#100DaysOfTrees
In August of 2021 I decided to try a #100DaysOfX challenge for drawing trees in pixel art. Like an idiot I posted them only as a giant thread on twitter so that's all gone now. While compiling this post I realized I couldn't find the text entries that accompanied the last few days, which was a nice little reminder to not trust anything I care about keeping to social media.
Tutorials
Some of the tutorials and artists I referenced before and during the challenge.
Day 1
Look at that ugly bastard. It looks like it's made out of lace. It has a little angry face in the middle (angry because he's an uggo.) But he exists and he's mine and I love him. Live your best life, lace-tree.
32x32, 7 colors, Pixaki
Day 2
The rare "melting ice cream" tree. It grows in the winter and cannot survive the summer heat.
16x32, 7 colors, Pixaki
Day 3
Similar to day 1 but with pointier leaves. A little more color banding than is probably ideal, but I like the drooping weeping willow sort of effect. Trunk is blargh.
32x32, 7 colors, Pixaki
Day 4
Inspired by the well-drawn trees of @angry__snail (ref: https://twitter.com/angry__snail/status/1151856942932987904) comes a less well-drawn tree. I like the branch structure and shadow on the grass. +brush use still needs work.
I started with the branch structure and liked it so much I almost stopped at a leafless tree. That will happen eventually I'm sure. The +brush is alright, but there should probably be a darker pink where the branch structure is instead of the gray. cc-29 palette
56x40 ish, 5 colors, Pixaki
Day 5
More @angry__snail shennanigans, but this time with more "lazy" (ref: https://twitter.com/angry__snail/status/1207305911951413249) Drawing with a chonky brush then cleaning up is /hard/ but it does seem to produce a different result which can be good.
"lazy my ass!" π
?x?, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 6, 2 FOR 1!
Inspired by a tree in a great @PeterMilko video I wanted to go smol. Gameboy green for the first, then a sort of... snowy winter tree? GBC colors on that one.
10x16 each, 3 colors / 3 colors, Aseprite
Day 7
A cute and simple palm tree. Inspired by some stock imagery, and establishing shots from the Golden Girls (they live in Miami).
It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.
20x31, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 8
This ended up more stylized than planned but it has some details I like. Outline let me use one of the greens as the grass color and is the same color as the darkest shade. Trunk is purple because why not.
6 colors + alpha shadow, 32x32, Aseprite
The banding on this is very stylized. Way more than I originally intended. But the use of color is some of my best so far. And the choppy leaves on the sides really break up the silhouette. It's also nice to have the "field" of "grass" and shadow under the tree. Makes it feel more like a complete piece.
Day 9
Tried a bunch of techniques here: colored outline, dithering, some color saving, etc. I don't like the grass placement as much this time but those flowers? ππ
This isn't the greatest tree ever drawn, but the real victory for this one was not stressing about it. I drew some things, erased some things, experimented and played a little... it was nice. Comfort with practice is key.
16x32, 8 colors, Pixaki
Day 10
da fuq?
Colors are great. Silhouette is interesting, but has some gnarly jags. Shading is even ok.
This is one weird ass tree.
Crap I think I like it.
I tried to follow another @angry__snail reference for this tree and the end result is just so weird. I'm really satisfied with the colors/shading, and oddly ok with the insane silhouette.
5 colors, 32x48, Pixaki
Day 11
Started with the skeleton of a new tree and I ended up with a shape like this. Some color changes and clean up later and... spooky tree?
??x??, 4 colors (including the environment), Pixaki
Day 12
Tell me you don't understand how to draw with leaf clusters without telling me you don't know how to draw with leaf clusters. π€
UGH
32x48, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 13
I've apparently decided wood is purple now. All trees are morcant burl. I'm really happy with the leaf work on this one. I didn't get to do as much with the outline as I wanted to but those leaves? ππ
This is what I was trying to do yesterday. I went back to a Pixel Pete tutorial to figure out what I was screwing up with the leaf clusters and it's so obvious now. On Day 12 I have solid bands of color that look awful. Today I have leaf clusters that break up the colors and create form and a color blending effect from light to dark. The difference is incredible. Main thing this one needs to be better is a leafier outline.
32x32, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 14
Look at how fluffy it is! And it's got a cute "mat painting" border too. I think I'm starting to understand the blobs and cutaway with a fatter brush method. Going to have to experiment more.
This is my best execution of Angry Snail's "fluff it up" step so far. This whole thing is basically just a 4px round brush (which makes a + shape) then cleaned up fine details with a 1px brush.
