finally got round to making pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linework

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linework is the frame for the signature, without it there would just be a mass of coloured jelly and unless you like jelly you don't want that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When drawing lines of any kind you must use only the 1px penicl or brush otherwise it cannot be counted as a pixel signature. Dithering of lines also has to be done manually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the lines to look neat and tidy they need to be only one pixel thick, if they are more then the lines look uneven and will most likely decrease the value of the signature. Example below (which do you think looks best)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shading

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second part of making a signature is colouring it. solid colours look plain and bored so I'll show you how to add a 3d effect to your work. To get a gradient you need to pick darker colours after each other in quick succession this makes it seem that it is smooth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first one of both pictures shows what you should not do. The second shows a gradient and the third shows a dithered (see next section) gradient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dithering

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To add a certain touch to your pixels you can create even smoother transitions and add texture just using a crosshatch method. When doing the crosshatch think of binary (on or off). This is the equivalent of 010101 or on,off,on,off. A second stage of dithering can also be added to make it even more presise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By using dithering you can create five different shades and add texture using only two colours. This is my favourite and many others favourite method for a good pixel (it also adds considerable value)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General other stuff

 

 

 

You may want to try out some of the above things to see what they are like. Pixeling takes a long time but can be rewarding. By making sure you use dithering you add value to your pixels and as long as you get the shading right it's hard to go wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most important tips for pixeling is to keep on going and continue practicing, also use a reference picture (grab one off google) it's not against the rules. You could be the next misterxman or terley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few statistics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Average time I take for a pixel - 3 hours - 8 hours of work

 

 

 

Average money i've made - 350k awaiting 200k and going to get 700k-1million.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A hint is not to post your first piece unles it's really good - Doing so can cause you to get flamed and don't use buddies on these forums (everybody hates them)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Hope this cleared up just about every problem you have and is much clearer than the previous one

 

 

 

~ Lemonfish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.s remember borders, text and waterwarks too.

pretty cooll but this the basics try to make something about how the light source afects the shadows and the shading and try to do like a sun,moon,anything like that tutorial or pixel people

Ye I may change that when I have the time. The tutorials more on the basics though, I had someone ask me through pm so I copied and pasted what I said to him.

Very nicely put together lemonfish, good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~Alduron

Thanks. Not a good as I've seen and the examples aren't very good but I thought I may as well post it

It's okay, but it doesn't really cover many topics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When drawing lines of any kind you must use only the 1px penicl or brush otherwise it cannot be counted as a pixel signature. Dithering of lines also has to be done manually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's "dithering of lines"? Also, I'm pretty sure that most pixelists use the line tool...

I know many use the line tool but pixels are called pixels because they are drawn pixel by pixel. By dithering of lines I mean neatening them by putting darker shades next to them

You should rename this to "Shading Tutorial" as i dont see much about sigs. If you taught (spelling?) how to draw people doing certain actions etc, then it would be pixel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i like making small problems known, sorry. Good tutorial, i learned some things about dithering/shading techniques.