Lesson 4: How to Draw Accurate Pixel Art Shapes

Drawing is representational art. When you are getting started, the first step is to draw accurate shapes.

For pixel art, drawing individual shapes (squares, circles, triangles, etc.) is not difficult. But as the number of shapes increases, the difficulty multiplies.

Plus, your eyes are untrained, and you can't tell when the shapes you draw are inaccurate. What should you do?

1. Dual Reference Images

The first method is same-size reference.

Pixel art is digital painting. Open the reference image you want to draw in Aseprite, then shrink it to the same size.

Suppose you want to draw a 32x32 pixel Totoro; you can shrink the reference image to 32x32 pixels. Aseprite will automatically shrink Totoro to 32x32 pixels. Turn on the grid in Aseprite, and you can clearly see the position of every pixel.

Author: Pixel Bear

This is a pixel-level reference image. Combined with the 100% reference image, you now have two reference images.

This method of learning and drawing pixel art is called "dual reference images." Pioneered by Pixel Bear.

This way, the difficulty of drawing accurate shapes is almost zero; you only need to draw clean pixel shapes plus appropriate colors.

2. Shape Positioning + Crosshair Check

Author: Pixel Bear

Summarize the object into basic shapes, drawing from large shapes to small shapes.

Author: Pixel Bear

After drawing, check with a crosshair. The crosshair divides the pattern into 4 blocks; the eyes and brain can scan a single block separately for comparison. If there is any difference from the original image, it is easy to spot.

3. Basic Unit + Negative Space

Determine the basic unit. Choose a shape of moderate size in the center of the image as the basic unit.

Author: Pixel Bear

Using the basic unit as a benchmark, draw the other shapes.

With the basic unit, you can determine the relative proportions of the various parts of the drawing object based on the basic unit's length, width, and area.

The basic unit is always "one unit length." You can use a pencil or visual estimation to measure the proportional size between the various parts.

You can ask yourself, compared to the basic unit, how big is the elephant's body? (About 4:1). Compared to the basic unit, how big is the elephant's head? (1:1). How wide is the elephant's trunk from its body? (About 2/3 of the basic unit).

Author: Pixel Bear

After drawing, check with negative space.

Because the brain focuses on the meaningless negative space, it is very sensitive to subtle differences in shape. Beginners can also quickly discover inaccuracies in their drawings.

4. Shape Exercise: Pixel Art Chat Emojis

Chat emojis are very popular and are the most commonly used in daily life. The most basic emoji is a round head + facial features.

Emojis are very suitable for pixel art beginners. Because the largest shape of an emoji is a circle, and among the facial features, the nose is omitted, leaving only the eyes (which are also circles) and the mouth to draw.

Emojis are simple and popular, so they are a common pixel art tutorial theme. You can search online for many already-drawn pixel art emojis.

5. Homework

Use the methods taught in this lesson to draw a pixel art emoji.

After completion, post your work to the community, and the teacher will review or correct it.