I wanted to have an alphabet chart on A&E’s wall, but I couldn’t find one I liked, and then I thought why not make my own, and then I thought why not make it in a distinct art style, and so I came up with…

The Pixel Art Alphabet Chart

First I thought of interesting things that each letter begins with. I looked at other chart online, and tried to choose unusual things, but I also had to choose things I could create in pixel art, which I’ve not done much of, unless you count using The Artist II on the ZX Spectrum, using a joystick instead of a mouse, if you can believe it. I still have a cassette of saved artwork that I created back then, if I could only retrieve it somehow – any hints, let me know.

Once I had all my subjects, I fired up GIMP and got to work. In some cases I looked online for “source material” to give me a head start. For example, the image for the letter F might look familiar to retro arcade fans, as might the C, and R is for more early 90’s game fans…

Once it was done, I got it printed on foamcore, and now it’s on their wardrobe door. Maybe I’ll get a nicer print and frame it.

On the whole I’m quite proud how it came out. If I were to pick some nits, here are the nits I would pick:

• Quartz is not a great choice. Queen maybe?
• Wheel didn’t come out very well – could have been more 3D
• Ring doesn’t have good 3D either.

But hey, I’m nitpicking (as I clearly stated above in case you missed it) . I did it, it’s on the wall, and they like to go through it with me, even if I have to tell them what Q is supposed to be.

UPDATE 2026

Looking again at this, I want to update it. Specifically:

• Egg colour looks wrong
• Frog should be sat looking at “camera”. 80s nostalgia can do one.
• Guitar needs to be 3D-ified.
• Give the Penguin a little shade for their belly?
• Quartz – maybe a cluster of crystals instead of just one? I could change it to Queen, but I don’t want to commemorate monarchism too much. Chess piece might not be obvious to some. Playing card? With the pixel limitations it would be hard to differentiate without having a Q on it anyway. Hmm.
• Ring needs to be tweaked to look like a 3D object looked at from the side. Just a few pixels should do it.
• Wheel could also do with some tweaks. Does it have to be a cartwheel? Would a car wheel be OK (don’t want to get all Autogeddon, but needs must and reality nips)?
• Generally, I might space it out a bit to give each letter and picture room to breathe. Also I might make the dedication smaller, in a little pixel font. Then I could sell it? What?
  • One problem is that 26 doesn’t have nice factors, so at least one row must have a different number of letters.

Anyway, maybe keep an eye out.