#into a 32x32 grid of 8-color pixels

[mrmcwigglyman]

[wakeyracescharisma]

Introduction To Photoshop

My first thought with photoshop was that it was confusing. Even though it is confusing it has many useful tools, commands and shortcuts that help with big projects. For people that are new to digital arts and programming it is not the best program to start with because of how many tools photoshop gives. Personally it was difficult getting use to controls and learning different tools because I use a different art program called Firealpaca. If I had to choose between firealpaca and Photoshop I would choose Firealpaca for comfort, but for big projects most likely photoshop.

We tried drawing are characters in various pixel canvas sizes.

8x8 16x16 32x32 

Setting up a document

- Create a canvas with the resolution of your own choice (8x8, 16x16 and so on but has to be the power of 2)

- Resolution: 72

- Pixels/inch

- Color Mode: RGB color

- 8 bit

- Square Pixels

- Make the background a darker than white, for example a grey/ish blue. This helps to see the pixels grids more easily and not to strain your eyes. if you are working in a dark room. 

- Open “view” and press the gridlines button. This should divide the canvas into 1x1 pixels, so creating symmetrical art will be so much easier

Pencil Tool

Since we are working on pixel work this will be the best tool to use for pixel work. 

Eraser

It is pretty much does what it’s name does. We set this as a pencil Eraser to make sure it is similar to the pencil tool.

You can find both of these tools on the left side. The short cut is B and E, however you have to right click to change it to a pencil brush and eraser.

Undo is ctrl + z and redo is ctrl + y however on mac it is ctrl + cmd + z

Layers

These are very important for many art programs, including photoshop. Layers keep everything organised and can help to fix mistakes or helps with animation.