Part Two: Lines

Pixels are essentially little blocks of color. The first thing you need to learn is how to use these blocks effectively to make any kind of line that you want. We'll discuss the two most basic types of lines, straight and curved.

Straight Lines

I know what you're thinking - this seems too easy to even bother with! But with pixels, even straight lines can be problematic. What we want to avoid are "jaggies" - little breaks in the line that make the line look uneven. Jaggies crop up when one piece of the line is larger or smaller than the surrounding pieces.

Curved Lines

For curvature, make sure that the decline or incline is consistent all the way through. In this next example, the clean-looking curve goes 6 > 3 > 2 > 1, whereas the curve with the jaggy goes 3 > 1 < 3.

CONCLUSIONS

Being comfortable making any line in pixels is crucial to doing pixel art. Later on, we'll learn how to use anti-aliasing to make our lines look really smooth.