Working with images of vastly different sizes?

[HeatSink]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm using Paint.net to do some pixel art; what I tend to do is that I scan an image, scale it down to be used as a rough guide and then go from there.

 

I drew something larger than usual and scanned it; the (1600+^2)-pixel linework predictably became indecipherable when I scaled it down to 84x84. However, making this preliminary linework

 

I was curious if there was any way to overaly a higher-resolution image over a much smaller image and scaling it down to size without resampling. This would be used on its own layer, purely to be used as a visual reference. If this is not possible, I was curious as to what the easiest way to work with a scaled-up grid over another image would be; I would then scale down the grid to the desired size (that is, with every grid cell being a single pixel).

 

Thanks for reading and thank you for any suggestions you may have.

[pdnnoob]

It is physically impossible to cram all those pixels down into an 84x84 square. Like it or not, you're going to lose data in the resizing.

 

My recommendation is you resize the image to a multiple of 84x84 that fits in your screen without zooming out. Then, create a new image (84x84) and zoom in by the factor you used to resize the image (e.g., if you made the image 840x840, zoom in by 1000%). That way, both images take up the same space on your screen when you switch between them.

[HeatSink]

I understand the data would be lost; I was curious if there was some way to overlay the two images without adding one to the other, which would thus avoid these issues.

 

I will try what you have suggested. Thank you for the advice.