Pixel art is digital art in which an image is drawn using pixels as the only building blocks. It was traditionally used by developers to create images with limited computer resources. It is also used in video games. If you want to create pixel art on your Windows PC, this post will interest you. Here, we will be discussing two different methods to draw pixel art. You can create pixel art drawings and animations using the listed methods. Plus, you can also convert your existing images into pixel art. Let us check out these methods now.
How to create Pixel Art on Windows 11/10?
To create pixel art on your Windows 11/10 PC, you can use the following tools:
- Create pixel art using a free Microsoft Store app.
- Pixel Art Studio Free
- Pixel Art – Color by number coloring book
- Create pixel art using a free online tool.
- Pixilart
- Pixel Art Maker
- Dinopixel
- Piskel
- Lospec Pixel Editor.
Let us take a look at them.
1] Create pixel art using a free Microsoft Store app
You can use a free dedicated app from Microsoft Store which is designed to create pixel art. There are multiple free pixel art creator apps for Windows 11/10. Here are some good ones that you can use:
- Pixel Art Studio Free
- Pixel Art – Color by number coloring book
A] Pixel Art Studio Free
You can use Pixel Art Studio Free to create pixel art on Windows 11/10. It is a complete editor that is specially designed to let you make pixel art on your computer. Apart from static pixel art, it even enables you to create animated pixel art. So, you can also create sprite sheets and stick figures through this app.
It provides all the essential tools to draw pixel art. You can use a pen, line, rectangle, and circle to create a drawing. To use a pen or shape tool, you can customize the brush settings including size, and opacity. It also offers a fill tool to fill a design with a particular color in your art. Besides that, you can use an eraser to clear a specific part of the drawing. Besides that, standard options like Zoom, Undo, Redo, Copy, Paste, and more are available in it.
You can also find several handy tools in it including Rotate, Resize, Flip, Mirror, Grid, Axis Lock, and more. These tools are accessible from the Tools menu. Apart from that, you can preview your pixel art in different modes including Sprite, Tiled, etc.
Another good thing is that it also lets you convert your existing images into pixel art. You can click on the More option from the top menubar and then select the Load option. After that, you can browse and select the source image in a supported image format like PNG, JPEG, etc.
It provides an animation control panel at the bottom of its window. Using it. you can add multiple frames in pixel art, duplicate a frame, adjust the speed of animation, play the animation, enable onion skin mode, etc.
When you are done creating pixel art, go to the More menu and select the Export/ Share option. Now, select the desired output format from the available ones. It supports PNG format to save pixel art images. To save pixel art animations, you can use the Animated GIF format. It also lets you export the pixel art as a sprite sheet. After selecting the output format, you can customize other output parameters including Image scale, Pixel spacing, Pixel renderer, Background color, and Margin, and then press the Save button.
It is a complete pixel art creator app that you can use to make pixel art images, pixel art animations, as well as sprite sheets on Windows. You can install it directly from your Microsoft Store.
Read: Best free Calligraphy software for Windows.
B] Pixel Art – Color by number coloring book
Pixel Art – Color by number coloring book is a nice free app to create pixel art on Windows 11/10. As the name suggests, this app contains some black-and-white pixel art that you can color as you want. It has pixel art of animals, cars, flowers, people, houses, appliances, and many more. You can select any of the pixel art and then start coloring its pixels. It is as simple as that.
Each pixel in the art contains a color number. You can choose that color number, click on the lock position button, and then use the paintbrush to color the pixels with the same number. It is a useful app for kids to enhance their drawing skills. You can download it from Microsoft Store.
2] Create pixel art using a free online tool
You can also use a free online tool to make pixel art in a web browser easily. There are a lot of options for free online pixel art maker tools. To help you out, here are some nice web services that you can use to draw pixel art online:
- Pixilart
- Pixel Art Maker
- Dinopixel
- Piskel
- Lospec Pixel Editor
A] Pixilart
Pixilart is a free online pixel art maker tool. It provides all the required tools to draw pixel art including a brush tool, pencil tool, line tool, square tool, circle tool, etc. You can easily undo a change or simply use an eraser to remove a specific section. It also offers a Text tool using which you can insert text in pixel form. Besides that, you can also use drawing tools like bucket tool, color picker tool, move tool, dithering tool, lighten/darken tool, spray paint tool, gradient tool, and more.
