Pixel art is the root of computer graphics and digital art. In the early 1980s, digital pixel art was created pixel-by-pixel. The nostalgia for pixel graphics has made pixel art viable again, causing it to recently gain exceptional popularity. As a graphic designer or artist, you can upgrade your pixel art skills by completing some of the pixel art projects featured in this article.
5 Skills That Pixel Art Projects Can Help You Practice
Usually, pixel art projects utilize a combination of skills to execute a well-designed job. With constant practice of these skills, you can improve your capabilities and produce superb pixel art projects. Working on pixel art projects will help you perfect the following skills.
- Photoshop: Photoshop is one of the most popular software for pixel art. Although Photoshop is well-known for its photo editing capabilities, it’s also widely used in the graphic design and art world. Developing familiarity with Photoshop will provide you with an easy platform to advance your pixel art skills.
- Color Adjustments: Color adjustment and management are important pixel art skills. You’ll rarely find a pixel art project that doesn’t have a mixture of colors. Blending colors is another important aspect of color adjustments.
- Recreation: Many of the projects you’ll work on in this article, in addition to the projects you’ll be hired to complete will require you to recreate something. Whether that’s another piece of art, a photo, or a real-life model, recreation is a valuable pixel art skill.
- Visual Effects: Knowing how to bring your flat pixel art project to life is vital in attaining the look you’re going for. The application of visual effects makes your pixel art project appear more creative, intentional, and lively.
- Shading: Shading is a huge part of pixel art, particularly in creating a 3D illusion and depth perception.
Best Pixel Art Project Ideas for Beginners
The following pixel art project ideas are best suited to beginners. If you’re a complete beginner, you can always use examples of pixel art to assist in completing these projects. Working on the following projects will allow you to expand your skillset and advance your knowledge of pixel art tools, methods, and techniques.
Lines and Curves
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop
As simple as it sounds, drawing curved pixel lines can actually be quite challenging. Naturally, pixel lines have a square shape, which makes drawing a curved line that much more difficult. Choose a color and begin filling in straight lines of individual pixels. Once you’ve mastered straight lines, try drawing curved lines.
Shapes and Objects
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop
Once you’ve mastered straight and curved lines, you can start drawing shapes and objects. You should start with shapes that have straight lines, such as squares, triangles, and rectangles. Once you feel comfortable with those, you can progress to circular shapes. It’s helpful to start with small shapes so that you can easily see all of the pixels involved.
Emojis
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment, Visual Effects
In this project, you’ll combine basic skills to create emojis. You should start with basic emojis, such as a happy or sad face. If you struggle with appropriately spacing the pixels, you can draw an outline on a piece of paper and draw the pixels over it, before copying it onto Photoshop. Once you’ve mastered basic emojis, you can try more complicated and detailed ones.
A House
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment
This is a fun and easy project that you can make as creative as you want. You’ll start by drawing a square under a triangle for the frame. From there, you can decide how many windows, doors, and other accessories you want to add. Be sure to add the accessories before coloring in the house. You can also use this project to experiment with different colors.
Draw a Fish in an Ocean
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment, Shading
This project requires you to draw a fish in the ocean. For the ocean, you can try to blend light and dark blues to illustrate ocean depth. One of the easiest ways to do this is by choosing at least three or four shades of blue. Depending on the pixel size you’re working with, you can draw a couple of curvy or straight lines with each shade of blue, starting with the darkest. Don’t forget to add the fish.
Best Intermediate Pixel Art Project Ideas
The intermediate pixel art projects listed below are well-suited to artists who have basic pixel-art skills. If you’ve already mastered the beginner projects, you’re ready for intermediate projects. These intermediate pixel art projects will sharpen your basic skills and teach you new techniques.
Simple Logo Designs
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment, Recreation
This project requires you to practice drawing company logos. You should begin with simple logos, such as the Nike sign. If you have a hard time perfecting the shape in pixels, you can try drawing the logo with a piece of paper and pencil, before drawing small pixels over it. From there, you can copy your pixel grid onto Photoshop.
Christmas Tree
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment, Visual Effects
In this project, you will attempt to draw a Christmas tree. Although it sounds easy, it can actually be quite complicated because of all of the different ornaments you’ll need to add. To make this project a little easier, you can start with larger pixels and less detail. If you find that too easy, you can use smaller pixels and incorporate more details.
Snowman
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment, Visual Effects
This project requires you to create a snowman. Since the nose and arms of the snowman require straight lines, you’ll need to use smaller pixels. Keep in mind pixels have a square shape, so the bigger the pixels are, the bumpier your line will be. You can use a variety of colors, add creative accessories, and even draw snowflakes in the background.
A Cube
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Shading, Recreation
To create a cube in pixels, you’ll need to use four shades of the color you choose. Since pixels are 2D, you’ll need to use coloring techniques to give the illusion of three dimensions. You’ll start by drawing the outline of a hexagon in your darkest shade. Next, you’ll use your lightest shade to draw the inner lines of the cube. Lastly, you’ll use your two remaining shades to fill in the top and sides of the cube.
