How to Draw in 8 Bit

Decide what to draw. Whether it be a person, robot, animal, whatever. Sketch the basic idea on a sheet of blank paper. It does not need to be very intricate or well drawn, just an idea of which direction to go with it so the later stages are not overly time consuming. This will become your template.

Draw the character one square at a time on a sheet of graph paper. This is one of the most time consuming stages. Make sure to include outlines of the character in black (find an existing image of an 8-bit character to see exactly what the characters look like).

Color the image (again square by square). Make sure that the colors are distinct. It is important to be able to tell the difference between colors to minimize frustration in the next steps.

Scan the image in your computer. Save the scanned image and open it with a graphics editing program. Using "Paint" to edit the image can be done, but a more advanced application such as Microsoft Digital Image Suite will make the editing easier.

Outline the objects and / or character. Draw simple lines with the chosen graphics editor to distinguish the different parts of the characters such as the ear, eye, feet, hands, etc. Outline anything that's going to be black in your image. This is a very time consuming process due to the fact that you have to outline every minute detail.

Delete the template (original drawing). After outlining the objects / character with black lines as stated in step 5, the original drawing can be deleted. Start coloring the objects / character.

Prevent body parts from meshing with other body parts, such as the hand with the face if you plan to do a jumping animation (see Mario). The only thing that can be done is drawing black outlines around the head. Again, look at original video games characters such as Mario or Megaman to receive inspiration.