Pixel art templates
Ready drawn sprites on a counted grid: swords, castles, a hot air balloon, a lighthouse and more, to colour in, stitch, bead or copy into an editor.
What can I do with a pixel art template?
Colour it in on paper, copy it square for square into a pixel editor, work it in fuse beads on a pegboard, or stitch it on aida. The chart is the same object in all four cases: one square, one colour, with a key naming every colour used.
How to read one of these charts
- One square is one full cross stitch, one bead or one pixel. The symbol in the square tells you which colour goes there.
- The heavy lines every ten squares are counting lines. Count in tens and a miscount shows up in the same row it happened.
- The small marks on the top and left edges mark the centre of the design, which is where most people start.
- The key under the chart lists every symbol with its colour, our thread code and how many squares of it the design uses.
One design, four ways to finish it
Each template on this page is a small counted design with its own symbol chart and colour key. Print it and colour the squares in, copy it into a pixel editor at the same size, lay it out in 5mm fuse beads, or stitch it on 14 count aida at the finished size printed on the card. Nothing changes between those four except what fills the square.
The subjects are adventure and scenery: a sword, a shield, a potion bottle, a treasure chest, a castle, a crown, a key, a gemstone, a campfire, a tent, a mountain, a hot air balloon, a lighthouse and a windmill. They are drawn with a dark outline, because an outline is what makes a small sprite readable at a distance, on paper and on a pegboard alike.
Drawing your own beside them
If you want to design your own in the same style, the printable pixel art grids page has blank numbered grids in every useful size, and the perler bead patterns page has more designs in the same square format, sized for a standard pegboard. To chart a picture you already have, use the Pattern Maker.
Originals only
Every sprite here is drawn from scratch. There are no game characters, no franchise mascots and nothing traced from another artist's work, because a pixel pattern made from somebody else's picture is a derivative work of it. The license page explains what you may do with these designs, including selling the physical pieces you make.
How to use these pixel grids
- Print the grid or the template at 100 per cent. The guide lines every ten squares keep long rows countable.
- Fill the squares with pencil, pen or paint, or copy the grid straight into a pixel editor at the same size.
- A finished grid works as a cross stitch chart or a bead pattern without changing a square, so a sketch here becomes a project.