Brix's Crib

Pixel Art Guides and Tutorials

What is Pixel Art?

Pixel art is distinguished from other forms of digital art by an insistence upon manual, pixel-level editing of an image (without the application of image filters, automatic anti-aliasing or special rendering modes), often at close magnification. In this form, it is commonly said that "each pixel was placed carefully" to achieve a desired result.

Purists within the pixel art scene hold that "true" pixel art should only be created from tools that place individual pixels (such as the 'pencil' tool), and that pixel artists should avoid all other tools including line, Bezier curve, circle and rectangle. Others counter that tools such as line and bucket-fill are acceptable as their functions could be just as easily, if not as quickly, replicated on an individual pixel basis.

Because of this rule, image filters (such as blurring or alpha-blending) or tools with automatic anti-aliasing are considered not valid tools for pixel art, as such tools calculate new pixel values automatically, contrasting with the precise manual arrangement of pixels associated with pixel art. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_art )

Pixel Art Tutorials and Links

Derek Yu - Ten part in-depth pixel tutorial using photoshop

Mark’s Pixel Art Tutorial - This guide is intended for those new to working with pixels - if you already know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be here

Matriax Pixel Art Tutorials - A collection of different tutorials

The complete guide to Isometric Pixel Art - Excelent tutorial on isometric pixel art

Flip Flop Flying - Pixel head tutorial

Pixel Freak - This tutorial will try to help you create pixel art, Isometric Pixel Art - the word isometric means “of equal measure”

Sprite Art - A collection of tutorials from various artists

Pixel Patterns - Create tilable patterns

Drububu - Pixel Art Tutorial

GJ Designs - A number of pixel art tutorials

Zoggles - A number of pixel art tutorials