Guides library
Pixel Art Guides
Browse every guide by learning purpose. New learners should follow the curriculum; returning artists can jump directly to a project or technique.
Foundations
Start with clear shapes and deliberate pixels
What is Pixel Art? A Complete Guide to the Retro Art Form
Learn everything about pixel art — its history, techniques, tools, and why it's making a huge comeback in gaming and digital culture.
How to Draw Pixel Art Food Icons: A Meat Chunk and a Drumstick, Step by Step
A beginner-friendly, fully interactive guide to drawing game-ready pixel food icons. Scrub through every stage of a meat slab and a chicken drumstick, and learn the one rule that keeps a tiny icon looking crisp: every colour you add must add a detail.
Color studies
Build compact, useful palettes
Pixel Art Color Philosophy: High-End Texture with the Fewest Colors
Why great pixel art forgets RGB and embraces HSB, builds cohesive color ramps, shifts hue in the shadows, and reuses a single color in many places. With live, interactive demos.
Build Better Pixel Art Palettes with HSB Curves
A practical pixel art palette lab: start with one base color, shape saturation and brightness curves, preview the ramp on sprites, and export the final colors.
Interactive projects
16×16 guided practice
How to Draw a 16×16 Pixel Art Steel Dagger, One Pixel at a Time
Rebuild a CC0 steel dagger on a 16×16 grid. Follow the exact blade, outline, shading, guard, and grip stages, inspect every drawing state, then watch OvO Pixel place each pixel automatically.
How to Draw a 16×16 Diagonal Steel Sword in Pixel Art
Recreate an exact CC0 diagonal sword with a narrow steel blade and a segmented ivory, gold, and dark-leather grip.
How to Draw a 16×16 Golden Quarterstaff in Pixel Art
Recreate an exact CC0 quarterstaff with two rigid outline rails, mirrored copper-and-amber end transitions, and a ten-pixel golden core.
How to Draw a 16×16 Curved Steel Saber in Pixel Art
Recreate an exact CC0 saber with a near-vertical hooked tip, bright inner cutting edge, dark steel back, broad amber-and-gold collar, and wrapped leather handle.
How to Draw a 16×16 Winged Steel Spear in Pixel Art
Recreate an exact CC0 spear with a faceted central steel point, separate upper and lower side lugs, a three-cell gold collar, and a long warm shaft.
How to Draw a 16×16 Tapered Steel Sword in Pixel Art
Recreate an exact CC0 sword with a widening diagonal blade, continuous pale bevel, blocky dark steel face, tiny warm guard, and copper grip.
Tool guide
How to Convert a Photo to Pixel Art (3 Easy Methods)
Photo conversion remains available as an optional reference workflow, separate from the main learn-and-practice curriculum.
Read the tool guide →