, supports transparency, provides simple work with a palette. With the help of this program we will look at simple examples, how to draw pixel art yourself.

How to Draw Pixel Art in Photoshop

As in types of traditional visual arts, great importance in pixel art have shape, shadow and light, so before you learn how to draw pixel art, take the trouble to familiarize yourself with the basics of drawing - practice drawing with a pencil on paper.

Drawing "Balloon"

Let's start with the simplest thing - draw an ordinary balloon. Create a new file in Photoshop with a screen resolution of 72 dpi. There is no point in setting the image sizes large - this is pixel art. Select a brush, hard and opaque, set the size to 1 pixel.

Draw a small curved semi-arc from left to right, leading it from bottom to top. Remember the rules of pixel art: keep the same proportions of the segments, shift them to the side by a pixel, without leaving kinks or right angles. Then mirror this arc by drawing top part ball.

Using the same principle, draw the bottom of the ball and the thread. Fill the ball with red using the Fill Tool. Now all that remains is to add volume - our ball looks too flat. Paint a dark red stripe on the bottom right side of the ball, then dither the area. In the upper left corner of the ball, draw a highlight of white pixels.

See how simple it is - the ball is ready!

Drawing "Robot"

Now let’s try to draw a picture in the traditional way, and only then we’ll clean up those pixels that violate the rules of pixel art.

Open a new document and make a rough sketch of the future robot:

Now you can clean up everything that gets in the way and add pixels where needed:

In the same way, draw the lower part of the robot’s body. Don't miss the opportunity to draw "perfect" straight lines in appropriate places.

Detail the robot's body. Many experienced artists Before starting work, they advise you to prepare yourself a palette - a set of colors that you will use when creating work in a pixel style. This allows for the greatest image integrity. Create a palette on a free area of ​​the Photoshop workspace - for example, in the form of squares or color spots. Subsequently, to select the desired color, click on it with the Eyedropper tool.

You can start filling the contours. “Paint” the robot’s body with the main color. Our color is lavender blue.

Change the color of the outline - fill it with dark blue. Decide where the light source is in your drawing. For us, it is located somewhere above and to the right in front of the robot. Let's draw our character's chest, adding volume:

On the right side, mark the most deep shadow in the figure, passing along the contour of the body. From this shadow, from the edges to the center, draw a lighter shadow that disappears in the intended areas illuminated by the light source:

Add highlights to the robot in all areas that are expected to reflect light:

Give the robot's legs a cylindrical appearance using shadow and light. In the same way, make holes from circles on the robot’s chest:

Now let's improve the picture by adding the previously discussed pixel art element - dithering - to the shadow areas of the body.

Dithering can be avoided on highlights, as well as on the legs - they are already too small size. Using dark and light pixels, draw a row of rivets on the robot’s head instead of teeth, and also add a funny antenna. It seemed to us that the robot's hand was not drawn very well - if you encounter the same problem, cut out the object in Photoshop and move it down.

That's all - our funny pixel robot is ready!

And with the help of this video you will learn how to make pixel art animation in Photoshop:

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!

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Pixel art(written without a hyphen) or pixel graphics- direction digital art, which consists of creating images at the pixel level (i.e. the smallest logical unit that makes up an image). Not all raster images are pixel art, although they all consist of pixels. Why? Because ultimately, the concept of pixel art encompasses not so much the result as the process of creating an illustration. Pixel by pixel, and that's it. If you take a digital photo, greatly reduce it (so that the pixels become visible) and claim that you drew it from scratch, this will be a real forgery. Although there will probably be naive simpletons who will praise you for your painstaking work.

It is currently unknown when exactly this technique originated; the roots are lost somewhere in the early 1970s. However, the technique of composing images from small elements goes back to much more ancient forms of art, such as mosaics, cross-stitching, carpet weaving and beading. The very phrase “pixel art” as a definition of pixel art was first used in an article by Adele Goldberg and Robert Flegal in the journal Communications of the ACM (December 1982).

Oddly enough, but it was Mr. Scientific and technical progress, who pushed pixel graphics to the last positions in the mid-90s, and later returned it to the game - introducing mobile devices to the world in the form of cell phones and PDAs. After all, no matter how useful a newfangled device may be, you and I know that if you can’t at least play solitaire on it, it’s worthless. Well, where there is a low-resolution screen, there is pixel art. As they say, welcome back.

2. Tools.

What do you need to create pixel art? As I said above, a computer and any graphics editor capable of working at the pixel level are enough. You can draw anywhere, even on a Game Boy, even on a Nintendo DS, even in Microsoft Paint (another thing is that drawing in the latter is extremely inconvenient). There are a great variety of raster editors, many of them are free and quite functional, so with software everyone can decide for themselves.

