Thank you kind asker I will make a tutorial below for grass. I'll do shrubs and trees in another one, because it's a different method and it got pretty long.
🌿 How to draw grass tiles: step-by-step
Each box is 16x16, the same size Stardew Valley uses. Make it tile (how to do it depends on your software) so we can see if our edges match up nicely.
Draw 1 simple blade of grass. Many options for shape but I like this one. Feel free to copy me directly
2. Give it a shadow. Wow !!!
3. Give it a highlight! OMG!
4. Add another grass
5. Do it over and over and over and over and over
Literally just do the same or similar blades of grass, give them all little shadows, highlight a few if you want and there you have it! So easy.
It looks really complicated like this, but its literally just a few steps, repeated over and over.
Many games use this technique and it would be perfectly serviceable for a base grass tile.
Personally, I prefer lower contrast grass. This tile will likely be used for large areas, so ideally you don't want it to be too busy or eye-burning to distract from the character.
🌿 I'll show you how to do a different type of grass now that is a little more complicated.
Midtone grass colour
2. Add some lighter and darker patches touching each other (not too high contrast!)
3. Use this shape (or your preferred, but this is how I did it) on the top edge of your patches. Colour them with the middle colour from each patch.
4. Do it again a lot (this is very tedious)
5. Add some highlights
6. Add some fun extra stuff
We're done! Have fun everyone, show me if you try it!
Edit: Now available in Google Doc format if you don't have a Tumblr account 🥰
Hello, my name is Tofu and I'm a professional pixel artist. I have been supporting myself with freelance pixel art since 2020, when I was let go from my job during the pandemic.
My progress, from 2017 to 2024. IMO the only thing that really matters is time and effort, not some kind of natural talent for art.
This guide will not be comprehensive, as nobody should be expected to read allat. Instead I will lean heavily on my own experience, and share what worked for me, so take everything with a grain of salt. This is a guide, not a tutorial. Cheers!
🔹 Do I need money?
NO!!! Pixel art is one of the most accessible mediums out there.
I still use a mouse because I prefer it to a tablet! You won't be at any disadvantage here if you can't afford the best hardware or software.
Because our canvases are typically very small, you don't need a good PC to run a good brush engine or anything like that.
✨Did you know? One of the most skilled and beloved pixel artists uses MS PAINT! Wow!!
🔹 What software should I use?
Here are some of the most popular programs I see my friends and peers using.
Stars show how much I recommend the software for beginners! ⭐
💰 Paid options:
⭐⭐⭐ Aseprite (for PC) - $19.99
This is what I and many other pixel artists use. You may find when applying to jobs that they require some knowledge of Aseprite. Since it has become so popular, companies like that you can swap raw files between artists.
Aseprite is amazingly customizable, with custom skins, scripts and extensions on Itch.io, both free and paid.
If you have ever used any art software before, it has most of the same features and should feel fairly familiar to use. It features a robust animation suite and a tilemap feature, which have saved me thousands of hours of labour in my work. The software is also being updated all the time, and the developers listen to the users. I really recommend Aseprite!
⭐ Photoshop (for PC) - Monthly $$
A decent option for those who already are used to the PS interface. Requires some setup to get it ready for pixel-perfect art, but there are plenty of tutorials for doing so.
Animation is also much more tedious on PS which you may want to consider before investing time!
⭐⭐ ProMotion NG (for PC) - $19.00
An advanced and powerful software which has many features Aseprite does not, including Colour Cycling and animated tiles.
⭐⭐⭐ Pixquare (for iOS) - $7.99 - $19.99 (30% off with code 'tofu'!!)
Probably the best app available for iPad users, in active development, with new features added all the time.
Look! My buddy Jon recommends it highly, and uses it often.
One cool thing about Pixquare is that it takes Aseprite raw files! Many of my friends use it to work on the same project, both in their office and on the go.
⭐ Procreate (for iOS) - $12.99
If you have access to Procreate already, it's a decent option to get used to doing pixel art. It does however require some setup. Artist Pixebo is famously using Procreate, and they have tutorials of their own if you want to learn.
⭐⭐ ReSprite iOS and Android. (free trial, but:) $19.99 premium or $$ monthly
ReSprite is VERY similar in terms of UI to Aseprite, so I can recommend it. They just launched their Android release!
🆓 Free options:
⭐⭐⭐ Libresprite (for PC)
Libresprite is an alternative to Aseprite. It is very, very similar, to the point where documentation for Aseprite will be helpful to Libresprite users.
⭐⭐ Pixilart (for PC and mobile)
A free in-browser app, and also a mobile app! It is tied to the website Pixilart, where artists upload and share their work. A good option for those also looking to get involved in a community.
