Pixel Art

For more information, see Pixel Art on Wikipedia.

Pixel art of a lumber­jack.

Pixel art is an art style where everything is "pixelated", meaning that the sprite appears to be made out of enlarged pixels. Pixel art can be used in many projects. It is also widely used outside of Scratch. Minecraft and Terraria are examples of real video games that use pixel art.

Pixel art on Scratch is used in a variety of media, from animations to games to simulations. It is one of the more common types of art on Scratch, and one of the only forms of art that is extremely difficult to recreate in the vector editor.

Pixel art can be created in Scratch's bitmap editor, or in external programs.

Making Pixel Art in the Paint Editor

An example of pixel art created using the bitmap editor

Before pixelating using the bitmap editor, and after.

Users commonly set the paint editor to the bitmap editor when creating pixel art. While it is possible to make pixel art in the Vector Editor, it is typically considered much more difficult.

Customarily, Scratchers then set the brush size to a smaller setting than the default size, and zoom in. It is now in the shape of a single square, one of the smallest sizes the bitmap editor can handle. From there, the user starts drawing the shape. At this point, it is suggested to avoid clicking and dragging as much as possible. Instead, carefully place each square where it must go, and repeat the process.

When making pixel art, it is usually best to start with the outline first, and then fill in the details later. The shape is often thought^[who?] of as one of the hardest thing to figure out, but separating it into parts may help. After the shape has been separated, usually into rectangles, the outline would be drawn. Afterwards, users begin to fill in the inside with the appropriate colors for their desired shape. For example, if a user decided to create a pixel of a banana, the top may be colored in brown, while the rest would be colored in yellow.

If shading is wanted, users generally use a slightly darker color than the base color of the shape, and place pixels along the side of the outline. The side with shading will be opposite from the side which the light is desired to be coming from.

Other Methods for Creating Pixel Art

There are other methods for making pixel art that don't require as much work, but may not look like hand-drawn pixel art.

1. Pixelate effect — One can use the set [pixelate v] effect to (. . .::grey) block to pixelate a sprite, which makes the sprite look similar to pixel art.
2. Resizing Effect — One can load an image into the bitmap editor, select the entire image, then shrink it to a very small size. Then, deselect and reselect the shrunk image, and drag it back to the original size. The image will have lost a lot of quality, creating a pixel looking effect. The loss of quality depends on how small you shrink the image.

Making Pixel Art on Other Websites

Please expand this section. You can help by adding more information if you are an editor. More information might be found in a section of the talk page. (December 2023)

This section has links to websites or programs outside of Scratch and Wikipedia. Remember to stay safe while using the internet, as we cannot guarantee the safety of other websites.

Many Scratchers use other websites for pixel art, such as Pixilart, Piskel and Pixel Art Maker. The art can be made into sprites or backdrops. Some may prefer to draw pixel art on these websites instead. In terms of safety and quality standards, one is suggested to keep in mind a few things,

1. The resolution of pixel art should not be too high. Scratch and other computers may not be able to display high resolution pixel art to well. The resolution often defines how fine the image is. An image printed from the computer can never be as fine as a painting because the painting has a higher resolution. For example, a 32×32 pixel art image has a lower resolution than a 64×64 pixel art image.
2. Stay safe. Only use known and wholesome websites to make pixel art.
3. When uploading separate pixel art images to Scratch, make sure all pixel art is the same resolution, or appear to be the same resolution. Changing the resolution of pixel art in the same game may make the game look poorly executed. One may achieve this by assuring all pixel art is perfect aligned.
4. If one decides to use stock images as pixel art, they should make sure the pixel art is copyright free. Once the game is shared on Scratch, all the art is copyright free.

To upload pixel art, one should select the 'upload image' (it may look like an arrow pointing up) after hovering over the new sprite button.

The Method of Drawing Pixel Art Characters

Each pixel art editor has at least some of these tools; color palette, paint bucket, rectangular select, circular tool, rectangular tool, resolution edit, and etc. The most basic of pixel editors might only have the previous listed tools, and the most complex pixel art applications may have much more than what has been listed. All these tools are provided to create characters, their setting, and their accessories with ease. According to the method of drawing pixel art characters shown here, it should only take four steps to do so. But it may take many more steps, and there are often hidden steps, even in the method that is shown.

Drawing the basic figure

The steps of the following method that has been shown. This was drawn on a 64x64 resolution on Piskelapp.com

This step should provide a very basic outline of the character. Locate the head and the draw a circle for its place. Do not bother to draw eyes or hair yet. Draw a blob directly connected to the circular head. The blob should have four distinct-looking limbs.

Drawing the basic outline.

Draw the hair and define the jaw to preference (do not draw the eyes or nose), then add some hair. Add any major accessories. Define the hands, arms, legs, and draw the shoes. Define the the torso so that the character may look proportionally correct. Adjust limbs until reached preference. Draw the eyes and lips; they do not need to be properly defined yet. Mark areas of where clothing meets.

Color the figure

Decide on the skin color of the character. One can easily paint the skin color by using the paint bucket too. Color accessories and clothing. Adjust jaws and arms to preference, and freely draw the eyes. You may already shade the armpits.

Shading

Shade the hair and the face, then accessories, and then the entire body, respectively. Also, add any miniature accessories and perfect to preference. Finally, decide on a color combination that adjusts the mood or preference.