So, you need any graphic editor that allows you to draw with a tool of one square pixel (there are also non-square pixels, for example round ones, but they this moment not interested). If your editor supports any set of colors, great. If it also allows you to save files, that’s great. It would be nice if he knew how to work with layers, because when working on a fairly complex picture, it’s more convenient to arrange its elements into different layers, but by and large it is a matter of habit and convenience.

3. General principles.

And yet there are several general principles, which will not hurt to know. There are really few of them, I call them “principles” and not laws, because they are more of a recommendatory nature. In the end, if you manage to draw a brilliant pixel art bypassing all the rules - who cares about them?

The most basic principle can be formulated as follows: the minimum unit of an image is a pixel, and, if possible, all elements of the composition should be proportionate to it. Let me break it down: everything you draw consists of pixels, and the pixel must be readable in everything. This does not mean that the picture cannot contain elements at all, for example, 2x2 pixels, or 3x3. But it is still preferable to construct an image from individual pixels.

The stroke and generally all lines of the drawing should be one pixel thick (with rare exceptions).

Fractures deprive the drawing of its natural smoothness and beauty. And if fragments 3, 4 and 5 are obvious and can be easily corrected, with the others the situation is more complicated - there the length of a single piece in the chain is broken, it would seem a trifle, but the trifle is noticeable. It takes a little practice to learn to see these places and avoid them. Kink 1 is knocked out of the line because it is a single pixel - while in the area where it was inserted, the line consists of segments of 2 pixels. To get rid of it, I softened the entry of the curve into the bend, lengthening the top segment to 3 pixels, and redrew the entire line in 2 pixel segments. Breaks 2 and 6 are identical to each other - these are already fragments 2 pixels long in areas constructed by single pixels.

An elementary set of examples of inclined straight lines, which can be found in almost every pixel art manual (mine is no exception), will help you avoid such kinks when drawing:

As you can see, a straight line is made up of segments of the same length, shifted by one pixel as it is drawn - only in this way is the effect of linearity achieved. The most common construction methods are with segment lengths of 1, 2 and 4 pixels (there are others, but the presented options should be enough to implement almost any artistic idea). Of these three, the most popular can confidently be called a segment length of 2 pixels: draw a segment, move the pen by 1 pixel, draw another segment, move the pen by 1 pixel, draw another segment:

Not difficult, right? All you need is a habit. The ability to draw inclined straight lines in 2-pixel increments will help in isometry, so we’ll look at it in more detail next time. In general, straight lines are great - but only until the task arises of drawing something miraculous. Here we need curves, and many different curves. And we take into account a simple rule for rounding curved lines: the length of the curve elements should decrease/increase gradually.

The exit from the straight line to the rounding is carried out smoothly, I indicated the length of each segment: 5 pixels, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, again 2 (already vertical), 3, 5 and so on. Your case will not necessarily use the same sequence, it all depends on the smoothness that is required. Another example of rounding:

Again, we avoid kinks that spoil the picture so much. If you want to check the material you have learned, here is my drawing unknown author skin for Winamp, template:

There are gross errors in the drawing, and simply unsuccessful roundings, and there are kinks - try to correct the picture based on what you already know. That's all I have with the lines, I suggest you draw a little. And don’t let the simplicity of the examples confuse you, you can only learn to draw by drawing – even the simplest things.

4.1. Draw a bottle of living water.

1. The shape of the object, you don’t have to use color for now.

2. Red liquid.

3. Change the color of the glass to blue, add shaded areas inside the bubble and a light area on the intended surface of the liquid.

4. Add white highlights on the bubble, and a 1 pixel wide dark red shadow on the areas of the liquid bordering the walls of the bubble. Looks pretty good, huh?

5. Similarly, we draw a bottle with blue liquid - here the same color of glass, plus three shades of blue for the liquid.

4.2. Drawing a watermelon.

Let's draw a circle and a semicircle - this will be a watermelon and a cut out slice.

2. Let’s mark the cutout on the watermelon itself, and on the slice – the border between the rind and the pulp.

3. Filling. Colors from the palette, medium green is the color of the rind, medium red is the color of the pulp.

4. Let us mark the transition area from the crust to the pulp.

5. Light stripes on the watermelon (finally it looks like itself). And of course – seeds! If you cross a watermelon with cockroaches, they will crawl away on their own.

6. We bring it to mind. We use a pale pink color to indicate the highlights above the seeds in the section, and by laying out the pixels in a checkerboard pattern, we achieve some semblance of volume from the cut out segment (the method is called dithering, more on that later). We use a dark red tint to indicate the shaded areas in the section of the watermelon, and a dark green tint (again, pixels in a checkerboard pattern) to give volume to the watermelon itself.