⭐⭐ Dotpict (for mobile)
Dotpict is similar to Pixilart, with a mobile app tied to a website, but it's a Japanese service. Did you know that in Japanese, pixel art is called 'Dot Art'?
Dotpict can be a great way to connect with a different community of pixel artists! They also have prompts and challenges often.
🔹 So I got my software, now what?
◽Nice! Now it's time for the basics of pixel art.
❗ WAIT ❗ Before this section, I want to add a little disclaimer. All of these rules/guidelines can be broken at will, and some 'no-nos' can look amazing when done intentionally.
The pixel-art fundamentals can be exceedingly helpful to new artists, who may feel lost or overwhelmed by choice. But if you feel they restrict you too harshly, don't force yourself! At the end of the day it's your art, and you shouldn't try to contort yourself into what people think a pixel artist 'should be'. What matters is your own artistic expression. 💕👍
◽Phew! With that out of the way...
🔸"The Rules"
There are few hard 'rules' of pixel art, mostly about scaling and exporting. Some of these things will frequently trip up newbies if they aren't aware, and are easy to overlook.
🔹Scaling method
There are a couple ways of scaling your art. The default in most art programs, and the entire internet, is Bi-linear scaling, which usually works out fine for most purposes. But as pixel artists, we need a different method.
Both are scaled up x10. See the difference?
On the left is scaled using Bilinear, and on the right is using Nearest-Neighbor. We love seeing those pixels stay crisp and clean, so we use nearest-neighbor.
(Most pixel-art programs have nearest-neighbor enabled by default! So this may not apply to you, but it's important to know.)
🔹Mixels
Mixels are when there are different (mixed) pixel sizes in the same image.
Here I have scaled up my art- the left is 200%, and the right is 150%. Yuck!
As we can see, the "pixel" sizes end up different. We generally try to scale our work by multiples of 100 - 200%, 300% etc. rather than 150%. At larger scales however, the minute differences in pixel sizes are hardly noticeable!
Mixels are also sometimes seen when an artist scales up their work, then continues drawing on it with a 1 pixel brush.
Many would say that this is not great looking! This type of pixels can be indicative of a beginner artist. But there are plenty of creative pixel artists out there who mixels intentionally, making something modern and cool.
🔹Saving Your Files
We usually save our still images as .PNGs as they don’t create any JPEG artifacts or loss of quality. It's a little hard to see here, but there are some artifacts, and it looks a little blurry. It also makes the art very hard to work with if we are importing a JPEG.
For animations .GIF is good, but be careful of the 256 colour limit. Try to avoid using too many blending mode layers or gradients when working with animations. If you aren’t careful, your animation could flash afterwards, as the .GIF tries to reduce colours wherever it can. It doesn’t look great!
Here's an old piece from 2021 where I experienced .GIF lossiness, because I used gradients and transparency, resulting in way too many colours.
🔹Pixel Art Fundamentals - Techniques and Jargon
❗❗Confused about Jaggies? Anti-Aliasing? Banding? Dithering? THIS THREAD is for you❗❗ << it's a link, click it!!
As far as I'm concerned, this is THE tutorial of all time for understanding pixel art. These are techniques created and named by the community of people who actually put the list together, some of the best pixel artists alive currently. Please read it!!
🔸How To Learn
Okay, so you have your software, and you're all ready to start. But maybe you need some more guidance? Try these tutorials and resources! It can be helpful to work along with a tutorial until you build your confidence up.
⭐⭐ Pixel Logic (A Digital Book) - $10
A very comprehensive visual guide book by a very skilled and established artist in the industry. I own a copy myself.
⭐⭐⭐ StudioMiniBoss - free
A collection of visual tutorials, by the artist that worked on Celeste! When starting out, if I got stuck, I would go and scour his tutorials and see how he did it.
⭐ Lospec Tutorials - free
A very large collection of various tutorials from all over the internet. There is a lot to sift through here if you have the time.
⭐⭐⭐ Cyangmou's Tutorials - free (tipping optional)
Cyangmou is one of the most respected and accomplished modern pixel artists, and he has amassed a HUGE collection of free and incredibly well-educated visual tutorials.
He also hosts an educational stream every week on Twitch called 'pixelart for beginners'.
⭐⭐⭐ Youtube Tutorials - free
There are hundreds, if not thousands of tutorials on YouTube, but it can be tricky to find the good ones.
My personal recommendations are MortMort, Brandon, and AdamCYounis- these guys really know what they're talking about!
