All weekly challenges until October 25 are part of Pixelween, a contest with prizes. Read the announcement for more information. This is week 4, the last week.
All current entries can be found in this forum post, please let us know if your entry is not displayed correctly!
You will be drawing the last scene of your movie, in which your story ends. You are recommended (but not obliged) to somehow follow up the scene of the first weeks, as your Pixelween entries will be judged together as a whole.
Use one of the following prompts:
You are free to interpret these themes in any way you like. Stereotypical horror/halloween tropes and characters are allowed but not required. Please clarify in the description of your entry which prompt you've used.
Technical requirements this week: 4 colors, 3 from the palette below and 1 free choice!
Canvas Size - exactly 130 (horizontal) x 80 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 4 (3 from palette and 1 free choice)
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
The Pixelween: The Plot pixel art challenge is complete and we have three new champions. This week's challenge awards go to the following pieces:
Thanks so much to all who took the time to vote and participate in the challenge! Check out the Pixelween: The Plot forum thread for more information.
All weekly challenges until October 25 are part of Pixelween, a contest with prizes. Read the announcement for more information. This is week 3, but even if you missed out on week 1 and 2 you can still participate and win!
All current entries can be found in this forum post, please let us know if your entry is not displayed correctly!
You will be drawing another scene of your movie, in which a conflict takes place. You are recommended (but not obliged) to somehow follow up the scene of the first weeks, as your Pixelween entries will be judged together as a whole.
Use one of the following prompts:
You are free to interpret these themes in any way you like. Stereotypical horror/halloween tropes and characters are allowed but not required. Please clarify in the description of your entry which prompt you've used.
Technical requirements this week: 5 colors!
Canvas Size - exactly 130 (horizontal) x 80 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 5.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
All weekly challenges until October 25 are part of Pixelween, a contest with prizes. Many prizes have been added since it was first announced! Read the announcement for more information. This is week 2, but even if you missed out on week 1 you can still participate and win!
You will be drawing another scene of your movie, in which the plot develops. You are recommended (but not obliged) to somehow follow up the scene of the first week, as your Pixelween entries will be judged together as a whole.
Use one of the following prompts:
You are free to interpret these themes in any way you like. Stereotypical horror/halloween tropes and characters are allowed but not required. Please clarify in the description of your entry which prompt you've used.
This week you will be using the Japanese Woodblock palette (from polyducks):
Technical requirements:
Canvas Size - exactly 130 (horizontal) x 80 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - From the given palette only (max 12).
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
All weekly challenges until October 25 are part of Pixelween, a contest with prizes. Read the announcement for more information.
You will be drawing a scene of the start of your very own horror story, using one of the following prompts:
You are free to interpret these themes in any way you like. Stereotypical horror/halloween tropes and characters are allowed but not required. Please clarify in the description of your entry which prompt you've used.
Next week there will be 4 new prompts for part 2 of your story, so don't worry about planning ahead too much.
Technical requirements for this week:
Canvas Size - exactly 130 (horizontal) x 80 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 16
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
We're exicited to hear who will be joining, let us know in the comments with an "I'm in"!
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Challenge winner Quiara wants you to create a Punch Out sprite.
One of the most iconic games of the 8-bit era was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! The character animations in that game were fairly impressive for its day... but what would its cast look like in 2020?
Create a sprite of a fighter facing forward, following the restrictions below. As a bonus challenge you can try and match the style of the original fighters.
For some inspiration, here are a bunch of original character animations.
The sprites need to use the NES palette:
Canvas Size - Min: 30x80, max: 64x130 (when using minimum sizes, the sprite needs to touch all walls of the canvas)
Colors - Max 7, 6 from the palette + transparency.
Transparency - Yes, required.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Draw a scene which involves water. For example: a calm lake, a gardener watering their plants or a mockup of an underwater level, anything goes as long as there is some water visible.
The twist: there are no "blue" values allowed. You can use any colors between [0,0,0] and [255,255,0], but make sure that each color has 0 for the blue component! If using hex codes, colors will be #XXXX00. (This also means no gray, white, or magenta, as all include some value in the blue channel).
Canvas Size - Max 128x96 (any orientation)
Colors - Max 16, all having 0 for the blue component.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Seeinng the succes of the Discord Pokemon collab, it's about time that we too do another pokemon related event!
There are a lot of specific rules this week, so read on carefully, and feel free to ask questions.
You are challenged to make 3 original creature designs, also called fakemons. While they can look like they fit in with the Pokemon world, the designs have to be 100% original! The 3 creatures must follow each other up, one could evolve into the next. For some examples, check out these sprites, especially in the top rows there are a lot of series of 3 in there.
For each individual creature you can work with a maximum of 4 colors: Black, white, and one of the color pairs from the pallete (one row). You could do all 3 creatures with the same palette, or optionally have 3 different palette creatures, but within the 56x56 square you must work with one of the 9 given palettes!
