GET STARTED

WITH PIXEL ART!

Create your first pixel art piece and setup
your workflow for future projects!

EDITION 03 By @luigisalas_

Luigi Salas 2023- All rights reserved. Do not share, copy, reproduce or sell any part of this document unless you have written permission from Luigi Salas
Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2022

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE:

1. Introduce yourself in our FREE discord community.

2. Follow the basic work flows to setup your software

and get some basic tips.

3. Create your first pixel art pieces, following our

quick and easy tutorials.

4. Share them in the Discord server for feedback!

5. Look at our tools and resources for more lessons!

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

WANT FEEDBACK?
Join our discord community!
Make the most out of this guide,
by making content alongside
this guide and getting personal
feedback from myself and other
community members!

discord.gg/9ZZWCMjxu3

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2022

GUIDE CONTENTS:
Setting up your work flow 05
Choose your software 06
Pixel Art Work flow 07

Beginner tips 08
Clean Line work 09
Working with colour 10
Basic shading 11

Let’s create! 12
Let’s create: Trees 13
Let’s create: Rocks 14
Let’s create: Mountain 15

Resources and tools 16

Finding Colour palettes 17
Links and References 18

What’s next? 19
Get feedback! 20

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2022

SETTING UP
YOUR WORKFLOW

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

CHOOSE YOUR SOFTWARE

There are may programs out there for pixel art. I have found the
best way to choose your software is depending on what you want
to make! So here are the main ones I recommend.

For Multi-Disciplines For Pixel Specialists For Hobbyists For mobile users
Photoshop, £9.9/mo Aseprite, Free or £15.49 Piskel, Free Pixel Studio , Free

Best used for creatives who Specific for pixel art and More focused on sprite and Works on most devices even
want to make versatile /complex animation, so great for game character animations but a great on your phone! So it’s a great
animations and images designers and animators! started tool. introduction to pixel art.

Best tutorial for this is: Great tutorial to get started in aseprite: Walk cycle tutorial that teaches the basics: Check their youtube channel videos!
PIXEL ART in Photoshop (Tutorial) by Brackeys. An Aseprite Crash Course In 30 Minutes Piskel | Pixel Art Walk Cycle by TJ Free Pixel Studio Tutorials: Basic tools by Pixel Studio
by AdamCYounis
https://www.youtube.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RPl6OZLdqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3-R_g2yNaQ
watch?v=rLdA4Amea7Y&t=35s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Y6OTzNrhk

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

PIXEL ART WORK FLOW

Having a work flow to create helps speed up your
process and quality as you can spend time fixing errors
earlier, saving you from stress later on the line.

Sketching Phase Blocking Phase Color Phase Detail Phase

Make thumbnail sketches, ON Start blocking out rough shapes, Once you have the grey-scale Once you are happy with the
PAPER, which are just loose, using grey-scale values for this values blocked out, replace way it looks, finalise all assets,
rough and fast drawings to map as it helps making your image those with your color scheme remember to label your layers!
out your piece. clearer and readable. and begin shading it!

All images form client project with Yggdarsill

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2022

BEGINNER TIPS!

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

DRAWING CLEAN LINE WORK

Tips to get you cleaning up your art! The main thing to
remember with pixel art is that every pixel count, so
make sure you intentionally place each one :D

Doubles Jaggies Angles Curves

Random
Angles

3px 3px
1px Angle 1px 2px
1px 1px
1px Angle 1px 2px
2px
3px
Random 2px
Angles 2px Angle

3px Angle Mixed Order: Symmetrical Order

3 1 1 1 2 2 3 2 1 2 3

4px Angle

Show in pink, these are extra Again shown in pink, jaggies To fix jaggies keep the angles The pink curve shows a
adjacent pixels that come when are parts of the lie that cause a consistent like this, you can random order for the curve
drawing freehand, there are jagged appearance, this can be change the angles to another so won’t work as well. Like the
settings in Aseprite to keep lines intentional but focus on keeping size but main thing it to keep it blue curve, decrease the angle
pixel perfect. a consistent line angle. intentional, don’t randomly put gradually in a symmetrical way.
angles changes in your lines.

