Choose a canvas
| Canvas | Good for |
|---|---|
| 8 × 8 | tiny icons, emoji-style faces |
| 16 × 16 | classic game items and characters |
| 32 × 32 | detailed characters, portraits |
| 64 × 64 and up | scenes and backgrounds |
Start small. A 16 × 16 sprite can be finished in an evening, and every pixel matters, which teaches you more than a large canvas would.
Build a small palette
Choose a few colours before you start: an outline colour (a very dark colour, often not pure black), and for each main colour a light, mid and dark shade. A limited palette gives a sprite consistency and keeps it readable. Our own library shows how far a small palette goes:
Outlines
A one-pixel dark outline separates the sprite from any background. Draw it first, as a silhouette. Then check two things:
- No doubles: where a line steps diagonally, use single pixels at each step, not L-shaped clumps, which look jagged.
- Smooth curves: step lengths should change gradually, 3-2-1 or 1-1-2-2-3, rather than jumping 1-4-1.
For softer sprites, colour the outline in a darker shade of the area it surrounds instead of black.
Shading with three tones
Pick a light direction, usually from the top left, and stick to it:
- Fill each area with its mid tone.
- Add the dark tone along the bottom and right edges, away from the light.
- Add one or two highlight pixels near the top left.
Avoid pillow shading, putting dark tones around every edge with light in the middle, which flattens the form. And avoid dithering on small sprites; it reads as noise.
Readability
- Squint test: blur your eyes or zoom out to 1×. If you cannot tell what the sprite is, simplify the silhouette.
- Contrast: important details such as eyes need strong contrast, even if that means exaggerating them.
- Asymmetry: a perfectly mirrored sprite can look stiff; small changes add life.
Exporting
Pixel art must be scaled by whole numbers with nearest-neighbour resampling to stay crisp. Here is the difference, drawn by your own browser:
Nearest-neighbourEvery pixel stays a sharp squareSmooth scalingThe browser blends neighbouring pixels
From pixels to crafts
Because a sprite is already a grid, it can become almost any craft. The same sprite comes out very different sizes depending on what each cell becomes:
| Craft | 16 × 16 cells | 32 × 32 cells | 64 × 64 cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross stitch | 2.9 × 2.9 cm | 5.8 × 5.8 cm | 11.6 × 11.6 cm |
| Fuse beads | 8.0 × 8.0 cm | 16.0 × 16.0 cm | 32.0 × 32.0 cm |
| Alpha bracelet | 2.1 × 3.2 cm | 4.2 × 6.4 cm | 8.3 × 12.8 cm |
| C2C crochet | 40.0 × 40.0 cm | 80.0 × 80.0 cm | 160 × 160 cm |
| Knitting colourwork | 8.0 × 5.7 cm | 16.0 × 11.4 cm | 32.0 × 22.9 cm |
| Diamond painting | 4.0 × 4.0 cm | 8.0 × 8.0 cm | 16.0 × 16.0 cm |
| Needlepoint | 2.3 × 2.3 cm | 4.5 × 4.5 cm | 9.0 × 9.0 cm |
| Latch hook | 10.8 × 10.8 cm | 21.7 × 21.7 cm | 43.3 × 43.3 cm |
| Brick mosaic | 12.8 × 12.8 cm | 25.6 × 25.6 cm | 51.2 × 51.2 cm |
| Peyote & brick stitch | 2.1 × 2.6 cm | 4.2 × 5.1 cm | 8.3 × 10.2 cm |
| Pony beads | 9.6 × 14.4 cm | 19.2 × 28.8 cm | 38.4 × 57.6 cm |
Finished sizes at each craft's default settings in our tools: 14-count for cross stitch, midi 5 mm fuse beads, 2.5 mm square drills, 25 mm C2C blocks, 20 × 28 knitting gauge and so on. Peyote, pony bead and alpha bracelet cells are not square, so the same grid comes out a different shape.
A 16 × 16 sprite makes a cross stitch motif under 3 cm across, a fuse bead coaster of 8 cm, or a C2C cushion 40 cm wide. Bigger sprites suit the small-cell crafts; small ones work beautifully as beads, bricks and blankets.
Every pixel art sprite is already a chart. Switch the craft in the editor to turn it into a fuse bead pattern, a cross stitch motif or a brick mosaic; the colours are matched to the nearest real beads, threads or pieces. The pixel art library has sprites to study and remix, and the pixel art maker converts a small image into pixels to start from.