

Now that we have the basic idea down, we can add all the little things to give your flat art the illusion of form. This is the best part of the whole process! It's where your art really starts to jump off the page. If you want someone else to do the thinking for you, Lospec is a great online database full of ready-made color palettes. The best palettes have varying hues that complement each other, different saturation values, and a mix of light and dark. Unless you already know how to use color theory properly, putting your own palette together can be tricky. Thankfully, technology has advanced since, and we're no longer limited to this rule. If a sprite was 16×16, that meant the artists had 16 colors to work with.

Back in the day, sprite size often dictated how many colors were on the palette as well. Normally, you want to limit yourself to a color palette.

It's time to grab your Bucket tool and fill in your sprite's line art with colors.
