There is no difficulty in pixel painting itself. It is the simplest and easiest to produce artistic effects besides vector stick figures.
However, it is difficult to describe the details, it is difficult to express the three-dimensional effect, and the picture is easy to be monotonous, which has become a common difficulty in the process of pixel painting.
This article may not guarantee that everyone can master and use pixel art proficiently, but at least it can inspire others and use my personal experience to help everyone draw pixel art.
Take a look at the two sets of pixel paintings about "trees" on the cover. Obviously, the one on the left of each set looks more three-dimensional and rich. This is naturally due to the shadows, highlights and gradients. However, for most people, gradients are prone to "overdoing it", which can produce very strange effects.
This high-contrast painting style also has its own characteristics, but for a natural transition, you can use the following technique, which I named "84 Gradient Method":
1. Choose a color that is dark enough (closer to the theme color)
It should be noted that for colors with high saturation, increasing the saturation and reducing the brightness have the effect of "deepening" the color. Among them, the saturation effect is more obvious for tan. At the same time, shifting green and purple to blue, and orange and yellow to red can also "deepen" the color.
color comparison chart
There's nothing wrong with pushing too hard here
2. Enter "80", "a0" or "c0" after the hexadecimal code of the color (the color deepens from left to right)
This is a hidden setting - transparency. Normally it can only be used in vector graphics mode, but in fact it is only hidden in bitmap mode, and can still be used through color codes.
Pay attention to the position of a0 in the figure
It should be noted that after the transparency is turned on, do not drag and draw when using the brush tool, and please adjust the stroke thickness to a smaller value such as 1, 2, 3, etc., and use the method of clicking each pixel only once, otherwise it will Causes the darker color to continually stack up.
3. Paint the shaded part with this color (usually the lower left or right corner of the subject, or one side for the trunk)
The effect after this step is completed
4. Select the finished shadow color and add "80" after the color code
After this step is complete, please do not use the color picker or the slider above to adjust the color until the painting is complete.
Note that the selected shadow color is just drawn
5. Paint the transition area with a new color (slightly thicker or consistent in thickness than the shadow)
The transition zone does not have to be too thick
6. Replace "80" in the color code with "40" and draw a layer of transition area
The dark area is almost complete
Next, use a similar method to draw the highlight part.