It also contains a Filter tool using which you can apply a filter on your pixel art. You can apply filters like blur, invert, brightness, sepia, grayscale, and contrast. It also lets you crop and resize your pixel art.
When your pixel art is complete, you can download or export it as a PNG image file. To export it, click on the File menu and select the Export/Download option. After that, you can simply click on the Download PNG button or choose a specific platform to download pixel art for Web, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
You can use it here.
B] Pixel Art Maker
Try this easy-to-use tool called Pixel Art Maker to draw pixel art online. It is a nice tool that offers standard drawing tools to generate pixel art from scratch. You can use its pen to straight line tool to start creating a drawing. Furthermore, it also provides a fill tool and color picker tool. You can enable or disable the grid in the background as per your requirement.
Not just that, but it also lets you convert an image to pixel art. For that, you just need to drag and drop the source image from your computer to its interface. It will quickly convert it to pixel art that you can edit as you want. The final pixel art can be saved as a PNG image. You can select the pixel art that you want to save and then tap on the Sva as PNG button. After that, enter the size of each pixel, add the title & description, and press the Save button.
To use it, go to its official website in a browser.
See: Why is Illustrator artwork pixelated in Photoshop?
C] Dinopixel
Dinopixel is yet another free online pixel art maker tool that you can use to create pixel art. Like other listed pixel art creators, it also offers standard drawing tools to make new pixel art from scratch. However, there are a lot of free pixel art drawings available on its website that you can edit and customize as per your requirements. There is also a handy Add a Model option using which you can use a sample model of various objects like a cake, octagon, heart, wall, Mario, star, and more.
Using Dinopixel, you can also create animated pixel art. From the bottom right section of its editor, click on the + button to add a new frame. You can then draw the frame using a pencil, fill color, and other drawing tools. Similarly, you can add multiple frames. The frames will be added on the GIF panel from where you can delete or edit individual frames. Now, you can set up the duration of each frame in the output animation. When done, click on the GIF button to download the pixel art animation to your PC.
D] Piskel
The next free online tool for making pixel art is Piskel. It is a featured pixel art editor that lets you create pixel art as well as sprites. It allows you to create animated pixel art with multiple frames.
You can use its pen, paint bucket, rectangle, circle, stroke, lighten, color picker, and many more tools to draw pixel art. While doing so, you can adjust your pen size. To add new frames to the animation, click on the Add new frame button present on the top left side. It also offers some transform tools that include Rotate, Flip, Align image to the center, etc. You can also generate a color palette to use it your pixel drawings.
Now, to save the output pixel art, you can click on the Export button present on the right side pane. It will allow you to save the drawing as an animated GIF. Or, you can also upload the pixel art animation to the web and share its URL with others.
Try it here.
Read: How to convert Image to Vector in Illustrator?
E] Lospec Pixel Editor
You can also use Lospec Pixel Editor to draw pixel art online. It lets you create a pixel drawing from scratch. You get all the essential drawing tools to make pixel art. It also lets you add layers to your graphic. You can even load a color palette that you want to use.
You can also convert your existing image to pixel art. Just open the Lospec Pixel Editor website in a web browser and open the source image using the File > Import option. It lets you import PNG images and convert them into pixel drawings. The final pixel art can be exported in PNG image format. You can use the File > Export option to do that.
Is Photoshop good for pixel art?
Adobe Photoshop can be used as a pixel art maker as it consists of a lot of tools related to pixel art drawing. It also provides tools to create shadows and highlights that help in creating pixel art. However, it is commercial software and may not be the best option if you are looking for a dedicated tool. So, you can use the above-listed software and online tools to create pixel art easily and without paying a penny.
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