try imagining what you want to draw. if possible draw it on paper first. (its simpler, and you can make it look good, without worrying about pixels.)

Next on your paper, write a color name next to each 'piece' of the picture, (the stem, the leaves, the head, so on)

go into your image editor, and choose a brush tool, blotch in rough blobs simmilar to the shapes you want (and color code them to distinguish them.)

this is a great way to both make really good looking pieces, and is a great way to learn about mass and structure and anatomy (yes i know its a pirhana flower)

reading this post should give you a good idea.

now, i'll make a quick sketch up for you to see, but i'm gonna post this now, and come back with an edit.

Cheers!

(oh, ps. This is NOT the only way of doing things, its just a suggestion. i find it makes good looking things, and is much easier)

EDIT: sorry i gave up on drawing it, i'm too tired (havent gone to bed yet, and its 7 am here.) but i hope my post helps.

Edited by StepDragon - 29 July 2010 at 3:44am

Pictures say more than words, so....

Yours
Your original image

Step 1
-Cleaning up the linework
-Laying down basecolors (yours weren't bad, just felt like throwing my own colors on it)

Step 2
-Added color ramps
-Simple shading
-Some more detail on the teeth
-Removed black lines on the inside for a better feel of the shape

Step 3
-Dithering to smooth out the shading. You can see 2 types (lines and checkerboard)
-Tweaked shading

Step 4
-Changed palette
-Shaded teeth, added specular highlights to the plant, curved the pot shadow
-Softened the outlines (SelOut - Selective Outlines)

The biggest two things you need to work on are Shading and Neatness. The lines you currently have are a bit messy and rough, justsmoothing them out would make it look a lot better. The shading you have is not really doing anything, looking more like layered paper than 3D shapes.

You don't have to go through all 4 steps, in fact for now it's probably better if you focused on 1 and 2. Around step 2 is plenty enough to go into a game (except maybe that the tube isn't nicely rounded yet).

Holy S**t!!

Thank you so much for the tips guys, I cant thank you enough. This is definitely going to help me improve :)

Edited by Kone - 29 July 2010 at 10:17am