??x??, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 15
In honor of finishing my first PokΓ©mon game I decided to do a recolor of sudowoodo (GBC) in the PICO-8 palette. I'm really happy with how it came out! I'm really /unhappy/ that he is apparently a rock type. ΰ² _ΰ²
So much cuter than Exeggutor! I don't care if he's not even a grass type.
48x48, 9 colors, Aseprite
Day 16
smol tree & smol trees
Is it obvious yet I've been playing a lot of gameboy recently? I got small on the brain.
8x8, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 17
Taking my smol tree to the extreme I challenged myself to try @Franrekk's ultra minimalist style. I haven't quite nailed it yet but if I stick with it maybe one day...
It's a decent first attempt, I think.
Ok so this is obviously a bit of a troll but 1. it's an attempt to participate in a community meme, and 2. I got behind by a day because of other commitments and this allowed me to get back on schedule.
4x4, 2 colors, Aseprite
Day 18
Experimented with combining several techniques. It's a different look, but I think it's kind of cool. Also realizing I've been focusing so much on leaves that I haven't given enough attention to trunks. Maybe tomorrow.
Angry Snail's leaf technique, Pixel Pete's outline and silhouette, and Brandon James Greer's color reuse to keep the palette limited. Sort of looks like a globe and the light source probably makes no god damn sense, but it's neat.
32x32, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 19
Ok hear me out...
This started out as basic shapes and shading and I was going to practice some leaf clusters but I don't feel well and this is all I have the energy for. So enjoy this flag for the Lone Pine Mall.
Too sick and tired to do more but it was important to me not to miss. No zero days, and all that.
32x48, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 20
I don't know what exactly went wrong with the leaf clusters on this one but I just could quite get it where I wanted. So I stopped screwing with it and splattered fallen leaves around it because autumn colors. π€·ββοΈ
Ok my understanding of leaf clusters in top down still isn't quite mastered but that is why I'm doing this. Futzed with this one longer than I probably should have.
32x32, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 21
What happens when you have two ideas in mind and then you get confused and do half of each? This!
So if I'm disciplined, tomorrow will be ONE of those ideas and the day after will be the other. π
34x45m 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 22
The dithering tree.
I'm not always the biggest fan of dithering but this actually looks better on screen than it did in my imagination. Glad I experimented with it.
32x32, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 23
Attempt #2 at @angry__snail's "experiment with shapes". A friend chose the PICO8 palette and I had to iterate a lot to get the volume and shading to a place I was happy with. Happy? Maybe... "stopped futzing."
50x32, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 24
I was whinging to a friend about how hard it is to use crazy neons in artwork and how I don't understand how some artists do it. Flash forward and now this mess exists. These colors are not neon enough. Fun though!
Maybe in the right environment this would look ok but my eyes twitch every time I look at this one.
32x32, 5 colors, Aseprite
Day 25
Re-color of Day 13. I chose the palette because @Pixel_Dailies had metallic as their theme and it turned out more winter-y than metal-y. Pretty cool how a palette swap can make such a difference.
6 colors, 32x32, Aseprite
Day 26
This started and ended very differently than I thought it would. I ended up using several different techniques, a palette I didn't plan to use, and nearly restarted twice. Also the trunk is awesome.
Seriously this is probably my favorite trunk so far. So good. <3
??x??, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 27
@Pixel_Dailies generously made today's #pixel_dailies a set of trees. Thanks team!
Palm tree is the best one of the set for sure.
12x18 each, 4 colors each (except snowy which is 3)
Day 28
Big floofy boi. Looks really great in spring, summer, and autumn colors too! I'm feeling pretty comfortable with this leaf style now, which I couldn't even imagine 3 weeks ago. I need to practice clusters/trunks. π
I am really happy with how these trees turned out. The shading is good. The shape is good. The palettes are good. God damn I am actually starting to get better at this, aren't I? Incredible what even just a little practice can do.
64x64, 5 colors, Aseprite
Day 29
We had an insane storm where I live yesterday and now all the trees look like this. Putting aside for a minute I clearly do not understand bark texture LOOK AT THOSE LEAF CLUSTERS. Looking good!
64x96ish, 5 colors, Aseprite
Day 30
I don't get bark. π
32x40, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 31
Tried for a super simple gameboy look/palette. I think the bands of colors aren't sized quite right, but the trunk... exists. And those flowers and grass are cute af.
32x32, 4 colors, Pixaki
Day 32 (Day 31 Redux)
For simple gameboy sized/colored bands I think this looks better than the sizes I used yesterday. I also tried out the dark background and changed the flowers so it doesn't feel like a total cheat. π
32x32, 4 colors, Pixaki
Day 33
I stumbled on the ZX Spectrum pallette which is SO limited I thought I just had to try it. A better artist would have used dithering to create the illusion of different colors. That's not what I did.