🔸 How to choose a canvas size
When looking at pixel art turorials, we may see people suggest things like 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64. These are standard sizes for pixel art games with tiles. However, if you're just making a drawing, you don't necessarily need to use a standard canvas size like that.
What I like to think about when choosing a canvas size for my illustrations is 'what features do I think it is important to represent?' And make my canvas as small as possible, while still leaving room for my most important elements.
Imagine I have characters in a scene like this:
I made my canvas as small as possible (232 x 314), but just big enough to represent the features and have them be recognizable (it's Good Omens fanart 😤)!! If I had made it any bigger, I would be working on it for ever, due to how much more foliage I would have to render.
If you want to do an illustration and you're not sure, just start at somewhere around 100x100 - 200x200 and go from there.
It's perfectly okay to crop your canvas, or scale it up, or crunch your art down at any point if you think you need a different size. I do it all the time! It only takes a bit of cleanup to get you back to where you were.
🔸Where To Post
Outside of just regular socials, Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart, Instagram etc, there are a few places that lean more towards pixel art that you might not have heard of.
⭐ Lospec
Lospec is a low-res focused art website. Some pieces get given a 'monthly masterpiece' award. Not incredibly active, but I believe there are more features being added often.
⭐⭐ Pixilart
Pixilart is a very popular pixel art community, with an app tied to it. The community tends to lean on the young side, so this is a low-pressure place to post with an relaxed vibe.
⭐⭐ Pixeljoint
Pixeljoint is one of the big, old-school pixel art websites. You can only upload your art unscaled (1x) because there is a built-in zoom viewer.
It has a bit of a reputation for being elitist (back in the 00s it was), but in my experience it's not like that any more. This is a fine place for a pixel artist to post if they are really interested in learning, and the history.
The Hall of Fame has some of the most famous / impressive pixel art pieces that paved the way for the work we are doing today.
⭐⭐⭐ Cafe Dot
Cafe Dot is my art server so I'm a little biased here. 🍵
It was created during the recent social media turbulence. We wanted a place to post art with no algorithms, and no NFT or AI chuds. We have a heavy no-self-promotion rule, and are more interested in community than skill or exclusivity.
The other thing is that we have some kind of verification system- you must apply to be a Creator before you can post in the Art feed, or use voice. This helps combat the people who just want to self-promo and dip, or cause trouble, as well as weed out AI/NFT people.
Until then, you are still welcome to post in any of the threads or channels. There is a lot to do in Cafe Dot. I host events weekly, so check the threads!
⭐⭐/r/pixelart
The pixel art subreddit is pretty active! I've also heard some of my friends found work through posting here, so it's worth a try if you're looking.
However, it is still Reddit- so if you're sensitive to rude people, or criticism you didn't ask for, you may want to avoid this one. Lol
🔸 Where To Find Work
You need money? I got you! As someone who mostly gets scouted on social media, I can share a few tips with you:
Put your email / portfolio in your bio
Recruiters don't have all that much time to find artists, make it as easy as possible for someone to find your important information!
Clean up your profile
If your profile feed is all full of memes, most people will just tab out rather than sift through. Doesn't apply as much to Tumblr if you have an art tag people can look at.
Post regularly, and repost
Activity beats everything in the social media game. It's like rolling the dice, and the more you post the more chances you have. You have to have no shame, it's all business baby
Outside of just posting regularly and hoping people reach out to you, it can be hard to know where to look. Here are a few places you can sign up to and post around on.
/r/INAT
INAT (I Need A Team) is a subreddit for finding a team to work with. You can post your portfolio here, or browse for people who need artists.
/r/GameDevClassifieds
Same as above, but specifically for game-related projects.
Remote Game Jobs / Work With Indies
Like Indeed but for game jobs. Browse them often, or get email notifications.
VGen
VGen is a website specifically for commissions. You need a code from another verified artist before you can upgrade your account and sell, so ask around on social media or ask your friends.
Once your account is upgraded, you can make a 'menu' of services people can purchase, and they send you an offer which you are able to accept, decline, or counter.
The evil websites of doom: Fiverr and Upwork
I don't recommend them!! They take a big cut of your profit, and the sites are teeming with NFT and AI people hoping to make a quick buck. The site is also extremely oversaturated and competitive, resulting in a race to the bottom (the cheapest, the fastest, doing the most for the least).
Imagine the kind of clients who go to these websites, looking for the cheapest option. But if you're really desperate...
🔸 Community
I do really recommend getting involved in a community. Finding like-minded friends can help you stay motivated to keep drawing. One day, those friends you met when you were just starting out may become your peers in the industry. Making friends is a game changer!
