One of the most common questions that new pixel artists asks is how to draw a circle. Even I wondered this when I first began, so this will be the first tutorial! The circle is actually very easy, but can be hard to figure out without some sort of guide your first time through. Anyway, let’s begin!
Circle When you think of a circle, you don’t often think of edges (since theoretically a circle has no edges) but in pixel art edges are everything when trying to convince the viewer that it is indeed a perfect circle. The first thing we have to do when drawing a circle is to start with a base that we will soon build onto. This base decides how big the entire circle will be. The base is a flat line. I used an eight pixel long base for my circle.
Once the base is made, we want to than branch out from the base with more pixels. From this flat line I placed two, two pixel wide lines and then followed up with four single pixels in a vertical motion. While we are essentially creating a vertical line, when we look at the circle from afar we will find a nice round edge. When you create an edge for a circle, you want to always end with what you started. For example, if you look at the diagram above the curve goes two pixels, one pixel, one pixel, one pixel, one pixel and two pixel. Note how we started with two pixels and then finished with two pixels? That’s vital to creating a circle.
Once your first curve is completed, you’ll need to re-add the base line again to the sides. This will continue the symmetry that we’re looking for and will continue the nice curve we have going. Finally, recreate the curves again to get to the very top of the circle and complete the circle with another base line. Now your circle is completed and should look fantastic at 100%!
Pixel Art Tutorials! 