24x32,, 5 "colors", Aseprite
Day 34
Simple grass. Simple tree. I enjoy the 3px brush method of drawing trees but I'm not sure it works for the tile-style top-down tree; it's so messy. At least, something seems off about this one...
32x32, 5 colors, Aseprite
Day 35
I colored the trunk quite a bit more than I have been, and way more than I do on the top-down trees. Think it came out ok?
6 colors, 32x48, Pixaki
Day 36
For my #pixel_dailies #PixelRemaster of Pokemon Yellow I did a #PICO8 secret palette re-color tree and Pikachu. Not sure why the adorable animation but here we are!
11 colors, 32x32 tree + 12x12 Pikachu, Aseprite
Day 37
It's not quite right, but I did some practice on wood/bark texture. I used a subtractive technique for the center with a solid block of the lighter color than removed bits by adding the darker color back. Kinda neat.
64x56, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 38
Y'all ever look at @SeanYoungSG's trees in Littlewood?! How does he do so much with so few pixels?! Anyway here's an attempt at that style. Sort of. More coming.
16x16, 7 colorsm, Aseprite
Day 39
Another attempt at @SeanYoungSG's style. This might be a higher end wood because it's grey on a pink landscape. Seuss-ian.
12x16, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 40
Ok, @SeanYoungSG I'm done butchering your art style (for now...) I actually like this one the best of the three! Big and "simple". I also spent way more effort than was reasonable on positioning the fruit.
16x40, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 41
Ok the pure sphere shape is just hard to do. The leaf pattern on this is actually pretty ok, I think, but the silhouette just didn't turn out. Bark pattern is ok.
32x40, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 42
Ok ok... solid sphere with cartoon-y thick outline and thick white sticker border actually sort of works! And that bark texture? Well it's... I think I like it. π
32x32... ish, 9 colors, Aseprite
Day 43
Purple wood and sparse leaves. The wood texture is improving, but I need to figure out how to get more leaves into those leaf bunches. Looking a little Charlie Brown Christmas...
70x88, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 44
Inspired by the incredible tringle-and-rombus trees of @NostalgiaTree. It took forever and it's pretty messy in the middle shades but I think it's actually pretty neat. Might have to try this again.
64ish x 80ish, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 45
Something with my top down trees just doesn't seem right. Going to have to find time to study a bunch of tutorials. It's not bad, but it's not quite right either. Asymmetrical highlights are nice though. And flowers!
32x32, 12 colors, Aseprite
Day 46
Away from my regular tools so I tried making something in #dotpict. It's not bad, but I can see things I would have done differently with a mouse. How do people make those masterpieces using their phone?!
32x29, 9 colors, Dotpict
Day 47
I threw away two trees before this one today. At one point I would have considered that a failure but being willing to start over is a valuable skill. Chop down your darlings, as they say.
18x48, 9 colors, Aseprite
Day 48
Winter and Spring.
48x48, 7 colors / 11 colors, Aseprite
Day 49
Summer and Autumn.
48x48, 8 colors / 7 colors, Asepite
Day 50
Half way done! And I've learned so much already.
Behold the great grey bastard I made to focus entirely on proportions and leaf placement from which the previous four trees all derived. Feeling good about my progress.
48x48, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 51
I apparently have Mario mushrooms on the brain, because that's all I see when I look at this. Cute little fella. π
80x80, 4 colors, Pixaki
Day 52
π€π€π€
I like the grass though!
48x48, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 53
Inspired by the beautiful trees of @evsailey is this less beautiful, but still sorta beautiful, tree of mine. Used a 3-2-1 brush for the thinning branches. May try adding leaves to it for tomorrow.
55x72, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 54
Spent a lot of time getting proportions / leaf placements where I didn't think it's unsharable so please clap. Thinking about each cluster as it's own "sphere" for shading purposes helped.
60x72 I think?, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 55
Yes I do follow @huttaburger on twitter. Why? I think this is the first piece I've "signed". That sig gonna need some workshopping.
18x18, 6 colors #PICO8 (secret palette getting a lot of love lately), Aseprite
Day 56
One more in @huttaburger's #HyruleRedrawn style. I might play with this more. It's deceptively tricky but I like it.
34x37, 6 colors #PICO8, Aseprite
Day 57
WHO'S THAT POKE-TREE?! I tossed 3 trees in the bin before really focusing on the silhouette exclusively. Carved this from a circle and rectangle. Next one will try to work inward from this.
48x48, 1 color? 3 for the whole piece, Aseprite
Day 58
IT'S TUH-RY!
