White is a good baseline color, making it easy to spot any mistakes. You can select any color you want for your background. With the new layer selected, click on the Adjustment Layer icon and select Solid Color. You also need to ensure you can easily turn the background off when exporting your image later.įirst, add a new layer by clicking on the New Layer Button in the Layers panel.

To finish setting up your canvas, you need to add a background to make it easier to see your art. You created a very small canvas, so this is normal. You can zoom in and out by pressing Control + “+” and Control + – (Win) or Command + “+” and Command + – (Mac). Your canvas is now created, and the first thing you will notice is that you can barely see it. When you’re done selecting your options, click Create. It’s important to ensure your Pixel Aspect Ratio is set to Square Pixels.This is important for exporting your pixel art later. The Background Contents should be Transparent.Keep your Color Mode at RGB Color and 8 Bit.It’s important that your resolution is low to keep your pixel density low. Make sure to select Pixels under the Drop Down Menu as well. To do this, enter 50 for the Width and 50 for the Height while creating a new document. I’m going to go with a 50 x 50 px sized canvas. A 20 x 20 px sized canvas or artboart allows less detail, similar to an 8-bit console like the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Think about the graphics for a 16-bit gaming console like the Super Nintendo or Sega Genisis.

Depending on the type of pixel art you want to create, this can be a good or bad thing.Ī 50 x 50 px or 40 x 40 px sized canvas will allow a good amount of detail if you’re making a character or item. The more pixels you have on your canvas, the more detail your final piece will have. To ensure your pixel art has that classic blocky feel, consider the number of pixels you will have on your canvas. Step 1: Create A Transparent Canvas Or Artboard Finally, I’ll show you how to export your final image so that you don’t have to worry about losing that jagged pixel art feel when scaling your image. You will get a crash course on forming a three-dimensional look for your art using shadows and highlights. I’ll explain the importance of changing your image interpolation and setting up your brush and eraser tools for pixel art. You will learn how to set up your canvas correctly and the best settings for your grid. Today you will learn the basics and beyond when it comes to creating pixel art. Pixel art that you can make in Photoshop! It takes some setup to get things started, but once you’re ready to go, you’ll create the next Mario Bros. In a gaming landscape filled with HD graphics, 3D headsets, and photo-realistic ray tracing, it’s good to know there are still people out there craving the nostalgic pixel art of the old days.

Photoshop 3d painting grid