5. Dithering.

Dithering, or blending, is a technique of mixing pixels in two adjacent areas of different colors in a definitely ordered (not always) way. The simplest, most common and effective method– alternate pixels in a checkerboard pattern:

The technique was born thanks to (or rather despite) technical limitations - on platforms with limited palettes, dithering was possible by mixing the pixels of two different colors, get the third one that is not in the palette:

Two more dither options:

Below is an example of unsuccessful dithering. Although similar technique can often be found on sprites from video games, you need to be aware that the television screen significantly smoothed the image, and such a comb, and even in motion, was not visible to the eye:

Well, enough theory. I suggest you practice a little more.

Pixel art can be drawn in any program for working with raster graphics; it is a matter of personal preference and experience (as well as financial capabilities, of course). Some people use the simplest Paint, I do it in Photoshop - because, firstly, I’ve been working in it for a long time, and secondly, I’m more comfortable there. Once I decided to try the free Paint.NET, I didn’t like it - it’s like with a car; if you recognize a foreign car with an automatic transmission, you’re unlikely to get into a Zaporozhets. My employer provides me with licensed software, so my conscience is clear before the Adobe corporation... Although they charge unimaginable prices for their programs, and they will burn in hell for this.

1. Preparation for work.

Create a new document with any settings (let the width be 60, height 100 pixels). The main tool of a pixel artist is a pencil ( Pencil Tool, called hotkey B). If the brush (and the brush icon) is enabled in the toolbar, hover over it, click and hold L.M.B.– a small drop-down menu will appear in which you should select a pencil. Set the pen size to 1 pixel (in the top panel on the left there is a drop-down menu Brush):

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

A few more useful combinations. " Ctrl+" and " Ctrl-"zoom the image in and out. It is also useful to know that pressing Ctrl and " (herringbone quotes, or Russian key " E") turns the grid on and off, which is a great help when drawing pixel art. The grid spacing should also be adjusted to suit you; some find it more convenient when it is 1 pixel; I’m used to the cell width being 2 pixels. Click Ctrl+K(or go to Edit->Preferences), go to the point Guides, Grid & Slices and install Gridline every 1 pixels(I repeat, 2 is more convenient for me).

2. Drawing.

Finally we start drawing. Why create a new layer ( Ctrl+Shift+N), switch to black pen color (press D sets the default colors, black and white) and draw the character’s head, in my case it’s this symmetrical ellipse:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

Its bottom and top bases are 10 pixels long, then there are segments of 4 pixels, three, three, one, one and vertical line 4 pixels high. Straight lines in Photoshop are convenient to draw with the Shift, although the scale of the image in pixel art is minimal, this technique sometimes saves a lot of time. If you made a mistake and drew too much, you went wrong – don’t be upset, switch to the eraser tool ( Eraser Too l or "" key E") and delete what you don't need. Yes, be sure to set the eraser to also the pen size to 1 pixel so that it erases pixel by pixel, and the pencil mode ( Mode:Pencil), otherwise it will wash the wrong thing. Switching back to a pencil, let me remind you, via “ B»

In general, this ellipse is not drawn strictly according to the rules of pixel art, but the artistic concept requires it. Because this is the future head, it will have eyes, a nose, a mouth - enough details that will ultimately attract the viewer’s attention and discourage the desire to ask why the head is such an irregular shape.

We continue drawing, adding a nose, mustache and mouth:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

Now the eyes:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

Please note that at such a small scale the eyes do not have to be round - in my case they are squares with a side length of 5 pixels, with corner points not drawn in. When returned to the original scale, they will look quite round, plus the impression of sphericity can be enhanced with the help of shadows (more on this later, see the 3rd section of the lesson). For now, I’ll slightly adjust the shape of the head by erasing a couple of pixels in one place and adding them in another:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

We draw eyebrows (it’s okay that they hang in the air - that’s my style) and facial folds in the corners of the mouth, making the smile more expressive:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

The corners don't look very good yet; one of the rules of pixel art states that each pixel of the stroke and elements can come into contact with no more than two neighboring pixels. But if you carefully study sprites from games of the late 80s and early 90s, this error can be found there quite often. Conclusion - if you can’t, but really want to, then you can. This detail can be played up later during filling with the help of shadows, so for now let’s continue drawing. Torso:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

Don't pay attention to the ankles for now, it looks awkward, we'll fix that when we start filling. A small correction: add a belt and folds in the groin area, and also highlight the knee joints (using small 2 pixel fragments protruding from the leg line):

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

3. Filling.

For each character element we will have enough for now three colors– main fill color, shadow and stroke color. In general, there are a lot of things you can advise on color theory in pixel art, including: initial stage feel free to spy on the work of the masters and analyze exactly how they select colors. The stroke of each element can, of course, be left black, but in this case the elements will certainly merge; I prefer to use independent colors that are similar to the main color of the element, but with low saturation. The most convenient way is to draw a small palette somewhere near your character and then take colors from it using the eyedropper tool ( Eyedropper Tool, I):

Having selected the desired color, activate the bucket tool ( Paint Bucket, G). Also, be sure to disable the Anti-alias function in the settings; we need the fill to work clearly within the drawn contours and not go beyond them:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

We fill in our character; if we can’t fill in, we draw it by hand with a pencil.

