Pixel Art Challenge Generator

Press New challenge for a canvas size, a small subject, a palette limit and one rule.

Pixel Art Challenge Generator: 30 challenges

On a 64 by 64 canvas, draw a cheese cube on a toothpick with a flag in candy colors. Rule: never outline in your darkest color.

Padlock: keep a part. Arrows: change only that part.

Canvas64 by 64
Subjecta cheese cube on a toothpick with a flag
Palette limitcandy colors
Rulenever outline in your darkest color

History (0)

Every challenge you make is kept here, newest first, up to the last 20. The list stays in this browser.

Challenge of the day

On a 64 by 64 canvas, draw a cheese cube on a toothpick with a flag in candy colors. Rule: never outline in your darkest color.
On an 11 by 11 canvas, draw a pinecone at the tip of a branch in colors named after food: mint, plum, butter and toast. Rule: shade with a checker pattern.
On a 14 by 14 canvas, draw a sunrise between two hills in two colors and one accent pixel. Rule: two frames that loop.
On an 11 by 11 canvas, draw a radish with a curled root in pale tints and a single dark. Rule: finish it, then remove pixels until it stops reading.
On a 16 by 8 canvas, draw a domino balanced upright in rust against sea green. Rule: outline only the side away from the light.
On a 32 by 32 canvas, draw a starfish with a nibbled arm tip in two colors. Rule: keep the subject out of the middle.
On a 12 by 20 canvas, draw a bulb with a zigzag filament showing in three browns and a cream. Rule: add a ground shadow exactly one row high.
On a 13 by 13 canvas, draw a yarn ball unrolling off a table edge in three colors with no black among them. Rule: outlines one pixel wide, with no doubled corners.
On a 10 by 10 canvas, draw a sunrise between two hills in seven colors and no green. Rule: no straight run longer than three pixels.
On a 14 by 14 canvas, draw a banana peeled halfway in a murky green and a pale one. Rule: stay zoomed in until the last pixel is placed.
On a 20 by 20 canvas, draw a crane lifting one block in one color and the bare canvas. Rule: draw it twice, large and then as small as it will go.
On a 20 by 20 canvas, draw twin cherries with a leaf on the stem in two colors and one accent pixel. Rule: start with the lightest color and work darker.
On a 9 by 9 canvas, draw a kitten face with one folded ear and a bell in two colors. Rule: finish it, then remove pixels until it stops reading.
On a 24 by 12 canvas, draw a traffic signal with only its middle light on in terracotta, cream and a near black. Rule: three frames of a flicker or a wobble.
On a 16 by 16 canvas, draw a tulip bending in the wind in eight colors and no black. Rule: leave half the canvas empty.
On a 24 by 12 canvas, draw an acorn rolling down a root in night colors, all dark but one. Rule: never outline in your darkest color.
On a 9 by 9 canvas, draw a park bench with a forgotten hat in rust against sea green. Rule: draw the smallest detail first and build outward from it.
On a 10 by 32 canvas, draw a toaster with one slice stuck sideways in terracotta, cream and a near black. Rule: the outline may be broken in exactly three places.
On a 16 by 8 canvas, draw a turret with a banner and one narrow window in white on white, with a single shadow tone. Rule: stay zoomed in until the last pixel is placed.
On an 18 by 18 canvas, draw a snail carrying a flag in eight colors and no black. Rule: one highlight pixel only.
On a 13 by 13 canvas, draw a candle in a holder with a finger loop in white on white, with a single shadow tone. Rule: place every pixel by hand, with no fill tool.
On a 64 by 64 canvas, draw a goldfish peeking out of a teacup in night colors, all dark but one. Rule: finish it, then remove pixels until it stops reading.
On an 8 by 20 canvas, draw a goose in the middle of a honk in the colors of a sunset, whatever the subject. Rule: add a ground shadow exactly one row high.
On a 24 by 24 canvas, draw a striped sock with a toe poking out in five purples. Rule: use your darkest color as little as you can.
On a 10 by 32 canvas, draw a lamp post with a hanging flower basket in two ramps of three that share their darkest color. Rule: make it tile, so the left edge meets the right.
On a 16 by 8 canvas, draw a bread loaf with three score marks in colors named after food: mint, plum, butter and toast. Rule: swap two colors at the end and keep the better version.
On a 16 by 16 canvas, draw a bulb with a zigzag filament showing in nine colors, each kept for one thing only. Rule: crop so the subject reaches every side of the canvas.
On a 16 by 16 canvas, draw a gust carrying three leaves in three colors with no black among them. Rule: two frames that loop.
On a 48 by 48 canvas, draw a teabag dunked in a glass cup in only colors you can see from where you sit. Rule: shade with a checker pattern.
On an 11 by 11 canvas, draw a cottage with a single glowing window in pale tints and a single dark. Rule: no outline.