Cutting in from a silhouette wasn't such a bad way to do this, though I'm still shocked how hard it is to make something look fluffy instead of pointy or saggy.
48x48, 4 colors, Aseprite
Day 59
Tiny trees can be very fun trees. #pico8 palette works well for not obsessing over color choices, as always.
16x16, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 60
Was struggling to find inspiration for this one so I started looking at different palettes in Aseprite and this one is called #monokai. It is... restrictive. Sort of a #pico8 vibe.
32x32, 4 colors (tree) 5 (total), Aseprite
Day 61
Have you ever noticed how all stumps look sort of like the whole-squid sushi in anime? No? Just mine?
32x32, 4 colors, Aseprite
Day 62
Don't notice the face. Once you do it's there forever.
32x48, 5 colors, Aseprite
Day 63
Explicitly including the checkerboard background is a very nice alternative to having to set a scene or choose a background color. π¬
50x98, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 64
Baby photo. Look at the face! So precious.
I really like the shading on the pot. The ridge line stops about 1/3 of the way but you know it's there.
16x24 (tree), 6 colors (tree) 10 (total), Aseprite
Day 65
First day of school. They barely fit into that old pot!
19x32 (tree), 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 66
Wasn't sure what to draw today so I tried to imitate a reference image I have saved but I have no idea who to give credit to. So if this is decent enough that you recognize it let me know and I'll credit the original.
50x64, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 67
I want to practice the "fluffing up" of simple shapes and for some reason I decided to try it TINY first. So here is a tiny fluff. It's a little fluffy. Sort of looks like a bush.
Full size fluff next.
16x16, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 68
Full size fluff. Fluffier fluff. That 4px brush can really work wonders.
48x48, 6 colors + 1 for the grass, Aseprite
Day nice
I like the partial outline leaves. The stark black on white creates a nifty sort of relief. I'm not sure about the dithering trunk but it does help keep the piece from looking like only line work.
48x48, 1-bit, Aseprite
Day 70
Scarface edition of yesterday's. Something about white on black feels even more 1-bit.
48x48, 1-bit, Aseprite
Day 71
Tried another 1-bit style. I think I shouldn't have constrained the size so much, but I do like the "double outline" where the leaves meet the trunk. Bonus subtle-purple edition too.
48x48, 1-bit, Aseprite
Day 72
I hate this drawing. There is a sugar maple near my house that is yellow inside and red outside which creates a sort of illusion that I attempted to capture here and it did. not. work. I don't know why I thought this pattern/design would create that sort of "inner light" vibe the tree near my house gives off but it super doesn't.
Oh well. We soldier on.
66x96, 5 colors, Aseprite
Day 73
Still not quite right but this has a little bit more of an "inner glow" thing going than the last monstrosity. I've got one more idea to try out then I think I need a break from this concept because it's driving me mad.
68x64, 4 colors, Aseprite
Day 74
Time to stop thinking about sugar maples. I like this drawing the best of the recent theme, but it still doesn't quite capture the real thing. Art is hard.
48x48, 4 colors, Aseprite
Day 75
Messy, asymmetrical leaf style I saw and attempted to imitate. I'm not sure I completely nailed it. Pretty happy with it though. Blocky grass isn't quite right but the flowers are cute af.
32x32, 8 colors (tree) 10 (total), Aseprite
Day 76
#AutumnLeaves edition of yesterday's tree for @Pixel_Dailies. Really happy with these colors! One of my only autumn trees that didn't use a desaturated palette and doesn't look like it's a lava monster.
32x32, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 77
This is a straight re-draw of one of @SeanYoungSG's trees. I've been really struggling with this style and thrown away a lot of drawings so I eyeball copied this one to understand it better.
Here is what I learned re-drawing that tree color by color.
- Empty space is your friend. If you want a pine tree to look taller than it is wide, don't give it a silhouette that is a square shape. This seems obvious but my dumb brain really wants to touch the edge of each tile for... some reason.
- Shading = shape. At this resolution you can't outline everything, and that style isn't always desirable anyway. Look how clearly the outline and the darker shade color make the shape of this tree. It practically doesn't even need the other colors!
- The base color adds all the shape necessary for this to be a perfectly usable tree but...
- Highlights add the believability that this tree is actually illuminated by a real light source.
- The trunk doesn't need to be complicated at this perspective or resolution. Part of it is in shadow. Part of it is highlighted. That's more than enough information about the trunk of this random tree.
- Add a 50% opacity black circle shadow so your tree can work on most backgrounds and bing-bang-boom you're done. Also note the tree isn't 32px tall either; the shadow owns the last 2px to get to the even two tile height.