Discord servers
Nowadays, the forums of old are mostly abandoned, and people split off into many different servers. Cafe Dot, Pixel Art Discord (PAD), and if you can stomach scrolling past all the AI slop, you can browse Discord servers here.
Twitch Streams
Twitch has kind of a bad reputation for being home to some of the more edgy gamers online, but the pixel art community is extremely welcoming and inclusive. Some of the people I met on Twitch are my friends to this day, and we've even worked together on different projects!
Browse pixel art streams here, or follow some I recommend: NickWoz, JDZombi, CupOhJoe, GrayLure, LumpyTouch, FrankiePixelShow, MortMort, Sodor, NateyCakes, NyuraKim, ShinySeabass, I could go on for ever really... There are a lot of good eggs on Pixel Art Twitch.
🔸 Other Helpful Websites
Palettes
Lospec has a huge collection of user-made palettes, for any artist who has trouble choosing their colours, or just wants to try something fun.
Rejected Palettes is full of palettes that didn't quite make it onto Lospec, ran by people who believe there are no bad colours.
The Spriters Resource
TSR is an incredible website where users can upload spritesheets and tilesets from games. You can browse for your favourite childhood game, and see how they made it! This website has helped me so much in understanding how game assets come together in a scene.
VGMaps
Similar to the above, except there are entire maps laid out how they would be played. This is incredible if you have to do level design, or for mocking up a scene for fun.
Game UI Database
Not pixel-art specific, but UI is a very challenging part of graphics, so this site can be a game-changer for finding good references!
Retronator
A digital newspaper for pixel-art lovers! New game releases, tutorials, and artworks!
Itch.io
A website where people can upload, games, assets, tools... An amazing hub for game devs and game fans alike.
A few of my favourite tools: Tiled, PICO-8, Pixel Composer, Juice FX, Magic Pencil for Aseprite
🔸 The End?
This is just part 1 for now, so please drop me a follow to see any more guides I release in the future. I plan on doing some writeups on how I choose colours, how to practise, and more!
I'm not an expert by any means, but everything I did to get to where I am is outlined in this guide. Pixel art is my passion, my job and my hobby! I want pixel art to be recognized everywhere as an art-form, a medium of its own outside of game-art or computer graphics!
This guide took me a long time, and took a lot of research and experience. Consider following me or supporting me if you are feeling generous.
And good luck to all the fledgling pixel artists, I hope you'll continue and have fun. I hope my guide helped you, and don't hesitate to send me an ask if you have any questions! 💕
My other tutorials (so far):
How to draw Simple Grass for a game
Hue Shifting
It's easy to see any of the kids' actions and behaviors in a bad light. But each and every kid in this story has suffered because of the decisions and actions of the adults around them.
Shizuka's father left his family to start a new one and even acts like he doesn't know her when questioned. Her mother pays no attention to the obvious injuries she sustains and offers her no actual love; often leaving her alone. You can argue that she works so much to being able to provide for Shizuka but she didn't even offer any warmth after Chappy was taken. She only coldly told her not to give her any more trouble. Not to mention Shizuka is obviously hurt yet she doesn't question it: instead she asks about a flower in her hair of all things. Shizuka doesn't try to ask her for help or talk to her because it's obvious that it won't result in anything (there's no way she hasn't come to this conclusion by past attempts). Even the adults at school don't seem to care or notice how her demeanor is a red flag for something wrong. She becomes so focused on the hope of regaining her only happiness, Chappy, that she neglects anyone/anything else around her. Shizuka cannot allow herself let go of the idea of finding Chappy because if she does then she has to accept that he's gone and she's alone.
Marina's father would rather do whatever he wants than be around his family. He's selfish and, let's face it, a man-whore for spending his money on himself. Her mother takes her frustration and misery out on her own daughter; manipulating her onto being on her side and abusing her physically whenever her husband verbally abuses her (or if it seems that Marina shows any love towards her father like when Takopi was posing as her). They both use her as a tool to get back at each other: the classic they hate each other more than they love their child. Marina doesn't understand why her parents are like this now when they used to be a happy family: she can only come to the conclusion that it's because her father is with Shizuka's mother. She becomes so focused on this being the cause of her family's change that she can only act with aggression, similar to what she sees at home.