Next step Draw on a paper grid instead

Canvas: all 20 canvas sizes

Squares 14

8 by 8 One shape and one highlight. An even width has no middle column, so centers are two pixels wide.
9 by 9 An odd width has one middle column, so a face can have a nose.
10 by 10 Enough for an object and a one-pixel shadow under it.

Show all 20 canvas sizes (17 more)

Squares, continued

11 by 11 A round shape starts to look round about here.
12 by 12 An object with two parts, such as a mug and its steam.
13 by 13 A face with eyes, a mouth and something on its head.
14 by 14 Two small things side by side, such as a cup and a spoon.
16 by 16 A common icon size: a browser-tab icon can be this small. Room for an outline, a fill and a highlight.
18 by 18 An object, its shadow and one small thing beside it.
20 by 20 A subject and a hint of the ground it stands on.
24 by 24 Room for a two-pixel curve, so circles and cheeks get smoother.
32 by 32 A small scene: a subject, a background shape and a shadow.
48 by 48 Enough for texture. Now a limit on colors matters more than the size.
64 by 64 A whole picture. Decide the big shapes before any detail.

Strips and rectangles 6

8 by 20 Taller than wide. Good for things that stand: a bottle, a tree, a person waving.
10 by 32 A tall column: a ladder, a beanstalk or a rocket with its trail.
12 by 20 A doorway shape, for a standing figure, or a view through a door.
16 by 8 Wider than tall. Good for things that lie down: a fish, a loaf, a bus.
24 by 12 A banner shape, with a subject on one side and empty space on the other.
32 by 8 A long strip: a row of small things, or one long thing such as a train.

How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next, October 2026. Sizes are counted in pixels, width first. The notes say what tends to fit at each size and are our own advice from drawing at these sizes, not a standard. That an icon on a browser tab can be 16 by 16 pixels follows the English Wikipedia article Favicon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon, read 2026-10-01). That a width with an odd number of pixels has one middle column is arithmetic. No size is called the smallest or the best for anything. Licence: own work

Subject: all 80 subjects

Food and drink 16

a banana peeled halfway Three flaps hang down like petals.
a bread loaf with three score marks Three short diagonals on a rounded top.
a cheese cube on a toothpick with a flag The holes are darker pixels on two faces of the cube.
a cookie with exactly five chips Count them. Spread them unevenly.

Show all 80 subjects (76 more)

Food and drink, continued

a noodle cup with a fork resting across it Wavy lines over the rim say noodles. One diagonal says fork.
a pizza slice with a single olive A triangle, a crust band and one dark ring.
a pretzel hanging on a hook Three holes make it a pretzel. Get those before the outline.
a radish with a curled root A round top, a paler tip and a tail of three pixels.
a sandwich cut corner to corner Two triangles. The filling is a stripe along each cut edge.
a sugar cube beside a teaspoon The cube is a square with one lighter face. The spoon is an oval and a line.
a taco leaning on a lime wedge A half circle with a ragged top edge of three colors.
a teabag dunked in a glass cup The string runs over the rim to a tag of two pixels.
a toaster with one slice stuck sideways Leave a gap of one pixel between the bread and the slot.
a waffle with syrup pooling in the squares Fill a few squares with a darker color and leave the rest.
an egg frying in a tiny skillet An uneven white and a round yolk, with a handle off to one side.
twin cherries with a leaf on the stem The stem is a V. One highlight pixel on each cherry.

Things indoors 16

a bath duck wearing a shower cap One big round shape, one small one, and a frilled dome on top.
a bulb with a zigzag filament showing The filament is the brightest thing. Keep the glass pale.
a calculator showing zero A grid of keys and one lit digit in the display.
a candle in a holder with a finger loop The flame is three pixels: light in the middle, darker round it.
a clothespin gripping a note Two bars pinched together with a small square below.
a domino balanced upright A tall rectangle, a center line and pips in each half.
a doorknob with a keyhole beneath it A circle over a keyhole made of a dot and a short line.
a flashlight throwing a cone of light A cylinder and a pale triangle that widens.
a light switch flipped on A plate, a toggle and one pixel of shadow under the toggle.
a mop standing in a bucket Strings as wavy lines spilling over the rim.
a padlock with its key sticking out The key sticks out below as a small T.
a reading lamp with a pull chain The chain is a dotted line ending in one bead.
a striped sock with a toe poking out The toe is one pixel of another color past the stripes.
a toothbrush leaning in a cup Bristles are a block of the lightest color at the top.
a yarn ball unrolling off a table edge The loose end drops in a straight line, then curls.
an upturned kitchen whisk Loops inside loops, sharing one handle.