Final thoughts for this thread-in-a-thread. Right angles look sharp and work well for this type of tree; I shouldn't avoid them like I have been. Empty space is your friend; every tile doesn't have to be filled! This shit is hard but I am getting better at it; keep going. π€
24x32, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 78
My attempt at yesterday's tree. It's got some decent shape, and a nice silhouette. Drawn with @dotpict to celebrate #dotpict7ε¨εΉ΄ζθ¬η₯.
20x33, 8 colors, Dotpict
Day 79
I'm firmly in the "I can see what I don't like about it but I'm not sure how to fix it" stage of art. Which I believe is called "making art". It's not bad but something if off.
32x48, 9 colors, Aseprite
Day 80
Blob-y-er version of yesterday. The blob distribution is off but futzing with it more didn't help so I settled. Making the grass/shadow lighter makes the whole thing feel lighter even though the tree is the same colors.
32x48, 9 colors, Aseprite
Day 81
Look at this fluffy boi! God he's beautiful. I love the shape. I love the shading. I love the colors. I even love that I settled on dithering for the highlight/shadow on the trunk because it was the right thing to do.
48x48, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 82
I loved this tree so much it deserved an Autumn Edition and a spoopy Edition.
48x48, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 83
Last few leaves hanging on. Hang in there, little leaves. Maybe this time you'll make it through the whole winter.
49x44, 4 colors (tree) 6 (piece), Aseprite
Day 84
They didn't make it.
49x44, 2 colors (tree trunk) 6 colors (piece), Aseprite
Day 85
Four (tiny) Seasons.
Most of my trees have been practice, with a few "complete pieces" but this one really feels like a finished piece. Neat.
8x8 each, 6 colors each, except winter which is 1, Aseprite
Day 86
Getting some Don't Starve vibes from this one. Maybe for the next one I'll really try to go full Tim Burton.
32x31, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 87
An acacia tree for @sudomichael.
85x50, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 88
A floofier, slightly brighter version of 86. I think I actually like the silhouette and lines of this version a lot more. It's simpler and feels like it reads better.
28x43, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 89
Monochrome-inspired colors does not a Tim Burton tree make. Needs way more curves and uncanny shapes. I did learn a lot resizing and redrawing the lines though.
21x39, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 90!!!
We're in the home stretch now!
It took a long time and a lot of layers but I am really happy with how this one turned out. The bark still has room for improvement but the overall piece is really nice.
91x85, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 91
Smol tree that is trying to imitate a drawing I saw and failed miserably. Luckily it still turned out cute. Gotta try the actual style I was attempting to imitate again. π¬
14x16, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 92
Another cute failure. Didn't quite nail the look I wanted this time either but it's still a nice tree. π€·ββοΈ That mushroom shape is legit.
16x16, 7 colors, Aseprite
Day 93/94/95
Tried an experiment using the same palette and style on a 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 tree. Thats 9x the pixels between the smallest and largest. π± I don't love the results, but I did learn something about trying to achieve an "effect" at different resolutions.
Day 93
The baby of the group. Decent silhouette that reads well.
16x16, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 94
The hamburger of the group. Why is it shaped like a hamburger? I'm... not entirely sure. Much more definition in the leaves, and space for a simple bark pattern on the trunk.
32x32, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 95
Big 'un. Also, the worst. The leaves sort of read the way I wanted but the silhouette and bark are all wrong. Pixel clusters are a lot meatier at this resolution and can draw too much attention if you're not careful.
Dear god it's so obvious. I was so concerned with the dense leaf cluster thing I was trying to do on 95 that I left that damn thing as a nearly perfect circle. That's a rookie move. Damn it. Well... at least I figured out why it looks so stupid. Er, one of the reasons. π¬
48x48, 8 colors, Aseprite
Day 96
I enjoy drawing this style a lot but my stupid brain rebels against it because it's not how "video game" (i.e. top down LttP style) trees look. π Look it how nice it is! Shut up, stupid brain.
16x32, 5 colors, Aseprite
Day 97
A larger and more detailed version of 96. The small one is nice, but this level of detail looks pretty slick. Enough to show some subtlety but not so much that it takes forever to draw.
32x48, 6 colors, Aseprite
Day 98
(commentary added 2025-08-02)
Look at those little branches and leaves!
I think I decided to try another version of Day 87's tree in a slightly different style. There are also some trees like this in a park near my house.
Day 99
(commentary added 2025-08-02)
If you dash into this tree using the pegasus boots something cool might happen.
Day 100
(commentary added 2025-08-02)
CHALLENGE COMPLETE. Behold the victory tree. The "victortree", as it were.
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2025-08-03