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

WORKING WITH COLOURS

One big tip when shading it knowing how
to darken your colours to make interesting
colour palettes.

This technique is called HUE SHIFTING. The

image on right show the basics of it, and
remember that when shading...

DON’T:
- Darken colours with black
(Makes colours muddy)

- Lighten with White,

(washes out the colours)

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

SHADING BASICS
Now that you have some colour shading tips, put it
to use! Select a base colour, hue shift it to get some
highlights and shadows and follow this mini tutorial!
Light direciton

01: Create Circle 02: Define light source

Use a 32px wide brush and Define the light source and
place a circle, outline it by add a shadow that matches
reducing the brush size, or use the direction of the light.
your software tools!

Specular
highlight

03: Blend shadows 04: Highlights

You can use dithering or Add Specular highlights,
gradients to do this step! We which are bright colour spots
used gradients here as an on shint surfaces and a light
example, though either works! bounce at the bottom!.
Light bounce

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2022

LET’S CREATE!

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

LET’S CREATE: TREES

01: Rough shape

01: Define shape
Rough out a basic cloud like Now to add more shape to it,
shape, can be a loose as you use consistent brush sizes to
want it to be. go around the shape to make
the leaves stand out.

01: Basic shading 01: Texturing

Rough out basic highlights and Repeat the same technique
shadows, have some area peek with the brush sizes to texture
in with shadow to give it depth. in leaves inside the tree.

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

LET’S CREATE: ROCKS

01: Outline shape 02: Block in shading

Think of rocks like a 3D shape, Choose your colours and light
cut away and outline the basic source, shade accordingly.
shape of it.

03: Roughen edges 04: Final touches

Remove outlines and add If need be, add some extra
textures to roughen the rocks moss, grass, flowers to make
a little. Also add some cracks the rocks look like they belong
to make it feel more organic in their environment

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

LET’S CREATE: MOUNTAINS

01: Outline mountain 02: Basic shading

Think of mountains like V Select a base colour and
shapes that stack on top of define light source to add your
each other. shadows and highlights.

03: Add texture 04: Add color

Texture by adding these Now you can add any colour
clusters of rock around your you want as long as the values
mountain to make it feel fir the grey scale image!
organic and not flat.

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2022

RESORUCES AND TOOLS

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

FINDING COLOR PALETTES

Here are some of the tools I use the most to workout what colors
to use for my piece! My process usually starts with Lospec and
Color space to find palettes, then I refine with Adobe color!

Lospec Color Space Adobe Color

Alongside some great colour inspiration, A super fast and simple way to generate Allows you to create your own palettes
this site has a web based pixel editor and palettes that adjust for certain moods or with a lot of customisability to find
tutorials to get you started! design styles. complimentary colors and more.

https://lospec.com/palette-list https://mycolor.space/ https://color.adobe.com/create

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

FURTHER LEARNING!
I recommend spending some time looking at these
tutorials to get some more practice in! Any questions
please don’t hesitate to send me a message!

Drawing Practice Pixel art YouTube channels

Line of action Pixel Overlord

https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing https://www.youtube.com/c/PixelOverloadChannel

Figurosity Adam C Younis

https://figurosity.com/quick-poses https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamCYounis

Quick poses Saultoons

https://quickposes.com/en https://www.youtube.com/c/saultoons

Beginner GESTURE Drawing (1 of 3) - How to Draw Brandon James Greer

Figures with Movement https://www.youtube.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/BJGpixel

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2022

WHAT’S NEXT?

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Getting started with pixel art EDITION 03 @luigisalas_ Summer 2023

GET FEEDBACK!
When you join our Community!
Now that you have completed
your first pieces make sure to
join our discord and post your
work for feedback if you have not
done so already!

discord.gg/9ZZWCMjxu3

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WANT MORE?
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like yourself to buildthe best
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skills daily!

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