Where to start
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18012
Printed Date: 22 February 2026 at 5:30pm
Topic: Where to start
Posted By: skittle
Subject: Where to start
Date Posted: 15 January 2014 at 9:35am
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When making a big (not humongous but sort of big) piece of pixel art (let's say 200x200 for example) where do you start? When I start a piece of pixel art I usually make a silhouette and then lay down the various colors, but then after that what do you do? I get really confused and overwhelmed by the enormity of it all even though it's just a messy WIP.
So basically in a nutshell I guess I'm asking what techniques do you people think would be useful for someone of my skill level or maybe for anyone in general if they were to go about making a sizable piece of pixel art? |
Replies:
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 15 January 2014 at 10:18am
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Sometimes the easiest way to get going while your mind envisions and irons out the whole idea is to single out a certain item in the piece and pixel it as a sprite/asset. Choose an important detail for this and pixel away. This should help you understand and see how complex and detailed, or not, it needs to be and begin the color process while at this (or greyscale for a freer mind). Once you have a decent asset/sprite then you can attack the big piece of keep breaking it up into bits. ------------- |
Posted By: skittle
Date Posted: 15 January 2014 at 2:15pm
| Hmm, this is does sound like a good way to tackle a piece. I'm definitely going to be remembering this, thank's so much, you're feedback is extremely valuable! |
Posted By: greenraven
Date Posted: 15 January 2014 at 3:32pm
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Depends on what you're doing to be honest. Sometimes the background, sometimes the main focus of the piece. Sometimes just random scribbles and see what comes of it. The is to experiment and see what works for you. Most important thing to remember is that you can always "save as..." and try different approaches. Do the same piece twice but start by paying attention to a different aspect. I tend to not be coherent sometimes when giving advice. I hope that didn't come off as gibberish. XD -------------  "pwnage comes with patience, practice and planning." ~ Jalonso 
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Posted By: skittle
Date Posted: 15 January 2014 at 3:56pm
| Nope... I managed to understand 5% of it, a new record :D! Nah, just kidding. I do tend do save a lot to experiment if I ever get a specific shape of pixels or a specific color and it really does help get a better view of the whole thing. |
Posted By: cure
Date Posted: 16 January 2014 at 12:48pm
| Grab a large brush and a handful of colors and start blocking in general areas of color. Use smaller brushes and add more colors as the piece progresses. Worry about values more than colors at first as colors can be easily adjusted later and values are what make a piece read well. Worry about details when everything else is in place or you'll just get lost in a tiny portion of the image and miss some fundamental flaws that will become more costly to fix later on. |
Posted By: skittle
Date Posted: 16 January 2014 at 5:33pm
| That's a really awesome and straight forward way to view things. It really is like just like painting if you think of it like that. |