Plants, sky and weather 16

a comet crossing a row of stars A bright head and a tail that fades by one step per pixel.
a curling wave with a gull above it A curl at the top with a few light pixels of foam.
a daisy missing two petals The gaps tell the story. Keep the center round.
a fern uncurling beside a stone A spiral that opens at the top. The stone is a few pixels of a duller color.
a gust carrying three leaves Curved dashes for the wind, with the leaves at different tilts.
a leaf boat with a twig mast A pointed oval on a waterline, and one upright stick.
a pinecone at the tip of a branch Rows of small V shapes, wide at the top.
a row of icicles along a gutter Thin triangles of different lengths. One has a drop below it.
a sapling tied to a stake A fine trunk, a thicker post and one tie between them.
a seedling pushing up a pebble A stem, two leaves and a gray lump balanced above.
a sunflower facing away from the viewer Petals round a green back, with no dark center.
a sunrise between two hills A half circle in the V where the slopes meet.
a thin moon hooked on a chimney The crescent is a circle with a bite out of it.
a toadstool with a door at the base A dome over a stalk. The door is two dark pixels.
a tulip bending in the wind Lean the stem and trail one petal behind.
an acorn rolling down a root A cross-hatched cap on a smooth nut, tilted.

Creatures 16

a bee asleep in a flower cup Stripes first, then two pale wings folded down.
a beetle with a patterned shell A split oval. Mirror the pattern on both wing cases.
a butterfly resting on a fingertip Draw one wing and mirror it. The finger is three pixels.
a caterpillar on a chewed leaf edge A row of circles. The leaf edge has round notches.
a duckling making ripples in a puddle A round head on a round body, and two arcs in the water.
a goldfish peeking out of a teacup A bright shape breaking the rim, with the handle on the other side.
a goose in the middle of a honk A long neck, an open beak and one loud line coming out.
a kitten face with one folded ear and a bell Two triangles on a round head. Lower one of them.
a ladybug taking off with its wing cases open The spotted halves lift to show a darker pair beneath.
a lizard basking on a warm brick A thin S with four splayed feet.
a mouse nibbling a seed From above it is a teardrop, two round ears and a curved tail.
a seahorse hugging a reed An S with a curled tail wrapped round a vertical line.
a side view of a parrot's head A hooked beak and one round eye in a ring of bare skin.
a snail carrying a flag A spiral shell on a soft wedge. The flagpole leans back.
a starfish with a nibbled arm tip Five arms from one center. One is a pixel short.
an owl winking from a tree hole Two large eyes fill half the head. Close one to a line.

Built things 16

a brick wall with a gap where a brick was Offset rows. The gap shows something behind.
a cottage with a single glowing window The window is the lightest pixel in the picture.
a crane lifting one block A tall L, a line down from its tip and a square on the end.
a drawbridge raised halfway Two slabs angled up to a gap in the middle.
a lamp post with a hanging flower basket A tall line with a glow of lighter pixels round its head.
a park bench with a forgotten hat Slats as three horizontal lines. The hat sits on one end.
a plank bridge with a missing board An arch of short lines with one gap that shows the water.
a pup tent with a lantern inside A triangle whose door glows warmer than its walls.
a roadside mailbox with its flag up The flag is a single bright pixel on a stick.
a sailboat with a patched sail A hull, a mast and one triangle. The patch is a square of another color.
a striped lighthouse throwing a wedge of light Bands on the tower and a triangle of pale pixels from the top.
a traffic signal with only its middle light on Three circles in a box. Only the middle one is bright.
a tram car with its pole on the wire A long box with a row of windows and one thin line up to the wire.
a turret with a banner and one narrow window Square teeth along the top and one pixel of flag.
a well with a bucket on a rope A ring of stones, a small roof and one vertical line.
a windmill with one torn sail Four blades as an X on a tapered tower. Shorten one.

