Yes, I use the smallest brush I can and zoom in as much as possible too.
Here's a close up of one to show where I put the pixels and whatever.

You should check out the tutorials on deviantart and youtube too, just type in "pixel tutorial" or something similar and you should get plenty. o:

Or if you find a pixel you like, you can put it on paint and then zoom in to see how they did it and where they put the individual pixels.

I'm not exactly sure what you guys are looking for, but I thought I'd post my stuff anyways.
I make my own bases, some were referenced and the one on the right with the grey background is years old.