The template must be used, but you are welcome to modify the borders and border style as you see fit, but only using the colors that are already in use.
You can try and adhere to the Pokemon style, or go as crazy as you like, it's all up to you!
The template:
The list of palettes (every row is a seperate palette):
Canvas Size - Exactly 182x68 (56x56 per creature)
Colors - Max 8 (Max 4 per creature, from one row of the palette. No mixing of palettes)
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
For extra inspiration, here is a link to the original It's Evolving challenge
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Last time, the Tiny Sprites challenge canvas was a bit... tiny! So this time you'll get some more space.
Create a tiny animated character. Here is an example: 
Canvas Size - Max 17 x 17.
Colors - Max 17.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Required.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Using either only tall pixels 1x2 or only wide pixels 2x1, you are challenged to draw a scene which focusses on one of these 4 dinosaurs:
Triceratops - Tyrannosaurus - Brontosaurus - Stegorsaurus
A wide or tall pixel scene means that all pixels take up double the amount of space, aligning to either grid below. You have to pick one, you can't mix the grids. For an example, have a look at this recent widepixel image from Christoballs.
Templates:
or 
Also the colors are very specific: Perfect black (#000000), perfect white (#FFFFFF) and any perfect grey of your choice, meaning that the red, green and blue component all have the same value (such as #A0A0A0 or (160, 160, 160))
Canvas size - 100x100 for the final image (so 100x50 widepx or 50x100 tallpx)
Colors - Exactly 3, black, white, and one gray of choice.
Transparency - No
Animation - Optional
This challenge was suggested by Stickman
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Use these simplified shapes of Senegal, Cambodia or Bolivia as a canvas for your pixel art this week! Choose any one of your liking, or as a bonus challenge try and enter 3 times!
Senegal
Cambodia
Bolivia
You are allowed to rotate by a multiple of 90 degrees or flip the canvas. All pixels need to be placed within the template area, the rest remains transparent.
For inspiration, you can have a look at hidden in Georgraphy I and II.
Canvas Size - The exact template size (may be rotated or flipped)
Colors - Max 17 (must include transparency)
Animation - No.
Transparency - Yes, required
Inspired by the recent Nintendo leaks which showed prototype character models for Luigi in games such as Super Mario 64, this week we challenge you to redesign a Luigi sprite!
What would Mario's favorite brother look like if you were in charge? We recommend he remains green and tall, but other than that you can draw him however you like!
Canvas Size - 64x64 max
Colors - max. 8 colors. Transparency is a color too!
Animation - Optional.
Transparency - Required, no background!
Back in 2008, PJ member 7even suggested a legendary challenge idea:
To pixel a medival knight, using one of these 7 prompts and the 7 colors that belong to it.
7evens obsession with knights led him to create the succesful game Rogue Legacy, but with 90 entries to the weekly it was clear that more pixel artists are fascinated by these characters!
Which is why we're rerunning the challenge! So to recap:
Pick a number from 1 to 7, and create a 100x100 image of a knight using the 7 colors of the palette (no black & white, no mixing from other palettes). As always, mutliple entries are allowed.
Canvas Size - 100x100 exactly.
Colors - 7 colors, from one of the 7 palettes.
Animation - No.
Transparency - No.
This year we met a visitor who comes to us every 6766 years. We will hardly be able to enjoy its short-lived brilliance again. In its honor, capture the scene of the celestial passer however you want; the condition is that the comet is the dominant part of the scene.
The palette for this challenge is SLSO8: 
Canvas Size - 120x100 max, either horizontal or vertical.
Colors - max. 8 colors, only use colors from the SLSO8 palette
Animation - Optional.
Transparency - No.
If you were to build your (childhood) dream house, what would it look like? We are taking a nostalgic trip back to the Isocity days, and challenge you to create the isometric building of your dreams!
Here is a tutorial about how isometric projection works, in case you need a reminder.
Canvas Size - Max. 200x200
Colours - Max. 20 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Extra requirement - Must be in isometric projection!
You've drawn monsters with pixels but what if pixels were actually monsters themselves? What would they look like? This week, we want you to design & draw a monster that is somehow inspired by a pixel! You can draw it as a sprite or within a scene or mockup.
Canvas Size - Max. 100 x 100
Colours - Max. 16 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
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 scene with one character in an unusual size in comparison to the environment (unusually large or small); as if either the character or the surroundings imply the existence of giants.
Canvas Size - Max. 200x140 (vertical or horizontal)
Colours - Max. 14 colors.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
This week, we want you to draw a well known game character. But with a twist - a gender twist to be specific. So, pick your favorite video game character and draw it in the opposite gender, as a sprite, in a scene or in a mockup.
Canvas Size - Max. 160*90 (vertical or horizontal)
Colours - Max. 18 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Hail to all the people who devote their lives to make us laugh; even though they often fail to do so. This week, we want you to draw a scene or sprite that involves a clown, joker or harlequin.
