How to Draw a 16×16 Faceted Steel Rapier in Pixel Art
This rapier uses a broad diagonal blade as a tiny lighting study. Instead of a single bright stripe, its interior alternates pale steel, muted blue-grey, shadow steel, and a charcoal ridge. Two small hooked guard curls then balance the heavy blade without filling the whole lower-right corner.
The finished CC0 sprite has 70 visible pixels and 12 visible colours.
We will build it in four stages: flat blade, reflective facets, hooked guard,
and grip. Coordinates use (x, y) from the top-left corner.
Inspect the four construction stages
The first history frame deliberately uses one flat steel value. The next frame recolours that block into the final planes, making it easy to see which pixels create the reflective surface.
Step 1: block the complete blade
Start the cap one cell away from the canvas edge: put black at (1,1), (2,1),
and (3,1). The blade then becomes a diagonal strip that grows from four cells
wide to five:
- Row 2 runs from x1 to x4, with black edges and steel at x2–3.
- Row 3 runs from x1 to x5, with black edges and steel at x2–4.
- Rows 4–8 repeat the five-cell structure while moving one cell down-right per row.
- Row 9 uses black at x7 and steel at x8–10.
- Row 10 ends the blade with black at x8 and steel at x9.
Fill every interior cell with base steel #A5C9C9 for now. The goal is to make
the silhouette and thickness correct before solving reflections.
Step 2: carve reflective steel planes
Recolour the interior without changing the outline. The blade uses six steel values plus its black border:
| Colour | Hex | Best placement |
|---|---|---|
| steel base | #A5C9C9 | quiet planes near the point and lower edge |
| steel light | #CEECEC | broad lit sections |
| steel shine | #F4FEFE | the brightest zigzag through rows 4–6 |
| steel shadow | #83A3A3 | opposite the shine |
| blue steel | #608888 | the cool inner ridge |
| charcoal steel | #2F4049 | two deepest centre cells |
| deep steel | #476367 | the final cells beside the guard |
The highlight path is (4,3), (3,4), (5,4), (4,5), (6,5), (5,6),
and (7,6). It zigzags across the blade rather than tracing an edge. That
pattern suggests multiple angled planes catching the light.
Place charcoal at (8,8) and (9,9), then deep steel at (10,9) and (9,10).
Those darkest cells form a compact joint where the blade enters the hilt.
Step 3: add two hooked guard curls
The upper curl begins with black at (12,7) and (13,7). Under it, place amber
at (12,8), bordered by black at (11,8) and (13,8). Continue down-left with
amber at (11,9) and gold at (10,10).
The lower curl starts separately at (8,11) in black, then uses amber at (9,11) and (8,12). Close it with black at (10,11), (7,12), (9,12), (7,13), and (8,13).
Between the curls, place dark leather at (11,11), copper at (12,12), and
their black separators. The intentional transparent gap prevents the two hooks
from becoming one thick blob.
Step 4: close the short grip
Finish the hilt with black at (12,13), leather at (13,13), black at (14,13), then a two-pixel black cap at (13,14) and (14,14). This grip is
short on purpose: the blade facets are the subject, and a larger pommel would
compete with them.
Exact row blueprint
| Row | Final non-transparent pixels |
|---|---|
| 0 | transparent |
| 1 | x1–3 outline |
| 2 | x1 outline, x2–3 base steel, x4 outline |
| 3 | x1 outline, x2 base steel, x3 blue steel, x4 light steel, x5 outline |
| 4 | x2 outline, x3 light steel, x4 blue steel, x5 shine, x6 outline |
| 5 | x3 outline, x4 shine, x5 shadow steel, x6 shine, x7 outline |
| 6 | x4 outline, x5 shine, x6 shadow steel, x7 light steel, x8 outline |
| 7 | x5 outline, x6 light steel, x7 blue steel, x8 base steel, x9 outline; x12–13 outline |
| 8 | x6 outline, x7 base steel, x8 charcoal, x9 shadow steel, x10–11 outline, x12 amber, x13 outline |
| 9 | x7 outline, x8 shadow steel, x9 charcoal, x10 deep steel, x11 amber, x12 outline |
| 10 | x8 outline, x9 deep steel, x10 gold, x11 outline |
| 11 | x8 outline, x9 amber, x10 outline, x11 leather, x12 outline |
| 12 | x7 outline, x8 amber, x9 outline, x11 outline, x12 copper, x13 outline |
| 13 | x7–8 outline, x12 outline, x13 leather, x14 outline |
| 14 | x13–14 outline |
| 15 | transparent |
Watch the facets replace the flat blade
The automatic component first paints the uniform blade block, then changes the interior one pixel at a time. That makes the lighting logic visible instead of only showing the finished result.
Automatic drawing
Start with an empty 16×16 canvas
Draw the rapier yourself
The exercise includes all 12 colours from the reference. Work silhouette-first, then use the picker and Diff view to correct the facets without redrawing the black border.
Draw the faceted rapier yourself
Rebuild all 70 visible pixels and use Diff view to inspect each blade plane.
Principles to carry into other icons
- Block form before lighting. A correct flat blade is easier to shade than an incorrect detailed blade.
- Run highlights across planes, not around edges. The zigzag makes the metal look faceted.
- Concentrate the darkest values at the joint. Contact shadows attach the blade to the hilt.
- Use transparent gaps inside ornament. Empty cells can separate two guard curls more clearly than another outline colour.
- Keep secondary shapes subordinate. The compact grip lets the steel blade remain the focal point.
The source sprite is by Shade and is released under CC0 on OpenGameArt. The final history frame reproduces the source PNG exactly.