Pixel Art

Key Ideas

For this assignment you will create your own pixel art. The instructions below will show you how to use Photoshop to create your drawing. What you draw is up to you, but after this assignment you will create an animated GIF, so try to draw something that you can animate.

1. Open Photoshop on your computer.

2. Go to File>New, and use the exact settings you see in the image. Click OK when you're done.

NOTE: If you don't see the menu on the left you can change that option by following the steps below.

To see the New File menu above go to Edit>Preferences>General and turn on the option you see in the picture called Use Legacy "New Document" Interface.

Your image will be tiny! Zoom in and out by holding the Ctrl key and pressing + and -

3. Next create a new layer. Which option do you think will do that? Don't see the layers menu? press F7 at the top of your keyboard.

1 - Layer Blend Mode

2 - Opacity

3 - Lock Layer

4 - Selected Layer

5 - Layer Effects

6 - Create New Layer

7 - Delete Selected Layer 

4. Select the pencil tool from the tool bar.

5. Open your brush menu by right-clicking inside your image (the white square you made).

6. Choose a 1 pixel (px) brush. Make sure the Hardness is set to 100%.

7. Choose your colors by clicking the foreground color selector.

8. Now start drawing. When drawing just watch out for "thick" corners like in the image. You will need to use the eraser to clean those up.

Most of your pixels should connect at the corners!

9. If you make mistakes use your eraser tool.

You can change the size of the eraser the same way you changed your brush size.

When you've finished drawing your character go to File>Save As and save the file type as a PSD or Photoshop Document.

Be sure to name it and save it in your folder. You will animate this in the next lesson.