This week, we hereby ask you to pixel a military medal or decoration, either historic or imaginary (including sci-fi or fantasy). Only the sprite of the medal is required, with transparent background.
Optional Bonus Challenge: If it's a real world historic medal or decoration, give some trivia about it on the description. If it's an imaginary medal or decoration, write up some background for it.
Canvas Size - Max. 120 x 120 px
Colors - Max. 19. (18 colors + transparency)
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
In real life, evolution takes place over many generations, allowing species to adapt to changing environments. In video games, evolution happens in moments, allowing species to fly or breathe fire! This week, we challenge you to depict the evolved form of a real-world species (as if it's in a video game).
Optional bonus challenge: include the FX of a magical element or special ability associated with your species.
Canvas Size - 80 x 80 px.
Colors - Max. 16.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Halloween has arrived! But what is Halloween without a pixel pumpkin challenge? This week, we want you to create a pumpkin avatar that has your face carved on it!
Optional Bonus Challenge: Use it as your avatar!
Canvas Size - Max 64 x 64.
Colours - Max 16
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Halloween is around the corner. This week, we want you to dive deep inside your nightmares, pull out a being of horror from there, whether it's a monster such as a vampire or zombie; or an ordinary creature such as snake or spider, and turn their frightening appearance in the slick version of the portrait on the wall. You have to include the frame and the wall that it's hanged on.
Optional Bonus Challenge: Make the frame non-rectangular.
Canvas Size - Max. 200 x 180 px
Colors - Max. 13
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, we want you to imagine & pixel the Game Boy demake of a modern game (or just a game that wasn't actually released for Game Boy). You can add/remove/change any features of the game as you want.
Canvas Size - Exactly 160 x 144 px
Colours - Max. 4 Game Boy colors.
Game Boy palettes vary. You may use any olive green Game Boy palette, such as this one:
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, we want you to draw the sprite of the bipedal version of an animal or fantasy creature that usually has four (or more) feet. You can go for usual stuff such as a werewolf, wererat or drakonid or you can go wild.
Canvas Size - Max. 150 x 150
Colours - Max. 18
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
The 1800's sure were gloomy, perhaps because everything was in black and white. This week, celebrate Gothic Fiction with a macabre work of your own! Design the cover of a Gothic Novel, real or imaginary, using exactly 2 grays, one with RGB 48,48,48 (#303030) and other with RGB 210,210,210 (#d2d2d2)
Canvas Size - Exactly 148 x 210, vertical.
Colours - Exactly 2. Only use (#303030) & (#d2d2d2)
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
This week, we want you to draw a spellbook. It might be one that belongs to a magic library or one that belongs to a magician (of any sort). The book sprite's back ground must be transparent.
Optional bonus challenge 1: Make it very old.
Optional bonus challenge 2: Draw glowing runes on the cover.
Optional bonus challenge 3: Make it an unconventional book (eg. a tape or an e-reader).
Canvas Size - Max. 100x100
Colours - Max 13 incl. transparency.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
Peace is not in my vocabulary
This week is all about the grim-dark future of the Warhammer 40k universe. Necrons, Eldar, Orks etc.
There are countless of races, heroes and mechanical wonders to pixel. You can go as crazy as you want as long as the over all theme is Warhammer.
Papa Nurgle loves you!
Canvas Size - Max. 300 x 300
Colours - Max 32
Transparency - Optional
Animation - Optional
What if Space Invaders came out in 2019? This week, we want you to reimagine one of the classic space invaders sprites below in a high-res fashion and draw its sprite. Your sprite might be; a creature, a robot, a spaceship or anything else as long as it resembles one of the classic sprites below.
Canvas Size - Max. 120x120
Colours - Max 18 incl. transparency.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional
A tale as old as time. Two warriors, rivals or even friends engage in a duel.
This week, I want you to depict a scene with two characters fighting. There can only be 2 characters in your entry!
Canvas Size - Max. 250 x 250
Colours - Max 32
Transparency - Optional
Animation - Optional
This week, we want you to draw the sprite of a treasure chest. It doesn't have to be a classic chest, it can be any container that can hold treasure within. You can draw it from topdown, isometric, side or any perspective. Lid closed or open with treasure coming out, or even teeth like a mimic are all welcome.
Canvas Size - Max. 80 x 80
Colours - Max 15 including transparency.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional (lid opening, gold glittering, etc.)
Get your lumberjack juices flowing and pixel a scene, sprite or portrait of a living sentient half tree half human being.
Poor Harold.......
