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Pixel Art Generator
This free pixel art generator is a tiny drawing studio in your browser. Pick a grid size, choose a color, and paint square by square on the canvas — no account, no install, and nothing to download except your finished picture. It comes with a color palette and a custom color picker, an eraser and a fill tool, mirror mode for perfectly symmetrical sprites, undo, two starter sprites to learn from, and a one-click PNG download.
Click or drag on the canvas to paint. On a touch screen, drag your finger across the grid.
How it works
Pixel art works like a mosaic: the picture is a grid of squares, and each square is a single pixel with one color. This tool gives you a canvas divided into that grid. Choose 8 × 8 for tiny icons and simple shapes, 16 × 16 for game sprites like a character or a heart, or 32 × 32 when you want finer detail, such as shading or a small face. The grid size decides how many squares you have to work with — 64, 256, or 1,024 pixels — and the canvas redraws every time you change it, so start small and go bigger only when the picture needs it.
Painting is simple: pick a color from the palette or the custom color picker, then click or drag on the canvas. The Brush paints the selected color, the Eraser clears a square back to white, and the Fill tool floods a connected area of the same color with the new color — the fastest way to color a background or a big shape. Mirror mode paints the matching square on the opposite side of the canvas at the same time, so the left and right halves stay symmetrical. It is the quickest way to draw hearts, stars, faces, and characters, because you only draw one half. Every painting stroke is saved, so Undo steps back through your last 50 strokes, and Clear wipes the whole canvas back to white.
If you are not sure where to start, press Load Heart Sprite or Load Star Sprite. Each loads a ready-made 16 × 16 picture onto the canvas, which you can study, recolor, or change square by square. The heart uses 52 red pixels on a 16 × 16 grid, and the star uses 43 yellow pixels — counting the pixels in a finished sprite is a good way to learn how little detail a readable picture needs. When the picture is done, press Download PNG. The tool draws your grid onto a fresh image, scaling each cell up (16, 32, or 64 pixels per cell, your choice), with smoothing turned off so the squares stay crisp. The file is a standard PNG you can use as a game sprite, an avatar, or an icon anywhere.
Worked example
A beginner wants a red heart icon for a game, and wants to learn the tool by loading the starter sprite first.
Step 1: Leave the grid on 16 × 16 and press Load Heart Sprite.
Step 2: Look at the canvas — a red heart appears, made of 52 painted pixels.
Step 3: Pick a new color, turn on Mirror mode, and paint two extra pixels on the top edge to round the heart out.
Step 4: Leave the export size on 32 px per cell and press Download PNG.
The download is a 512 × 512 PNG file (16 cells × 32 pixels per cell), with the heart drawn in crisp squares and a transparent-free white background. The status line reads "Painted pixels: 54" — the 52 heart pixels plus the 2 new ones — which confirms the extra paint went exactly where it was meant to.
FAQ
What is pixel art?
Pixel art is a style of digital art where pictures are made from individual square pixels on a grid, like tiles in a mosaic. It comes from early video games, where tiny grids were all the hardware could show. Today it is used for game sprites, icons, avatars, and retro-style illustrations.
What grid size should I choose?
Start with 16 by 16 for a first sprite: it is big enough for a face, a heart, or a small character, and small enough to finish quickly. Use 8 by 8 for tiny icons and simple shapes, and 32 by 32 when you want more detail, such as shading or a full character with arms and legs.
How do I download my pixel art as a PNG?
Press the Download PNG button. The tool draws your grid onto a clean image, scaling each grid cell up so the picture stays crisp, and saves it as a PNG file. The download is a standard PNG image you can use anywhere, and it keeps its sharp square pixels because no smoothing is applied.
What does mirror mode do?
Mirror mode paints the same pixel on the opposite side of the grid at the same time, so the left and right halves of your picture stay symmetrical. It is the fastest way to draw faces, hearts, stars, and characters, because you only have to draw one half and the other half draws itself.
Can I undo a mistake?
Yes. The Undo button steps back through your recent painting strokes, one stroke at a time, up to 50 steps. The Fill tool, Clear, and loading a starter sprite can also be undone, so you can experiment freely and always step back to the version you liked.