How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next, October 2026. Each subject is a small, everyday thing with one detail that makes it readable on a small grid, named in its note. No subject names a color or a point of view, so any palette limit and any rule can be dealt with it. No game, console, brand or existing character is named or described. The notes are our own drawing advice. Licence: own work

Palette limit: all 40 palette limits

Two or three colors 12

a murky green and a pale one Two values of one hue. Decide which of them is the light.
dark blue and cream Softer than black and white, with the same rules.
one color and the bare canvas Whatever the editor shows behind your pixels counts as the second color.

Show all 40 palette limits (37 more)

Two or three colors, continued

pure black and pure white, nothing between Decide early which one is the background. The other draws.
rust against sea green A warm and a cool. Let one be the subject and the other the ground.
terracotta, cream and a near black A warm middle, a pale and a dark. Give the terracotta the smallest share.
three colors A dark, a middle and a light. Give each one a job.
three colors with no black among them The darkest of the three has to stand in for line.
two colors A picture in two colors is called 1-bit. Shape does all the work.
two colors and one accent pixel Save the single odd pixel for the place the eye should land.
two colors that are nearly the same A whisper of a picture. Step back from the screen to check it.
white on white, with a single shadow tone A white thing on a white ground. The shadow tone does all the drawing.

One color in steps 10

a ramp of four from butter yellow down to brick Yellow down to a deep red. No cool color to rest on.
five purples Night pictures. Keep the palest for one edge of light.
five steps from navy up to lemon A ramp that changes hue as it lightens. Shadows cool, lights warm.
four grays Dark, two middles, light. Plan where each band falls before you start.
four greens Leaves, frogs and bottles. Let the lightest green be nearly yellow.
four steps of one hue Shift each step a little warmer or cooler so the ramp does not look flat.
six steps of one color More steps than you need. See how few you really use.
three blues and one white Water and sky. The white is foam, a star or a window.
three browns and a cream Good for wood, bread, fur and old paper.
two ramps of three that share their darkest color The shared dark ties the two halves of the picture together.

A set number, with a catch 10

as few colors as you can manage, then one fewer Take one away and repair the picture.
eight colors and no black Find a dark that is still a color: deep blue, plum or brown.
eight colors and no white Your lightest color will be read as white. Choose it with care.
five colors that each touch all the others Check every pair. Somewhere in the picture the two must share an edge.
four colors named by the next person you see Nobody about? Take the first four pens your hand finds.
nine colors, each kept for one thing only The color of the bucket may not turn up again in the sky.
no more than sixteen colors A generous limit. Count how many you used at the end.
pale tints and a single dark Separate the shapes by hue and save the dark for one edge or one eye.
seven colors and no green Leaves, frogs and grass need another answer. Try yellow next to blue.
six colors, none of them pure Nothing straight from the corner of the color picker.

Colors borrowed from something 8

candy colors Bright and flat. Put the lightest next to the darkest for the edge.
colors named after food: mint, plum, butter and toast Four soft colors. Decide which one is the dark.
the colors of a sunset, whatever the subject Orange, pink, violet and one dark. Even for a frog.
the colors of an old map Faded blue, tan, brown ink and a little red.
night colors, all dark but one The one light color is your lamp. Everything else gathers round it.
one gray for each material in the picture Glass, metal and cloth each get their own gray and nothing else.
only colors you can see from where you sit Look up, pick five, and write them down before you start.
the three signal-light colors plus one dark The three signal colors have to become everything else.

How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next, October 2026. Each entry is a limit on colors that follows the word in. A picture in two colors is called 1-bit; that term follows the English Wikipedia article Pixel art (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_art, read 2026-10-01). The other notes are our own drawing advice. Licence: own work

Rule: all 40 rules

Line 10

never outline in your darkest color Keep the darkest color for fills and shadow. The line takes another.
no diagonal lines Everything becomes steps and blocks. Roofs and noses need a new idea.
no outline Shapes meet edge to edge. Each needs a different color or value from its neighbor.

Show all 40 rules (37 more)

Line, continued

no straight run longer than three pixels Everything bends. Good for animals, hard for buildings.
one closed outline and no lines inside it Inside details are shown by a change of color, not by a line.
the outline may be broken in exactly three places Put the gaps where the light hits.
outline only the side away from the light The light side has no line at all. The shape still closes in the eye.
outlines one pixel wide, with no doubled corners A corner made of an L of three pixels is doubled. Take out the middle one.
ruler-straight edges only, with no curve anywhere Round things become shapes with corners: a wheel turns into an octagon.
slanted lines only at the isometric slope, two across one up An isometric view is normally drawn at this ratio of one pixel to two. Nothing steeper, nothing flatter.