Canvas Size - Max. 300 x 300
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
This week, we want you to create a potion bottle/vial/flask sprite, that could be use as a pick up and/or inventory item in a game. Healing potion, poison or any kind is ok, with or without a tag or sign.
Canvas Size - Max. 100 x 100
Colours - Max 10.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional. (bubbles etc.)
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Buuuuugggsss!
- unknown soldier on Klendathu
This week's challenge puts your 2-bit skills to the test! I want you to pixel a bug or insect in only 4 colours. You don't have to pixel a sprite. You can include your critter or critters into a scene or even go full on portrait.
Canvas Size - Max. 300 x 300
Colours - Exactly 4
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
8 years after the original Hero Splicer challenge, once more it's time to create your own original super heroes or villains.
Choose one word from each coloumn to create your character's name. It's ok to change the order of the words to find the suitable name. Your character is supposed to reflect its name.
You can present your character however you like (standalone sprite, incorporated into a scene, a portrait), just as long as your character is the main focus of the piece.
| A | B | C |
| DR | ACID | VIPER |
| MR | DARK | MORTIS |
| FANTASTIC | ROCK | FURY |
| NITRO | CHAOS | STORM |
| ULTRA | GALACTIC | HAVOC |
| THE | OMEGA | MAN |
| PURPLE | ELECTRIC | BEAST |
| LADY | AQUATIC | BONES |
| GREEN | TOXIC | GIRL |
Canvas Size - Max. 128 x 128.
Colours - Max. 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
After 13 long years of waiting Tool will be releasing their next Album on 30th August 2019.
For this week I want you to pixel some kind of tool. A, beer opener, a simple wrench, a drill, an excavator or even a crane. As long as the device is used to perfom some kind of action on another object, you can pixel it. So get crazy.
Canvas Size - Max. 120 x 120
Colours - Max. 16
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Sweet tea? Ice cream? A nice, cold beer? Show us how you "beat the heat" this week by pixelling your favorite frosty treat!
Be sure to use Ice Blue #99FFFF.
Canvas Size - Exactly 64 x 64
Colours - Max 16, including Ice Blue #99FFFF
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Edit: an earlier version of this post listed #9999FF, which is NOT "Ice Blue", but is also a lovely color. Entries using either #99FFFF and/or #9999FF will be accepted!
Listen up soldier! Your mission sounds simple, but can be tricky. You have exactly one week to join one of the following factions and pixel a sprite that would fit in their ranks.
Kaklasian Jungle Fighters (Lightly armed troops without much protective gear that specialise in melee combat)
Sons of Peril (Mostly ranged troops that use heavy machinery to get the job done)
Nightchiefs (Stealth-focused units that like to strike at night)
Omega Legion (Balanced troops that come in masses and are cheap to replace)
You can approach these anyway you like. Your units don't have to be human! Monsters, machines or even animal, anything goes.
Dismissed.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 32 x 32
Colours - Max. 12
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
This week, we want you to draw a gadget using the retro palette below. It can be your own creation or something existing.
Optional Bonus Challenge: 4th of July is the birthday of cartoonist Rube Goldberg, famous for his designs of complicated gadgets doing everyday things in indirect or redundant ways. The optional challenge is to draw a Rube Goldberg style mechanism.
Canvas Size - Max. 188 x 197 vertical or horizontal
Colours - Max. 9 only colors from this palette.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
“You're flying Buzz!", "No Woody we're falling in style!”
I'm sure you have imagined at least once how specific scenes would look like from the eyes of a bird soaring in the sky. And this week puts you behind the eyes of that bird.
You can either choose between a top-down / top-down2 or an isometric view
The scene doesn't have to be something specific, however, make sure that a lot happens on the ground. A war scene, buzzing city or thrilling race are good examples.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 200 (Width) x 150 (Height)
Colours - Max. 20
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Perhaps one of the most memorable photographs from the incidents in Tiananmen Square on 1989 was a single civilian stopping a convoy of tanks by standing in front of them. For the 30th year of the incidents, this week we ask you to draw a scene or sprite involving a single standing figure, seen from behind.
Canvas Size - Max. 200 x 200
Colours - Max. 32
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
Are you afraid of the dark? Well, you should be!
This week, I want you to give me top-notch nightmare fuel. Pixel a scene or a sprite of a creature that lurks in the dark and preys upon it's victims. The more nightmare inducing the better!
Canvas Size - Max. 200 x 200
Colours - Max. 18
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
After moulding 1.4 billion crayola crayons, Emerson Moser revealed that he is color blind. Obviously this didn't hold him back! This week, we want you to create a piece that involves something related to at least one of the color names below, using these 8 crayola colors, plus "paper" white (#ffffff).