Canvas Size - Max. 133*133
Colours - Max. 13 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
This week marks the 20th anniversary of another great album, White Pony by Deftones. Aside from the songs, the album was also famous for its pony silhouette not being a pony, but a horse.
This week, we want you to draw a horse (of any color), either within a scene or as a separate sprite.
Canvas Size - Max. 160*120
Colours - Max. 10 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Welcome to another "pixel what you see" challenge. The wonderful picture below shows a piece from Irena's nephew Jona.
Interpret his artwork and pixel what you see. You are free to rotate or flip the image as you please.
Inspiration links Pare's Dream - Galt's World - Natalie's Drawing - Pearl's Story - Drawer Geeks!
Canvas Size - Exactly 240 x 175 (either horizontal or vertical).
Colors - Max 32.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Colonization on Mars is becoming a reality each day. This week, we want you to draw an isometric structure, vehicle or robot that we might use on our first colony on Mars. You are free to add a background and / or people to your image.
Canvas Size - Max. 120*120
Colours - Max. 14 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
Calenders show the 20th anniversary of the first studio album by A Perfect Circle, Mer de Noms (Sea of Names). This week, we want you to draw a piece that depicts a scenery of sea, lake or ocean within a circular canvas. The exterior of the circle must be left transparent.
Canvas Size - Max. 200*200
Colours - Max. 16 colors.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
Teeth and brains rot from them, but no one can resist their sweet taste. Hard, rubber, of all possible shapes and colors. Pixelize your favorite or most beautiful candy as a standalone sprite or the dominant part of the scene.
Canvas Size - Max. 128*128
Colours - Max. 12 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
This week is all about showing one object or living being from a fixed perspective; the side view. You can pixel whatever you like, however, make sure that there is an opaque backround with one single colour only. With the perspective being fixed you can go right in and add all that juicy detail.
You don't have to show both sides!
Bonus Challenge:
Show your object from the back and front
Canvas Size - Max. 250x250 px
Colours - Max. 32 colors.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Yes.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Last week was about what we used the most. And this week the challenge will be about what we use the least: Shoes! Draw a shoe - or a pair of them, either as a sprite or as the focal point of a scene. You can go crazy with what kind of shoes you want to draw.
Canvas Size - Max. 110x110 px
Colours - Max. 14 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
Masks. They are all around us now. So this week, we want you to draw a mask of any type. It can be a medical mask, a traditional mask or that of a criminal. You can draw it as an object sprite or you can include it in a scene.
Canvas Size - Max. 150x100 px (vertical or horizontal).
Colours - Max. 13 colors.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
In these troubled times, we are grateful to the selfless medical staff that are trying to help the sick all around the world. In their honor, this week, we want you to draw the sprite of a physician, nurse, midwife, field medic, plague doctor, shaman or any sort of medical personnel you may think of.
Canvas Size - Max. 128x128 px
Colours - Max. 16 colors.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
In much of the world, April is notorious for its wet weather.
This week, depict a scene featuring "April showers" - meaning rain!
(This scene may be indoors or outdoors so long as rainclouds or raindrops clearly visible.)
Canvas Size - Max. 192 x 128 (horizontal).
Colours - Max. 24 colors.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The Doom Guy pixel art challenge is complete and we have three new champions. This week's challenge awards go to the following pieces:
Thanks so much to all who took the time to vote and participate in the challenge! Check out the Doom Guy forum thread for more information.
Sup pixel-heads? We hope all of you are OK and you don't let the lockdowns get in the way of your creativity! Cause 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] [7] [8]
(!) Extended for 1 week
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.
Remember the Doom Guy, that makes facial expressions and shows the damage level on him from a tiny window at the bottom of the screen? This week, we want you to create an animated portrait with 5 or more different emotions and/or damage levels.
Canvas Size - Max 80x80
Colours - Max 16
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Required. At least 5 frames.
"Belinsky was just like Krylov's Inquisitive Man, who didn't notice the elephant in the museum...."
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons
Often Pixel Art focuses on teeny tiny sprites, but today we want you to think bigger. A lot bigger. Picture a full-sized elephant hiding, successfully or otherwise, in an interior setting!
You may choose to represent a scene, or as a collection of objects.
Canvas Size - Max 192 x 128, horizontal or vertical.
Colours - Max 28.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
In the past, we have ran this and this challenges but what about the monsters? This week, we want you to draw an RPG party that consists of exactly 4 sprites, depicting 4 different classical RPG monster species. These species should be chosen between these, albeit with whatever twists you might dream of:
You must separate sprites from eachother in your canvas using transparency, yet slight overlays for the sake of composition is permitted. Please clearly mention in your description which characters are in your party. And remember: you can make a ww2 band, a sci-fi team or 50s gangsters as well as classical high fantasy themed party.
Canvas Size - Max 200 x 200.
Colours - Max 32. Including transparency.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
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