In this easy pixel tutorial you will learn how to create a pixel art African elephant! We will go over the different steps it takes to make your very own African elephant made out of pixels!
Are you ready to design your own pixel art African elephant? Learning how to draw a cute pixel art African elephant is more popular than ever! Whether you’re looking to create a simple pixel art African elephant sprite for your safari themed video game or maybe you just want to share a cute new pixel art African elephant as part of your animal collection on social media, this pixel art tutorial will help you make a pixel African elephant fast and easy.
How to Make a Pixel Art African Elephant
These are the basic steps for how to make a pixel art African elephant:
- Select a Pixel Art Software such as Adobe Photoshop or Mega Voxels
- Create a 32×32 pixel grid
- Sketch out an Outline for the shape of the African elephant
- Fill in the color of the pixel art African elephant
- Draw a Shade on the African elephant to create depth
- Fill in the Background with Color
Now that you are familiar with the basic steps on how to create a pixel art African elephant, we will cover each step visually so that you can follow along on how to create it.
If you are completely new to pixel art we recommend reading our post How to Create Pixel Art: Beginner’s Tutorial
Select a Pixel Art Software
In this beginner tutorial we will be showing you the steps to design your own pixel art African elephant regardless of what pixel editor software you prefer to use. Before we begin you will need to know how to create a grid and use the pencil tool in the software of your choice. Once you create your pixel art African elephant, you can use the pixel art in other games such as Minecraft or software such as Unity Game Engine. We offer tutorials on the following pixel art editor’s so feel free to pick the one that you feel most comfortable with:
Want to see what pixel art software is best for you? Read our post Top Free Pixel Art Software
Create a Grid
To begin we will be using a simple 32×32 pixel grid to draw a small pixel art African elephant. Making 32×32 pixel art is a common size when making pixel art, especially for projects like video games. Be sure that your canvas is set to the color White (#FFFFFF). This will be our canvas that we use to draw our pixel art African elephant on. Your African elephant pixel art grid should have a canvas, also known as a spreadsheet, that looks something similar to this:
Sketch an Outline for the African Elephant
Next we will start by making the outline for the African elephant so we can get the overall shape for our pixel African elephant. To do this choose the color Black (#000000) and activate the pencil tool in your editor. Since this determines the overall shape, feel free to adjust the outline to what match your game or art project. As a guide, you can use the outline we made below for your African elephant or like we mentioned before feel free to design your own.
Fill in the Color
Now that you made an outline for your pixel art African elephant, we will add some color to make it stand out. Fill in the main fur section of the African elephant a blue gray color (#87A5C3) and the ears a slightly darker version of that color (#6C8DAF). The tusks on the elephant will be an off white color (#EEEAE1). Try matching the picture of our 8 bit pixel art African elephant below.
Draw the Shading
So whenever you create pixel art there are essentially two parts to shading: the highlights and the shadows. We will start with the shadows. We will be applying a shadow to our 32×32 pixel art African elephant using a single color. This color will be applied to the bottom of the African elephant including its feet. Remember, to create a shadow color for the African elephant we will use a darker blue based on the color we used before (#6C8DAF). We also followed this process for the ears. Try to match where we put the shadows in the image below.
So now that you got the basic idea we will continue adding some depth to our African elephant to give it a 3D feel. Let’s create a highlight using the same blue from the main section of the African elephant, but instead of going darker this time we will go lighter (#A5BED7). Remember, this doesn’t have to be the exact color in fact this is an opportunity to make the African elephant look like your own. Use our image as a guide for your African elephant.
Great! When you are happy with your shadows and highlights on your African elephant, be sure to view your final image. To see your pixel art African elephant go ahead and turn off the grid lines to make sure you like the way the African elephant came out.
Fill the Background Color
Finally, let’s change the background color of our African elephant sprite to really make our African elephant stand out nicely. Select the Bucket fill tool in your editor. For the color enter a very Light Blue (#BCEAFE). Then simply click on the white area outside of the pixel African elephant.
Where to Go From Here
Congratulations! You now know how to create your very own pixel art African elephant. Try making a different safari animals such as a pixel art giraffe to create a fun safari scene.
Bonus: Make a 3D Pixel Art African Elephant
Now that you have drawn your own pixel art African elephant, you can turn it 3D with Mega Voxels. Mega Voxels contains a 3D Pixel Art Maker that allows you to convert traditional 2D pixels into 3D pixels. Simply download the free Mega Voxels app for iOS or Android.
Then import the pixel art you just made using the Add File button inside of the My Gallery page. And that’s it! Mega Voxels automatically transforms you pixel art African elephant into a 3D pixel art African elephant. You can now create 3D turntable videos of your 3D pixel art African elephant and even view your African elephant in Augmented Reality!
