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[ekt]

I'm searching for a tool which would allow me to draw on a lo res canvas (say 320x200) while at the same time allowing me to have som hires background layer (say 1600x1000)
(not sure if it is clear what I want)

I tought I could get away with photoshop, with a document set to hires, and then drawing with the pen tool snapping to a low res grid. In reality it does not work. I couldn't get the pen tool to snap the the grid the way I want.

Are you aware of a tool like that?

[ProgramGamer]

No tool that I know of allows you to do that. I'm curious about what your use case for such a software is though.

[ekt]

Say I start with a sketch on paper like this


And then I work on colors and pixels


as you can see, the original sketch has become a little less clear.
being a total noob I guessed there were tools for this scenario

[Patch]

I've wanted something like this for a while, since I saw this video (around the 10s mark):





Although in that video, what the artist does is scale up the pixelart so he can draw on top. But I agree, it would be a very cool and useful feature.

[ekt]

yep that's it
I thought it was a common thing in "pixel art oriented" tools...

if just PS's pen tool obeyed grid snapping

[pyxelbit]

i think you could make this work in illustrator with this workflow

[Schoq]

You can easily do this in graphics gale with two layers and snapping to a grid of the same size as a square brush. the only problem is it will still interpolate between steps so, if you quickly drag the brush diagonally it might break the resolution. I suspect this is the same problem you're having in photoshop, but you didn't specify.

[ekt]

@Schoq
yes I think it's the same issue. Say I have a 3200x2000 document, but I want to simulate a 320x200 image. I can set a grid to be 10x10 pixel, and I can use a 10x10 pen brush.
The problem is that in photoshop you can't have the pen to 'snap' to the grid. Grid is only a visual aid, but pen movements are free. So I can paint at coordinates (0,0) or (0,1) or (1,4) etc. While I should be only allowed to draw at (0,0) or (0, 10) or (10,20) etc. Not sure if this is more clear or more confusing.
Anyway thanks, I didn't know graphicsgale, I'll sure look at it

[ekt]

make this work in illustrator

yep. technically speaking it should work. but it does not sound super comfortable. no brushes, only one pixel at a time stuff.
thanks for pointing out though

[Trace Bullet]

Aseprite (https://www.aseprite.org/) allows you to add a hi-res reference layer to draw your pixel art on.

Here's a screenshot showing the pixel grid enabled over ekt's example sketch:


Hope this helps!