Canvas Size - Max. 300 x 200 (vertical or horizontal)
Colours - Max. 9 (The colors below)
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
It's been a while, but the time has come to do another challenge that is for all you animators out there!
In order to keep the challenge simple enough for everybody you don't have to animate a large piece. However, your animation must have at least 4 frames with more to be added if you feel confident enough.
The overall theme is yours to choose, just make sure you meet the requirements.
Let's make those pixels move!
Canvas Size - Exactly. 64 x 64
Colours - Max. 16
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Required. (4 frames minimum)
This week, we want you to pixel a sprite for a futuristic gun (rifle, pistol, cannon, etc.) that you can expect to see in a shooter game's inventory. You can draw a ballistic weapon, beam gun or just go wild such as a sludge thrower. Side view is suggested but any perspective is ok as long as it can fit in an inventory.
Optional: If your gun has a feature such as acid or electricity, you can animate it.
Canvas Size - Max. 200 x 200
Colours - Max. 20
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
A simple challenge, trust me.
Create a sprite of the "Coolest Thing Ever"
Keep it simple and pick a thing that already exist and you think is just too good not to have or go creative and pixel an all-in-one device suitable for every purpose!
You may even pick the finished thing as your avatar for a week if you want. (10kb limit for avatars!)
Canvas Size - Exactly. 64x64
Colours - Max. 12
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, you have to face a colour that stands for so many things. Love, blood, danger and "The Moscow–Washington" hotline.
Just some simple shades of red would be too easy for all you pixel pushers out there though. That's why you have to deal with not very pleasing greys, blues and greens.
There are no restrictions. However, make sure you incorporate that pesky red! My polite looking ork friend serves as an example.
Canvas Size - Max. 300x300
Colours - Exactly 4, the colors in the sample image #141725 #4e6058 #858d83 #f00a0a
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Notre Dame Catheral, one of the most famous landmarks on the world is on fire at the moment. So this week, we want you to draw a piece that involves a building (landmark or not) on fire (scene, mockup, sprite, etc.) in memory of landmarks that are no more.
Canvas Size - Max. 116 x 163 (horizontal or vertical)
Colours - Max. 16
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Winter is coming! Game of Thrones final season is about to hit, but who will win, pick your side!
This week, we want you to draw either an undead or a dragon. You can be creative about it, any undead or any dragon will do. Sprites, portraits or scenes are all welcome.
Optional bonus challenge is drawing an undead dragon.
Canvas Size - Max. 200x120 (horizontal or vertical)
Colours - Max. 14
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
It's once again time for our ever popular yearly April Fools Gallery challenge!
For those who do not know the rules yet, the idea is to study the PJ gallery of another pixel artist. Look at the techniques they use, the colours they pick, the subject matters they gravitate towards, etc... Then once you feel like you have a grasp of that person's style, create an image that will fool us into thinking that it's theirs.
Don't forget to mention the name of your chosen pixel artist in your description!
Previous April Fools Gallery challenges can be found here: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]]
"Fooled ya!" This was written by the one and only Pyrometal for last year's April Fools challenge
Canvas Size - Unrestricted.
Colours - Unrestricted.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, we want you to draw a fantasy monster! But only within 24 x 24 pixels! It may be a well known design or your own creation.
Canvas Size - Max. 24x24
Colours - Max. 12
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Danger is everywhere! Death might come from where you expect the least. This week, we want you to draw three pictograms/signs for the stupidest dangers you can imagine. Squirrel attack, fish rains, rainbow burn...
Canvas Size - Max. 200x200
Colours - Max. 8
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
Some of the best moments of 80s were when you finally saw the title screen of a Commodore 64 game after a really long wait.
This week, we want you to draw a title screen of a game for Commodore 64. The game can be an original one you imagined, or an existing one with a different title screen. You must use the C64 palette with fat pixels (2x1 horizontal pixels) and C64 resolution.
Canvas Size - Exactly 320 x 200 (horizontal)
Colours - Max 16. C64 palette:
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week is metal time! We want you take out your material skills and pixel something that is complety made out of metal.
Tanks, robots, buildings or even just a material study.
Canvas Size - Max 200 x 200
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
 |  |  |  |
 | All Saints' Day November 1st |
 | Day of the Dead/El Dia de Los Muertos/All Souls Day November 2nd |
 | Ramadan / Ramadhan Ninth month of the Islamic calendar (Oct/Nov/Dec) |
 | Thanksgiving (USA) Fourth Thursday in November |
 | Veterans Day November 11th |
| More holidays | |