How to Make Pixel Art — Grid Size, Color Palette and PNG Export

Pixel art uses deliberately placed cells rather than a blurred small photograph. Start by deciding what must remain recognizable: a character pose, an object outline or a simple icon. A small grid forces you to choose those features. A larger grid offers more positions but also creates more edges and color decisions to review.

For the apple exercise, keep a visible margin around the silhouette so a leaf is not mistaken for a clipped edge. Compare the drawing at its original resolution as well as at enlarged scale. If it is unclear at native size, extra zoom is hiding the problem rather than solving it.

Draw or convert the broad shape first, using one solid foreground against a contrasting background. Check the stem, main body and leaf as separate shape decisions. Remove isolated cells that look accidental; a single cell can be useful for a highlight, but it should have a specific job.

When using a photo, crop to one subject before conversion. Compare several output widths while keeping the background treatment consistent. Classical conversion can preserve edges and simplify texture; it does not understand which small facial feature you consider essential, and it is not a promise of hand-drawn pixel-art styling.

Assign a role to each color: outline, main fill, shadow or accent. Merge nearly identical colors when their difference is not visible at the intended viewing size. Inspect groups of neighboring cells rather than judging the palette only from a row of swatches; a good red does not fix a broken silhouette.

Keep transparency as an explicit decision. Removing a background changes which cells are empty, while replacing it with white creates visible cells. Check a checkerboard and a solid preview before exporting an asset that must sit on different page backgrounds. Do not assume that a white-looking area is transparent.

Preserve a native-size PNG for editing or game use. If a larger presentation image is needed, enlarge by an integer factor with nearest-neighbor sampling so each original cell becomes a uniform block. Smoothing can add colors and blurred edges that were not part of the drawing.

Reopen the exported file and inspect its dimensions, transparency and edge pixels. Keep the source project separately from flattened output. Aseprite distinguishes saving an editable project from exporting images; the same distinction helps here, even though PixelMaster and Aseprite offer different editing and animation features.