Pixel Art Process (page 2 of 3)

3) A rough pixel sketch
Now I have my photo open in one window, and a blank canvas open in a drawing program in another and arranged on my desktop so that both are visible. The photo might quite large, so I can see the details, but the pixel art image is very small - in this case only about 200 pixels tall. Using a single pixel pencil tool, set to a colour of 100% black, I make a quick sketch of the image.	Zooming in to the little area inside the red square, we can see just how rough my rough sketch is. This is going to take some work!

4) Cleaning up the rough

After much fixing and fussing, you can see the typical pixel art features emerging. The diagonal slope of the roof lines are (reading left to right) the typical two across, one down sequence. The vertical and horizontal lines are now perfectly straight. This can be the slowest part of the process. There are lots of challenges and tricky details to be worked out during this stage. Though out this process I am constantly zooming in to make changes and zooming out to see how the changes affect the image as a whole.