Light and shade 10

add a ground shadow exactly one row high Shift it a pixel or two toward the side away from the light.
dither only along the border between colors A band of checker where one color meets the next, two or three pixels wide.
hard steps everywhere, with no softening pixels Hard, crisp steps everywhere. The opposite of anti-aliasing.
keep all shadow to a single side, using the darkest color Decide where the light is before the first pixel. Every shadow falls the other way.
light from the top left, shown with one lighter color Every top and left edge gets it. Be strict.
light the subject from underneath The undersides are the lit parts and the tops fall into shadow.
one highlight pixel only Find the single spot where the light would glint.
shade with a checker pattern This is dithering: two colors in a checkerboard read as a third from a distance.
soften one curve by hand if the palette has a middle color This is anti-aliasing: in-between pixels placed by hand along a strong edge.
use your darkest color as little as you can Count its pixels at the end.

Layout 10

center the subject exactly, to the pixel On an even width the subject must be an even number of pixels wide, and on an odd width an odd number.
crop so the subject reaches every side of the canvas Crop in closer than feels polite.
draw it twice, large and then as small as it will go The small one shows which details mattered.
fit the subject inside a circle Mark the circle first and erase it at the end.
flip it left to right at the end and fix what looks off A flipped picture shows a lean you had stopped seeing.
keep the subject out of the middle Push it toward a corner and let the empty part balance it.
leave half the canvas empty Decide which half before the first pixel.
leave the four corner pixels empty The picture loses its box. Round things get easier and square things harder.
let the subject leave the frame on one side Half a cat is still a cat. Choose the half.
make it tile, so the left edge meets the right Set copies side by side to test it. No seam should show.

Process and motion 10

draw the smallest detail first and build outward from it The window, the eye or the flag goes down first. Everything else is sized to fit it.
finish it, then remove pixels until it stops reading Put the last one back. That is the picture.
no undo Fix a wrong pixel by drawing over it, as you would with a pen.
place every pixel by hand, with no fill tool Slower. You will notice each one.
start with the lightest color and work darker The opposite of drawing an outline first.
start with the silhouette in one color If the blob does not read, no detail will save it.
stay zoomed in until the last pixel is placed Look at the true size only once, at the end.
swap two colors at the end and keep the better version Save both and decide tomorrow.
three frames of a flicker or a wobble Draw the middle frame last, halfway between the other two.
two frames that loop Change as few pixels as you can between them: a blink, a bob, a flicker.

How this list was compiled: Original list of rules written for Draw This Next, October 2026. Three terms follow the English Wikipedia article Pixel art (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_art, read 2026-10-01): dithering (a repeating pattern such as a checkerboard that reads as a third color from a distance), anti-aliasing (softening a strong edge by placing pixels by hand) and the isometric view (normally drawn with a pixel ratio of 1 to 2, which the rule about slanted lines uses). Dithering was also read at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dither on the same day. The rest is our own drawing advice. Licence: own work

How it works

A pixel art challenge here is one sentence: a canvas size, a small subject, a limit on colors and a rule such as no outline. It deals a task, never a picture to copy.

Read the full guide

What each part decides

The canvas sets your room: at 8 by 8 there is space for one shape and one highlight, and at 32 by 32 for a small scene. The palette limit decides how shapes are told apart. The rule changes how you work, from no diagonal lines to two frames that loop.

A month of pixel art challenges

Print 30 challenges makes a numbered sheet, enough for one a day. The lists below say what fits at each canvas size and what each rule asks for.

Look at it at its real size often. That is how it will be seen.
On graph paper one square is one pixel: fill the squares, do not draw across them.

Questions and answers

What is a pixel art challenge?

A drawing task with its limits set before you start: how many pixels, how many colors, what to draw and one rule to keep. This page deals the four at random from fixed lists, and shows no finished picture.

Which canvas size should I start with?

16 by 16 is a common size for an icon and has room for an outline, a fill and a highlight. Smaller canvases leave fewer decisions and are harder to read. Every size has a note in the list below.

What do dithering and anti-aliasing mean?

Dithering is a repeating pattern, such as a checkerboard of two colors, that reads as a third color from a distance. Anti-aliasing softens a strong edge with pixels of an in-between color, placed by hand. Both turn up in the rules.

Do I need special software?

No. Any program that colors one pixel at a time will do, and so will squared paper and pens, one square for one pixel. For more to draw on a paper grid, see grid drawing ideas.