Hello, today i am going to show you the obvious! Im using paint.net but this is pretty much the same for all programs. Well most of you guys know this but i know that there are some people that dont understand how to add a layer because they are new to pixel art. Well don't worry this simple tutorial will help you!

Firstly Open up your template, you can do this by pressing the open button thats usually found at the top left corner of your screen. For this tutorial i'm using the graal hat template.
http://i48.tinypic.com/119upfq.png (Unsupported image host)

Next we click the green plus button at the bottom of the layers window. If you dont have the layers window click windows which is found on the top and then click layers.

http://i50.tinypic.com/344wjv6.png (Unsupported image host)http://i47.tinypic.com/2ymzor4.png (Unsupported image host)

Now we can draw what we want! remember never use pure black or white!
http://i46.tinypic.com/2wegjg5.png (Unsupported image host)http://i50.tinypic.com/2j43foz.png (Unsupported image host)

Dont run away yet you still have to delete the layer! To delete the layer press the X putton at the bottom of the layers box.http://i49.tinypic.com/5bxk4i.png (Unsupported image host)

Now you should end up with something like this. Now you can save your work by pressing save as then type a name example mask1.png. Always save your work as a png and gif! Make sure you never save it as jpeg or jpg as its stuffs up your work.

This is pretty much useless to average artists this is just to help the new pixel artists out there~

Hadi