Tutorial for Drawing Animal Pixel Art
If you love the look of pixel art, you could try your hand at making your own. Pixel art is a form of digital art that is composed of raw pixels and is usually drawn one pixel (a square that makes up images on a computer screen) at a time. The result is a drawing with crisp lines and vivid colors. Since pixel art can take on a whimsical and cute look, an animal would make a good subject for a pixel drawing. You can use even the simplest graphic editing programs to create pixel art.
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Instructions
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Open Microsoft Paint or Apple Paintbrush on your computer. Open a picture of the animal you want to draw in the program to help you with the general outline of the pixel art. Make the picture larger or smaller by going to "Image" and then "Attributes" and typing in the size you want the finished pixel art to be. Click on "View", "Zoom" and then "Custom" to zoom in on the image.
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Choose black as the primary color in your color palette (the square on the top) and the "Pencil" tool from the toolbox. Outline the outside edges of the animal with black and clean up any other soft edges outside of the outline with the "Eraser" tool.
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Click on the color palette and select a color to begin coloring in the animal. You can also use the "Pick Color" tool (it looks like an eyedropper) and click on an existing color within the animal picture to use it. Use the pencil or "Fill With Color" tool to fill in the entire outline with the color. Leave small details like facial features in tact.
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Double click on the first color in the color palette to choose a custom color. Move the arrow down the color scale and choose a color a few shades darker. Shade the edges of the animal on the inside of the outline for a more three-dimensional effect. Think about where the light will be hitting and shade on the opposite side as the light.
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Choose a lighter color in the color palette for the highlights. Place the highlight color with the Pencil tool on the high points where the light would be shining. Use a dark outline color (darker than the shading color) to outline the facial features and other small details.
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Color over the black outline with a color a few shades darker than the color you used for the shading to make the outline less stark. Save the pixel art animal when you are finished.
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Tips & Warnings
After each step, zoom out to check your progress and to make sure the pixel animal looks good in its actual size.
Save the pixel art animal frequently to avoid losing any progress.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Hands on blue sky background image by Piter Pkruger from Fotolia.com
