How to make pixel art in Adobe Illustrator

Who would’ve thought 30 years ago that we'd be trying to create pixel art in Adobe Illustrator today? Back in the day, we longed for the highest resolution displays so that pixelation would ultimately disappear from our lives. But as Gen-X and Millennials start to reminisce on the "good old days" of Mario, Sonic, and Pokemon, the pixelated art has never been more popular and has become a popular and deliberate artistic choice for indie games, digital art, and yes, stickers.

Creating authentic-looking pixel art can be challenging. While well-known pixel artists such as Eboy started out with Photoshop, Illustrator is still the preferred software when it comes to print projects. Because you know, vectors and stuff.

You’ve probably been down the road of stacking squares one by one, but that turns into a daunting task that can take hours to complete, especially with bigger illustrations that use more pixels.

AI is another option, but as you work with AI-generated art you'll find that AI has its own artistic "style". As the world gets littered with more and more of this style, the demand for authentic, human-created art will grow more, not less. You'll want to make sure as an artist you're well-versed in proper techniques and making your own adjustments so that your "humanity" will come through.

Let’s speed things up so you’ll be ready in minutes.

How to create quick pixel art in Adobe Illustrator

Step 1 - Select your object

Select the object you want to convert to pixel art. This can be an illustration, a photograph, or anything else. If it’s a vector illustration you’ve already created, make sure to create a screenshot or export it as a JPG/PNG first as this method only works on bitmap images.

Step 2 - Set the number of pixels

Go to Object > Create Object Mosaic. Set the number of pixels you want to have horizontally/vertically and click on Use Ratio to get square-oriented pixels. Hit OK.

Step 3 - Removing background pixels

Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) and select one of the background pixels. Then, go to Select > Same > Fill Color and hit Backspace (⌫) to remove them all at once.

Step 4 - Remove the underlying image

For some reason, Illustrator always keeps the original image below the effect:

To fix this, go to the Direct Selection Tool (A) once again, select that underlying image and remove it using Backspace (⌫). That looks better!

Step 5 - Clean up unwanted pixels

Now clean up any unwanted pixels using the Direct Selection Tool (A) or add additional pixels wherever you want. Minimizing the amount of different shades of colors can make your design appear cleaner and fresher.

Step 6 - Creating a border for die-cut stickers

In case you want to slap it on a die cut sticker, a border around it will come in handy to create some cutting margin during the production process. It also makes it look like a sticker right away, right?

Copy the complete design (⌘+C on Mac, Ctrl+C on Windows), go to Window > Pathfinder and choose Unite. Then, set the color to white and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. After selecting your size and type of joins, hit OK.

Step 7 - pasting the object over the border

Lastly, remove the inner shape and "Paste in Front" by hitting (⌘+F on Mac, Ctrl-F on Windows). This will paste the original artwork back in the exact same place.

Done! From here on you can make any further edits before sending it over to include in a larger design or to create products like die cut stickers or magnets. This method works best for images with high contrasts, but even converting images like a gradient to a pixel grid like this can become a true work of art.

Have fun testing this method out with different types of images and adjusting the amount of pixels to see what it becomes.