Azuma's mother is emotionally abusive towards him, often making him feel like he has to earn her love and approval. She constantly compares him with his brother and how she raised them the same and yet they're not achieving at the same rate. This even extends to him needing glasses: she comments on how strange it is since his brother doesn't need them. And she says it with such disappointment. Despite how great his grades are and how much praise he gets from classmates, his mother feels differently and her words triumphs over anyone else's. Azuma wants nothing more than to be good enough for his mother but she constantly talks to him with disappointment. She doesn't raise her voice yet it's just as hurtful, just as cruel as if she did. Maybe worse. We have a family where the parent has deemed one the golden child and the other a disappointment despite both being kind, well behaved and getting good grades. All because what she wants is perfection and , according to his mother, his brother Junya is perfect. This is why Azuma comes to the same conclusion. Azuma has become fixated on being someone that others can rely on. He desperately craves that approval and does whatever he can to gain that by helping Shizuka.
The only good thing he has is his older brother Junya but didn't realize it. He was too focused on being good and behaved and gaining his mother's approval to ever really talk to his brother. He never voiced how he really felt. His brother was also too busy gaining his independence by working to spend time with his brother. Junya realized too late how bad things had been for his brother: you can see it on his face at the end of episode 4. He regrets not only pushing more when he noticed something off but not being there more and leaving his little brother to deal with their mother. Unfortunately, they had their talk far too late and I'm sure they both know that.
All three have dealt with abuse that shaped them to be anxious, depressed and capable of cruelty due to not being able to process these emotions in a healthy manner. All three cling to a single thing to hope for while being afraid of being left alone.
What we see happen at the story's start happened in the original timeline too: Marina's family problems, the bullying she put Shizuka through, her getting Chappy taken away and thus Shizuka's suicide attempt. The only difference is that Takopi wasn't there to give the ribbon, which would've made the attempt a success. Note: this reason kind of makes me still dislike Marina a little due to the fact that I can't excuse her bullying someone (especially to the point of suicide). However, I get why she's like this. Each time I saw her terrified by her mom and recoiled and sobbed in pain I felt terrible. You not meant to excuse the bullying because of Marina's home life. You're not meant to feel satisfied with seeing a bully get the same treatment as their victim...because it's not really what's happening. It's another victim, another child being abused and another soul being damaged. No one in this story deserved to be treated like this, especially by their own family. None of these kids deserve to feel this way.
Lastly there's Takopi. I wanted to add him in here because over the course of the story we've seen him take on a different kind of beating in the form of a spectator who can't help. He is innocent to the point of naivete. His attempts to help those around him constantly fail because he cannot grasp the reality of the situations for these three kids. By the time he does understand at least a bit it's too late to fix it because those fixes are impossible. But he still doesn't grasp that and believes there must be a solution. He needs to be able to fix this. He's determined and focused on helping, on making them smile.
Each one of his efforts is doomed to fail because he is too innocent and naive to understand the problems being faced. And each time we've seen him fail we see that joyful personality take a hit. Then there's his memory. Imagine realizing that the person you originally wanted to help smile, the entire reason for going back in time, was the same one you ended up killing. He already felt guilty about killing Marina and felt even worse after seeing the effect of her death on her mother...this third revelation hits even harder. He doesn't understand that people are complex and can do both good and bad things.
The kids in the story should see the world like Takopi but their situations and experiences have robbed them of that.
I've seen a lot of criticism towards the birth scene in 28 years and I find it odd because obviously that scene meant something and no one wanted to actually think about it further than "that was weird"
like for one it shows Isla's character perfectly, she is, for one, a mother and she knows what it's like to deal with pregnancy so her first thought was empathy towards the infected woman, the scene quite brilliantly shows her fearlessness and caring nature in one by having her reach out to her, and shows her quick thinking despite her illness often getting in the way with her almost instinctively knowing what to do to help the infected woman, to me it's on par with the scene of Isla waking up in the night to stop the infected from hurting Spike
on the other side of it you have the infected, the scene shows that, at the end of the day, the infected are actually still people, they're just sick, we see the infected woman in pain, she's alone and vulnerable and struggling, and we see her accept help, and when she gives birth baby Isla is healthy and free of infection, showing that inside the infected are just like everyone else
during the first half of the movie the infected are likened to animals, they are called "it" by Jamie, who also regales the town with highly embellished stories of Spike's kills, they are shot through bushes and with night vision as if they're the subjects of an animal planet documentary, but once Spike goes out on his own we see them in a new light, and this scene in particular is one of the times where the movie highlights the fact that they are still human
if you wanted to go a step further you could even relate the birth scene to the greater themes of the film as a whole, the pregnant infected is isolated from the rest of her group when she needs them most, much like how the UK is isolated from the rest of the world when they need it most, Erik, a character from the outside world, is the only one in the group who doesn't want to help
obviously if you applied real world logic to the scene and the baby it wouldn't make sense but that's not the point of it, you're meant to suspend your disbelief and look past the logistics of it to find the deeper meaning behind it, that's what storytelling is all about
dededos
kianamaiart
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