Can you build a pixel by pixel image

It might be possible but I haven't tried. Usually when I build something I just do it off my head but I might get inspiration for the design from somewhere.

 

I think the hardest part would be building an image that has a lot of shades. When the colors are distinct (for example, the image has two colors, like in black and white), then it's easy to build pixel-by-pixel. It's generally harder, when you have a gradient of colors blending together, because then you have more colors to deal with. It's easier to reference pixel art to build an image than to reference an actual photo to build an image for that very reason.

Like say that you're building an image of a person's face; to make it look really good (especially realistic), you might have to use blues and browns for the darker region, whites and yellows for the brighter region, reds for intermediate regions like for cheeks, and orange and tan for other regions. And you might have to employ techniques like dithering. It's a very complex process, and it takes a lot of practice to understand the best way to employ such a technique.

Another thing you could do, if your image has too many colors, is take it into a program like Photoshop, then go to Indexed Color to reduce the number of colors, and try to work with that instead. Probably wouldn't look as great, but it could help distinguish colors better.

 

Also there are usually tools you can find to do the pixel-by-pixel image for you. Like for instance, in the Java version of Minecraft, you can use Spritecraft and MCEdit to create pixel-by-pixel. Not sure about Bedrock version or other versions. It might not be the most refined image created, but it does remove all of the labor, especially if the pixel-by-pixel image is some large resolution.