are you sure it's a lance?  Lances are those giant prodding spears that knights would duel with on horses.  It looks more like a decorative arrow.  The stick part of it would be way too short for it to be a lance compared to the tip.




Edited by Frost Butt - 14 August 2011 at 8:35pm

I think just make it longer and it will be fine.  I actually really like it.  All of the details on it are very readable.  Perhaps the gradient shading could be improved, but it still works well IMO

actually, it still isn't long enough.  I estimated you can have about 15 ish spear tips cover the shaft on most lances.  On your WIP, you can fit around 8 ish spear tips in your shaft, so it still should be longer to help it look more like a lance.
  
You see the red arrows pointing inside the "feathered" areas?  You've used a shading technique known as gradient shading, which is basically shading in bands of varying contrast.  Generally, this type of shading is best avoided as it isn't very realistic. 

Cure is quite spiffy with shading, maybe he can help you out if you ask

you just have to think about which planes are facing toward your light source and which planes are facing away. then account for any cast shadows. when working on small pixels, remember more colors/low contrast makes for less readable work than less colors/high contrast.