Enjoy Pixel Art? Learn how to make it here- (with MS Paint!)

Pixel art is pretty fun to look at.
Most people think it's damn near impossible. Well, it's not. And all you need is a little bit of artistic talent, a mouse and MS Paint.

Yup, Microsoft Paint. Even the shittiest of shit computers have it.


-Sigs-
Here's some things you can create with this simple way of making graphics.





Let's get started.


Seriously.

1) Open a new MS Paint document. (For this tutorial, I'll be making a simple avatar. So the size will be very small.)


2) ALWAYS zoom the image way larger. This way you can draw much more precise.


3) Omfg, congrats. Your ready to start drawing.
Your shit should now look something like this.


4) The MAIN tool you will use is the STRAIGHT LINE tool.
Many straight lines put together can make curved lines.
The significance of using the straight line tool is that it
reduces the messyness of using a mouse to freehand draw.


5) Now draw your first line to start off whatever image you will be creating.
I'll be making the letter "R" for my name Riipped.


6) Like I said earlier, many straight lines put together make curved lines.
My completed "R" looks like this.


But the actual lines I made are shown here.


Like connect the dots, only with invisable dots.
Draw one line, then from that end point start another line.
Make sure your straight lines are somewhat short so the edges aren't looking straight (unless you want them to).

7) Now that we have our image outline, we can start the coloring process.
This is the hardest part. The more detail in color, the better it will look.
Firstly, use the paintbucket tool to fill empty space(s) you have that you want colored.


For this tutorial I'll be using a dark grey.
To find specific colors, go to top of the program like this.


Then a window will come up, and select "Define custom colors."


You'll come up with a pallet of colors to select from.
Chose your color, then return to your image.


8) Now that you have your image filled with the color of your choice,
we will want to add some shading effects to make it look nice.
A cool trick to get the ideal color for shading is to first find the "eye dropper" tool.
Select that then click the color on your image that you want to shade.
Then repeat the above color steps until you've reached this window again.

Once you are here, move that little arrow on the far right down (or up)
to the shade of your liking. This is an easy way to match your color exactly,
for the perfect shade. (I chose a slightly brighter color)


9) Sweet. So now that you've learned the basics on color finding, etc,
we can get started on the actual shading. Shading is similar to the actual drawing.
We use the straight line tool again.

What you do now is to OUTLINE the area that you want to be shaded.
Make sure there are NO OPENINGS.
It must be an enclosed area or else the filling step won't work out.
Here's my example of how to outline your shaded area.


10) Once you have your outlined area, go back to the paintbucket tool.
Fill in the empty space you just enclosed with the straight line tool.
I've gone a little ahead and shaded all my spots I wanted, and filled them.
Here's what it looks like now.


11) Cool, huh? We're basically done. I brought you through the simple steps
on how to make pixel art. Now you have to take these steps and go in detail with them.
For shading, here's what I did.

As you can see, I did some advanced shading. This may take some practice,
but once you get the hang of it, it's fucking awesome.
It makes your pixel art look 10 times better.

12) Another nice thing I use sometimes is the "Select" tool.
It lets me move some stuff around if I messed up on the placement slightly.
For example, now that I finished my shading, I might want to add some cool effect.
So I'll move my image a little bit, giving me room to add something.


13) Now that my image is all in place and looking good,
I can do the cool effects which make ALL the difference.
The effects take some artistic talent, but they look amazing.
Here's what I came up with.


Hey, look. We are done<3

I hope this guide helped you, and good luck with your pixel art making!

NOTE: REMEMBER TO ALWAYS SAVE YOUR WORK AS A .PNG,
IF YOU DON'T YOUR IMAGE WILL LOSE QUALITY AND LOOK BAD.

Completed form:


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wow that is freakin awesome but...some people just don't have the drawing talent for this =[

 

It takes little talent to do it successfully. Try it, you'll find it much easier than it looks.

 

ahh thats how you do it

i thought you did it pixel by pixel >.<

im going to try soonzzz

 

Dude. Thanks soooo much. When I have time I'm going to do this finally. +1000 for Riipped.

 

You are one of my favorite artists on Sythe, riipped. All of your work is astounding. Excellent guide.

 

lol thats exactly what i thought, im now trying to make my name, will post later

 

thanks for this i might give it a shot when i get my computer back

 

add in something about dithering too, to make the gradient transition between light and dark better... assuming you know what it is..

 

The dimensions are wrong in all you pixel sig when trying to make a pixel look 3d example: the phats on one of your work and the R

 

I will once I get back from school.



But umm, decent guide overall? This is, afterall, the first tutorial I've ever made.

 

GREAT GUIDE! im gonna have to try when i get back from school.
i hav like a shaky hand so my is gonna look like some on crack did it but oh well

 

Nice Riip, now I don't have to keep paying you to do it.

 

Haha, that is if you're good enough at it.

 

wow very good, thanks!

 

i agree ! i love mspaint, its really ez to use adn u dont need to learn nothing about graphix =P

 

Yay!
You tutted it! Tyvm, heres my attempt:
(I know the shading on him is a bit weird, but I'm learning.)


Kind of added some text, hand drawn:

 

Another one:

 

OMFG! that's amazing dude! i never thought it was possible to make that nice sigs just in Paint! XD i'll try it some time

 

Amazing, I thought it would be hard but it was fairly easy.. I tried uploading my jpeg from paint to photoshop to add background and stuff and it degraded the quality horribly. I will have to stick to the eyedropper next time =P