Pixel-Shading Techniques

Goal: Make a complete doll using various pixel-shading techniques.

You should already know: The very basics of your graphic program of choice. I am using MSPaint (yes, it is that simple), but you can do this in whatever program you like. (Make sure you are using 1 pixel brushes.)

Get Started

Pick a small base to get started on. For the purposes of this tutorial, it should be pixel-shaded. You can use one of mine, if you like.

Method 1: Follow the Base

As you work on pixel-shading, remember that it's always a good idea to zoom in to where you can work and then zoom back out to real scale frequently, to make sure it looks okay. If it doesn't quite work, tweak it.

1. Pick a palette and use the darkest color to draw the basic outline of a shirt. Go ahead and outline the bust line as well. 2. Following the shading of the base, fill in the next darkest color with the second color from the palette. 3-5. Fill in the rest of the shading in the same way. 6.Along the edges at the top, where the edges are too abrupt, soften them with lighter shades. 7. Also soften the bottom. At this point, it's a good idea to replace the bust line with the next-darkest shade.

Note that I don't follow the shading for the belly-button! That would not make any sense. Real clothing doesn't do that!

Folds

Real clothing tends not to lie perfectly smoothly. There will be little wrinkles and folds. Fortunately, these are quite easy to pixel-shade!

1. Add a one-pixel-wide strip in the darkest shading color. 2. Add a highlight directly above your fold. 3. Adjust the colors so that each shadow is generally one shade darker than the background color and each highlight is generally one shade lighter. 4. Add a few more folds. You can always look at yourself in the mirror to figure out where the tend to go!

On such a small scale, all you really need is to give the suggestion of folds. Zoom in and out often!

Method 2: Freehand

A simple, pleated skirt is very easy to pixel-shade by hand! Start by drawing the basic outline. It should be one pixel wide at all points (more or less). There are no straight lines here.

1. Fill in with your second-darkest color. 2. Take your next shading color and fill in so that only the deepest parts of the pleats remain dark. Follow the outline - areas that bulge outward should be lighter. 3-4. Continue with another couple of shades. 5. Replace the dark outline along the bottom with appropriate lighter shades.6. To give the impression of a white skirt, it makes more sense to shade with colors you can see

6. To give the impression of a white skirt, it makes more sense to shade with colors you can see (palette 1). Once you reach this stage, you can simply replace them with lighter colors (palette 2). If you know how to use to the color replacer in MSPaint, this will be much easer. (Xandorra has a tutorial.) 7. You can add a few little wrinkles if you like.

Shoes

This is just to give you an idea, as I am not really very good at shoes! You can follow the base for some of the shading. Remember that the sole of the shoe is probably not going to be exactly on top of the foot, but rather slightly below it.

Transparency

To make hose or anything else that is supposed to be partially transparent, you simply need to choose a color that is somewhere between the color you want (say, white hose for a dancer) and the color underneath (often skin color).

Since these are meant to appear white, a slightly muddy grey works just fine. You can always experiment with this!

Pixel Faces

There are many different ways of doing these. Here is what I have been doing more recently.

1. The mouth is easy! Using a soft pink color (or whatever color of lipstick you want), the lower lip should be slightly darker. I like to add a little highlight toward the center of the upper lip, and if I want to add a little "smirk", that's in the lighter color, too. Note that the mouth starts two pixels above the chin. 2. Draw the bottom of the nose just above the mouth, in the same color as the base outline. Use a darker color for a three-pixel-high shadow on one side.

3. Here is one way to do small eyes. Make sure they are both looking in the same direction! Don't forget the shading around the edges and don't be afraid to make the eyelash color a little lighter than pure black for a less glaring look. 4. Add some more shading around the rest of the eyes. Here, I also add a little bit of extra highlight to her cheeks and the very tip of her nose, to make her look a bit less flat. 5. Eyebrows soften the face and give her a more pleasant expression. You can change the color later to match the hair. 6. Ears are not optional! They should be about level with the eyes.

Hair

I decided she should have her hair up for dancing, so this is pretty easy. You can use the same techniques for any style, of course! Note that I am skipping around, using different colors from my hair palette, to show you how it is often necessary to play with palettes you obtain from someone else to suit your own purposes.
	1. Draw the basic outline of your hair style in the darkest color (1). It should be one pixel wide, generally. Remember that most people do have foreheads! The hairline should probably be higher than you think it should be, and it should come down at the corners to end up about level with the ears. 2. Fill in with some extra lines. I like to have a strand of hair following the front part. Try not to leave any spaces bigger than about two pixels wide. 3. I skipped to color #4 to fill in the spaces. You want the contrast to be visible. (Hair generally needs higher contrast than clothes.)
4. I went back a shade (3) to add some shadows under her arms and along the curve of the back of her head. (This is optional, but it adds more depth.) 5. Add some highlights (color 5). Higher contrast will result in shinier hair. Go easy on the highlights - a little goes a long way. 6. This is the difference between decent-but-boring and really nice hair. Add some extra little pixels to indicate little bits that got away.

Finishing Touches

I decided that that was a bad color combination, so I changed the shirt to a softer pink. (That bright red was just so you could see what I was doing, anyway.) I also decided that red-blonde wasn't really working, so I made her brunette. The great thing about pixel-shading is that with the color replacer in MSPaint, it's really very easy to play with the colors like this. I added some silver jewelry—note that for metallics, high contrast is a good thing. For a touch of rosy cheeks, I added a very subtle pink. If you add blush, remember to follow the shading of the base, and don't make it too glaring of a difference!

Remember, if it doesn't look quite right, you can always try to make it better! Pixel-shading is a very nitpicky process (a blessing and a curse if you're a perfectionist). You will get better at spotting what is wrong with practice, and by examining (but never copying!) the work of other dollers.