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

Pay attention to the ankles - due to the fact that these areas are only 2 pixels thick, I had to abandon the stroke on both sides and only drew it on the intended shadow side, leaving a line of the main color one pixel thick. Also note that I left the eyebrows black, although this doesn't really matter.

Photoshop has a handy color selection feature ( Select->Color range, by poking the eyedropper into the desired color, we will get the selection of all areas of similar color and the ability to instantly fill them, but for this you need the elements of your character to be on different layers, so for now we will consider this function useful for advanced Photoshop users):

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

4. Shadow and dithering.

Now select the shadow colors and, switching to the pencil ( B) carefully lay out the shady places. In my case, the light source is somewhere to the left and above, in front of the character - therefore we indicate the right sides with a shadow with an emphasis towards the bottom. The face will be the richest in shadow, since there are many small elements, which stand out in relief with the help of a shadow on one side, and on the other they themselves cast a shadow (eyes, nose, facial folds):

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

Shadow is a very powerful visual device; a well-designed shadow will have a positive effect on the appearance of the character - and on the impression that he will have on the viewer. In pixel art, a single pixel placed in the wrong place can destroy the entire work, while at the same time, seemingly such minor adjustments can make the image much prettier.

As for dithering’and in an image with such miniature dimensions, in my opinion, he is completely superfluous. The method itself consists of “mixing” two adjacent colors, which is achieved by staggering the pixels. However, to give you an idea of ​​the technique, I will still introduce small areas of blending, on the trousers, on the shirt and a little on the face:

Pixel art for beginners. | Introduction.

In general, as you can see, nothing particularly complicated. Pixel art What makes it so attractive is that having mastered some patterns, anyone can draw well themselves - simply by carefully studying the works of the masters. Although yes, some knowledge of the basics of drawing and color theory still won’t hurt. Go for it!

While browsing the Internet this morning, I wanted to write a post about Pixel Art, and while searching for material I found these two articles.

Preface

However, you can’t say that pixel art or non-pixel art graphics are more or less beautiful. It's fairer to say that pixel art is different and better suited for retro style games (like Super Nintendo or Game Boy). You can also combine the techniques learned here with effects from non-pixel art to create a hybrid style.

So, here you will learn the technical part of pixel art. However, I will never make you an artist... for the simple reason that I am not an artist either. I won't teach you either human anatomy, nor the structure of the arts, and I will say little about perspective. In this tutorial, you can find a lot of information about pixel art techniques. In the end, you should be able to create characters and scenery for your games, provided you pay attention, practice regularly, and apply the tips given.

- I also want to point out that only some of the images used in this tutorial are enlarged. For images that are not enlarged, it would be good if you took the time to copy these images so that you can study them in detail. Pixel art is the essence of pixels; studying them from afar is useless.

In the end, I have to thank all the artists who joined me in creating this guide in one way or another: Shin, for his dirty work and line art, Xenohydrogen, for his genius with colors, Lunn, for his knowledge of perspective, and Panda, the stern Ahruon, Dayo, and Kryon for their generous contributions to illustrate these pages.

So, let me get back to the point.

Part 1: The Right Tools

1.Some old things

*You cannot open more than one file at the same time
* No palette control.
*No layers or transparency
* No non-rectangular selections
* Few hotkeys
* Terribly inconvenient

In short, you can forget about Paint. Now we will look at the real software.

2. In the end...

3. Cream

Charamaker 1999 - good program, but distribution appears to have stalled.

Graphics Gale is much more fun and easy to use, and it retails for around $20, which isn't too bad. Let me add that the trial version is not limited in time, and comes with enough kit to make pretty good graphics. It just doesn't work with .gif, which isn't such a problem since .png is better anyway.

The software more commonly used by pixel artists is ProMotion, which is (obviously) more convenient and faster than Graphics Gale. Oh yes, she is dear! you can buy full version for a modest amount... 50 euros ($78).
Let's not forget our Mac friends! Pixen is a good program available for the Macintosh, and it's free. Unfortunately I can't tell you more because I don't have a Mac. Translator's note (from French): Linux users (and others) should try , and GrafX2. I urge you to try them all in demo versions and see which suits your convenience. In the end it's a matter of taste. Just know that once you start using a program, it can be very difficult to switch to something else.

To be continued…

Translator's notes from French to English

Translator's note from English to Russian

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