A Landscape
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Color Adjustment, Recreation
In this project, you’ll be creating a landscape. You can either create your own landscape, or you can use the Internet to search for basic landscape paintings or pictures. Your goal is to replicate the photo or create your landscape vision using small pixels. The exact pixel size you use depends on how detailed you want your picture to be.
Advanced Pixel Art Project Ideas
The advanced projects listed below require advanced pixel art skills and experience. These projects will further advance your skills and provide you with impressive content for your portfolio.
Your Favorite Cartoon Character
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment, Recreation
For this project, you’ll need to use the Internet to search for a picture of your favorite cartoon character. Once you’ve decided which picture to use, you’ll recreate it through pixel art, using Photoshop or similar software. As this is an advanced project, your picture should be detailed and created using very small pixels.
Game Characters
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Recreation, Visual Effects
In this project, you’ll be recreating your favorite video game character. Typically, video game characters have a lot more detail than television cartoon characters, which makes this project slightly more difficult than the project featured above. If you don’t have a favorite video game character, you can also use the Internet to find one that you’d like to recreate.
A Portrait
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Recreation, Shading
Portraits are one of the hardest pixel art projects to execute. Creating a portrait will require you to pay close attention to detail, use a varied color palette, and work through small sections of pixels at a time. As portraits require lots of details to accurately depict facial features, you’ll be working with very small pixels, which requires a lot of patience. Don’t forget to include an appropriate background color.
An Animal
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Recreation, Color Adjustment, Shading
In this project, you’ll be working on drawing an animal. You can choose any animal you want. Regardless of how simple the animal might sound, your goal is to make it look as realistic as possible. You’ll need to use a variety of colors, texture techniques, and shading methods to create a 3D illusion.
Lovers Walking
- Pixel Art Skill Practiced: Photoshop, Color Adjustment, Shading
This project requires you to create two lovers walking on a path in a park. You’ll need to add trees, grass, clouds, benches, and people in the background if you’re up for the challenge. As this project involves many elements and a lot of detail, you’ll need to work on small sections of pixels at a time, while adjusting your zoom to manage the different changes.
Pixel Art Starter Project Templates
Pixel Art starter templates are an excellent way to practice your pixel art skills before working independently. They function similarly to a coloring book and allow you to become familiar with techniques before creating your own piece of art. Listed below are some of the templates you can get started with.
- Applejack Pixel Template. With the Applejack pixel template, you can recreate some of your favorite childhood cartoons.
- Blastoise Pixel Art Template. The Blastoise Pixel Art Template is another amazing template that can help you recreate iconic video game characters from the past.
- Vector Pixel Art Background. The Vector Pixel Art Background offers designers an opportunity to create an amazing pixel art background with ease. Use this pixel art template to design your project background.
- Pixel Art Effect Design Template. Adding special effects to pixel art projects for beginners can be quite a challenge. With the Pixel Art Effect Design template, you have several special effect templates to choose from.
- Pixel Art Builder Design. Creating a building project with pixel art has been made easier with this template. The Pixel Art Builder Design template offers you a chance to stylishly create a wide variety of buildings.
Next Steps: Start Organizing Your Pixel Art Project Portfolio
You need to create an exceptional portfolio if you want to land a job as a pixel artist. Your pixel art portfolio should contain work samples that highlight your skills. Additionally, your portfolio should tell potential employers and clients about who you are. The tips below can assist you in the process of organizing your professional portfolio.
Strategize
The first step in assembling your professional portfolio is to strategize. Carefully consider which pieces you want to include, what message you want to send, and what story you want to tell. You should also consider who the client or employer is and add pieces that are relevant to their needs.
Keep It Short and Simple
Your pixel art project portfolio should be short and simple. Most often, recruiters tend to skim through lengthy portfolios, which often causes them to miss the work you’re most proud of. For this reason, you should keep your portfolio short and simple and make sure it aligns with the viewer’s needs. You can also incorporate headings and short descriptions.
Include Your Best Projects
You should only include your best projects. It’s important to remember that employers and clients aren’t interested in viewing your pixel art journey. They want to see proof of your capabilities and skills, which are most accurately showcased in your best work.
Pixel Art Project FAQ
No, pixel art is actually growing in popularity. It has recently resurfaced in a modernized version and is currently a very popular art form and skill.
According to Glassdoor, pixel artists earn an average of $62,053 per year. However, pixel artists’ salaries are heavily dependent on the company, location, and level of experience.
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Yes, pixel art is a great career. However, it depends on your location and the company you’re pursuing employment with. Tech firms like Google, Apple, and Microsoft still regularly hire pixel artists and pay them very well.
There is a wide range of software used in the pixel art field. Some powerful pixel art programs are PiskelApp, Pixie, GrafX2, and Photoshop.
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