Well, I decided to try some filling in someone elses lines. I've been too bad at pixelling to make my own lines lately so I got some good lineart for an anime girl: http://www.sheezyart.com/view/1038757/

I haven't shaded a whole lot yet but heres what I have so far:


So lets hear what you guys have to say about this one. I'm not sure if I got the shading on the breasts right. I think i may need more contrast on her left arm as well.

Since you didn't mention it in your original post, I'm going to assume you aren't aware that Etna is a character from the Disgaea series of video games. Here's how she's officially colored:



No reason you have to stick to the original colors, I just thought you should know.

Anyhow, I would strongly urge you to remove the dithering and increase the contrast. Let's take a look at another image of Etna:



It's important to note that the first image is a figurine. Notice here that the shading style is very simple and very clean. And high-contrast. This is standard stuff for anime style art. For a pixel art example, take a look at this:



(By Kenneth Fejer; PixelJoint gallery page here.)

Notice again that the shading style is very simple and very clean; he really only uses two or three tones for each ramp, and some very controlled speculars. Good--excellent, really--outlining is also a must for this style, along with good AA.

Edited by Hatch - 01 April 2008 at 7:05pm

good luck with the shading. personally, i believe that if not well executed, another style of shading besides cell-shading doesn't look very well in an anime-ish drawing.