Pixel art is one of the friendliest ways to start making digital art — you place one colored square at a time, so anyone can learn it. This guide walks you through your first sprite from a blank canvas to a finished, exported image.
Updated July 2026Just a web browser. Everything below can be done for free in the PixeMaker editor — there's nothing to install and no account to create. Open it in a second tab and follow along.
In a hurry? The short version: pick a small canvas (32×32), choose a handful of colors, draw the outline, fill it in, then add one lighter and one darker shade for depth. That's a complete pixel-art sprite.
The single most common beginner mistake is starting too big. A large canvas tempts you to draw like you would with a paintbrush, and pixel art isn't about smooth strokes — it's about deliberate placement. Start at 16×16 for an icon or 32×32 for a simple character. Small canvases finish quickly, which means you complete more pieces and improve faster.
In PixeMaker, set your width and height when you create the canvas. You can always resize later, but try to finish a few small pieces first.
Great pixel art usually uses few colors, not many. A tight palette of 4–16 colors keeps everything looking like it belongs together and makes shading far easier to reason about. Pick a base color for each part of your subject (skin, shirt, hair) and hold off on adding more until you actually need them.
PixeMaker lets you build a custom palette of up to 28 colors or type any hex value directly. Save the colors you like so they're one click away.
With the pencil tool, draw the outline of your subject first — just the outer shape, in a single color. A strong, readable silhouette is what makes a sprite recognizable at small sizes. Squint at it: if you can tell what it is from the outline alone, you're on the right track.
Use the flood-fill tool to fill the enclosed shape with your base color. Now you have a solid, flat sprite to build on.
Depth comes from light. Decide where your light source is (top-left is a common, easy choice), then add one darker shade on the sides facing away from the light and one lighter shade on the sides facing toward it. Two extra shades per color is usually enough to make a flat sprite look rounded.
Use the eyedropper to grab an existing color quickly, then nudge it darker or lighter for a consistent set of shades.
Zoom in and look for lonely pixels and jagged, staircase-like lines. Smoothing these out — a skill pixel artists call fixing "jaggies" — makes curves read cleanly. Aim for lines that step evenly (for example 2 pixels across, then 2 down) rather than randomly. Small cleanup passes make a big difference.
Your work autosaves in your browser as you go, but to keep a permanent copy you should export. In PixeMaker you can export a PNG at 1×, 4×, 8×, or 16× scale — export at a higher scale so your art stays crisp when shared or posted (browsers and social sites often blur upscaled small images otherwise).
Ready for the next step? Learn how to make a sprite sheet to package multiple frames for a game, or how to make a pixel-art GIF to animate your sprite.
Start small — 16×16 or 32×32 pixels. Small canvases force you to focus on shape and finish quickly. Icons and simple sprites often live at 16×16 or 32×32; larger characters and scenes use 64×64 and up.
Beginners do best with about 4–16 colors. Fewer colors keep your art cohesive and make shading decisions easier. You can always add more later.
No. Because pixel art is placed one pixel at a time, a mouse or trackpad works perfectly. A tablet is optional and mainly helps with speed, not quality.
Related guides: How to make a sprite sheet · How to make a pixel-art GIF · All guides