Zoomed Pixels Art

Create new file with size 160x120 pixels. Fill it with solid color (say, blue).

Apply <b>noise</b> filter (Filter menu - Noise - Add Noise). Try different amuont values to choose what you like most.

Now we need to resize our image (Image menu - Image size). First, change pixels to percent in width dropdown. You will notice Width value is now 100 (per cent). Change it to 1000 (we want 10x zoom, which is 1000 per cent). Now, most importantly, goto resample image dropdown and set it to <b>nearest neighbour</b>! This will give us nice squares with hard (not antialiased) edges.

Cool! Now we already have a nice pattern built from mini squares (each is 10x10 pixels). But we can do more.

We will need a 1-pixel gap between the squares. To do so, we will need another image to help us. Create new image, 10x10 pixels, transparent background.