1. Pick a starting point
The studio opens with an original cottage skin. Try a pastel starter below the canvas, choose New skin for a blank canvas, or Import skin to open your own PNG or Pixls project. Your previous skin is added to your creations shelf when you start a new one, if your device has room.
2. Make your colors bloom
Pick a color on the circular color wheel. The sliders let you change its color, how bright it is, and how colorful it is. Click a palette color or the large color square. Use Pencil (B) to paint, Eraser (E) for little corrections, and Fill (G) to fill matching pixels. Alt-click any pixel to pick its color. Shift-click with Fill replaces all matching colors in the allowed face or selection.
Texture brush (N) adds variation; Lighten (L) and Darken (D) help with shading. The brush has square, circle, and triangle shapes, adjustable size, and opacity. Save a favorite brush in the extra options.
3. Explore every side
Paint right on the 3D character. Right-drag to rotate; scroll to zoom. On a touch screen, choose the Hand tool to rotate, then switch back to Pencil to paint. Use the front, back, left, right, and top buttons to see hidden faces. Switch to 2D texture to see the entire Minecraft texture, or Split view to see both.
4. Add lovely details
The base layer is the character’s foundation. The outer layer is for hair, hats, sleeves, and other raised details. Select a layer before painting in 3D. In 2D, clicking a face selects that face’s layer. Use Take parts apart below Body Parts to move the arms, legs, head, and body away from each other. Use Work on to see just one part up close. Put them back together when you are ready; your painting stays in place.
The Outer layer button below the canvas switches to those raised details. Choose Classic for wider arms or Slim for narrower arms beside it.
Mirror across limbs paints matching arms and legs. Extra options add mirroring within a face, brush shapes, texture variation, and fill tolerance. Keeping strokes on one face prevents accidental painting on nearby faces.
5. A few clever little tools
Use Line, Rectangle, or Ellipse by dragging from one pixel to another on a face. Select a rectangle in 2D and copy or cut it. Press T to use the copied pixels as a stamp, or paste with Ctrl+V. Stamps can be flipped or rotated. Import a small PNG as your own stamp.
For the Clone tool, Shift-click a source pixel, then paint elsewhere. Import a reference image for inspiration. Palettes can be imported from images, JSON, GIMP GPL, or JASC PAL files; export palettes as JSON. You can also extract a palette from your current skin.
Pick a patch, then change its colors
Magic wand (W) picks matching pixels. Keep Connected pixels only on to pick one patch, or turn it off to find matching colors elsewhere. Choose one face, one body part, one Minecraft layer, or the whole texture. Match by the full color, a red/green/blue channel, hue, saturation, or lightness. More tolerance includes similar colors.
Selection mode lets you pick a new patch, add a patch, take pixels out, or keep the overlap. Shift adds a patch. Pick this layer selects its Minecraft faces; Invert on layer picks its other pixels. Painting and erasing stay inside your selection, including its little holes. Copy or Cut picks up the exact shape; choose Place copy or press Ctrl+V to stamp it somewhere else. Deselect, Escape, or Ctrl+D lets you paint anywhere again. Ctrl+A picks the current layer.
Color shift (H) changes existing colors. Hue swaps the color, saturation makes it soft or strong, and lightness makes it dark or light. Brush over pixels, or use Apply to picked pixels / Apply to this layer for one change. Opacity controls the strength. See-through pixels keep their transparency, and Undo restores the old colors.
You can paint in the flat texture with a keyboard, too. Focus the texture, use the arrow keys to pick a pixel, and press Space or Enter to use your current tool.
6. Keep your creations safe
Your active skin saves on this browser automatically. Choose Save project → Save on this device to put it on your creations shelf. Browser storage can be cleared, so download an editable Pixls project as a backup. Device saves need no account.
To carry a skin between devices, sign in and choose Save project → Save in Pixls. Cloud skins stay private to your account. Open My creations → In Pixls to find them. You can keep 20 cloud projects, including Trash, and the latest three saved versions. The Versions button lets you download or restore an earlier copy. Trash keeps removed projects until you restore them or choose Remove forever.
After your first cloud save, you can turn on Autosave this project in Pixls. It waits until you stop painting and saves at most once every 30 seconds. Turn it off at any time. If another tab or device changes the cloud copy, Pixls asks which copy to keep. Download a backup before replacing work. Saving to your cloud shelf never shares your skin with the public community.
Undo and redo keep up to 50 edits during your current visit. Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes, and Ctrl+S saves to your shelf. The [ and ] keys change brush size.
7. Wear your skin in Minecraft
Choose Export skin → Download Minecraft PNG. Use 64×64 for Java or Bedrock; 128×128 is for compatible Bedrock editions. Choose Classic for four-pixel arms or Slim for three-pixel arms. Set the same arm type in Minecraft.
For Java, open Minecraft Launcher → Minecraft: Java Edition → Skins → New skin. Choose your PNG and the correct arm type, then save. In Bedrock versions that support custom imports, open Dressing Room → Edit Character → Classic Skins → Owned → Import. Console and platform restrictions may differ.
Legacy 64×32 PNGs are converted to the modern layout on import. Minecraft base layers are opaque, so Pixls makes transparent base pixels cream when exporting. The outer layer keeps its transparency.
Want to try it together?
Press the ? button in the studio. The guide uses short steps and points to each button. You can paint and try the tools while it is open. Use Next when you are ready, or close it whenever you like.
A friendly note
All cottage starter skins and decorative pixel art here were made for Pixls. Bring artwork you created or have permission to use. Pixls is an independent fan project and is not affiliated with Mojang or Microsoft.