The key to a successful pixel painting is good planning. You’re going to need: a printer, a pencil, a pen, some little jars with lids, tiny brushes (Round, size 000 or 3/0), Photoshop and possibly a copy machine. And paints! I like Golden fluid acrylics, the consistency is excellent for this type of precision painting. You can use regular, heavy body acrylics, just thin them with water.
1. Choose your sprites…wisely
You can do any size sprite, just keep in mind that a larger, more complex sprite will require a larger canvas and more shades of paint. For starting out I’d say 8-bit is the way to go, you don’t want to burn out trying to complete a larger piece. For this How-To I’m gonna be painting the Green Dragon monster from Dragon Warrior III.
2. Figure out the canvas size
Through trial and error I found out I like the pixels themselves to be about .175″ to .25″. Next, I take my chosen sprite and start making calculations. Photoshop tells me the dragon is 61 x 43 pixels – converted to inches, the dragon is about 7.568″ x 10.736″. Using that as a guide, I decide to go with an standard 8″ x 10″, 1.5″ deep canvas. I crop the image to 10″ long (the dragon won’t take up the entire canvas, there’ll be some space at the top and bottom), print it out in black and white, then trim off the excess paper.
3. Transfer the image to the canvas
I don’t use carbon paper because I find it a little messy. It leaves prints where you’ve pressed too hard with you fingers, and the extra dust tends to mix with pale colors and make them look dirty. Once you’ve got your printout, flip the sheet of paper over and pencil over the outlines of the pixels. If the paper is thin enough you should be able to see through it enough. If not, use a lightbox or a sunny window.
Once the back of the sheet is completely pencilled, flip it over and position the paper on the canvas, then secure it on all four sides with scotch tape. Now, begin following the outline of the pixels with a mechanical pencil (with the lead retracted, you can also use a ballpoint pen or whatever’s handy). Push kinda hard so the pencil is transferred to the canvas underneath, and pull up a small area from time to time to make sure everything is looking good.
When this is all done, remove the paper (but don’t throw it out) and tape and you’re ready for painting!
4. Paint by number – sort of
Now you’re left with a canvas covered in tiny squares. I usually start with black paint, using my black and white printout as a guide. I tend to use a round 3/0 (also known as a 000) white nylon brush. I start by kind of outlining each little square, then filling it in. I rotate the canvas constantly so my hand is always in a good position.
I don’t worry too much about making mistakes at this point, because the edges will change as all the other colors get filled in. The finished painting will have about 2-5 layers of paint (depending on the opacity of each color), with numerous small touchups throughout.
I changed the colors on the dragon about three times…I mixed a color, started to fill it in, then decided I didn’t like it. I would find that even though a color looked good by itself, as soon as I painted it next to another color it didn’t look right. I just had to keep mixing and experimenting until all the colors ‘clicked’. Once I have all the colors filled in and solid and even, I start doing the touchups. I start again with the black paint, going over each pixel and making sure they were perfectly square. After the black paint, I went through each remaining color and straightened all the lines.
5. Finishing
I usually put the hanging hardware on before I varnish, as the painting can get handled a little roughly, especially if there’s problems with the screw or if you have to hammer something in. I use Liquitex Gloss Varnish, applied in several thin-to-medium coats, with plenty of drying time in between each coat. I think the varnish also makes the colors look brighter, and it seems to hide imperfections too.
