Pixel art circles, squares and triangles: practice sheet

By · October 17, 2026

Everything in pixel art is built from three shapes: the square, the triangle and the circle. A pixel art circle needs at least 4 pixels; small ones are squares with the corners cut, and from about 16 pixels you draw real curves. Practice all three at 4, 8, 16 and 32 pixels below.

This sprite is wide. It's easier to draw on a computer, or with your phone turned sideways.

Step 1

Colors for this step
Tools
Guide

Show the finished step
From my course video: the same piece, drawn on camera, sped up 20 times.

Why shapes first

Roman's sheet: 2D shapes become 3D shapes, and 3D shapes become game assets: a square becomes a cube and an air conditioner, a circle a sphere and an apple
From my course sheet: 2D shape, 3D shape, game asset.

Look around: everything is made of 3D shapes or combinations of them. And 3D shapes are made of 2D shapes. A cube is squares, a sphere is circles, a pyramid is triangles, a cylinder is a rectangle and an ellipse. So 2D shapes make 3D shapes, and 3D shapes make game assets. That's why we practice them before anything else.

Squares and triangles

Squares are the easy warm up: a 4 px square has four pixels on each side, and so on up to 32. Triangles bring back the line ratios from the lines worksheet: the slopes on both sides should use the same ratio, so the triangle looks even.

How to draw a pixel art circle

  • 1 or 2 pixels is just a dot or a square. We can't express a circle with that.
  • 4 px: draw a 4 px square and cut the corners.
  • 8 px: same start, square and cut corners, and there's still room to cut a bit more so it gets rounder.
  • 16 px and up: no square needed. Draw curves with the rules from the lines lesson: long flat runs on the four sides, and runs that get shorter toward the corners, changing by one or two pixels at a time.

Watch the corners. A double in the corner of a circle makes it look square or lumpy, and the eye catches it right away. One pixel wide all the way around.

From 2D to 3D

Roman's 3D shapes worksheet: a cube made of two squares, a sphere with its inner curve, a pyramid, a cylinder and a cone, drawn in light guide lines
My 3D shapes worksheet: each 3D shape built from 2D ones.
  • Cube: draw one square, a second square offset from it, then connect the corners with lines. A 3D shape is just a combination of 2D shapes.
  • Sphere: a circle plus one inner curve. Keep that curve symmetrical: the runs going down mirror the runs going across, 1, 3, then 6 and 6, 3 and 3, 2 and 2, until the two halves meet. Later that curve becomes the edge of the shadow.
  • Pyramid, cylinder, cone: triangles, a rectangle with two ellipses, a triangle on an ellipse. Same idea every time.

These are exactly the shapes you'll shade and light next.

Then draw without the sheet

Tracing teaches the hand. But the real test is a size that isn't on the sheet. Close the guide and draw a 12 px circle, then a 24 px one. If they look round and have no doubles, you got the rule, not just the picture.