Hi to all,

I am working on a spare-time 'passion project'.  Despite having no prior experience of drawing pixel art, or art in general, it has fallen upon me to create art assets for this project.  I enjoy this very much, but would definitely benefit from some more experienced opinions.

This is my first attempt at explicitly trying to create an animation.  For context: this is for a side scroller (strictly side on view), and I'm also trying to limit the number of tiles/frames (to stay within hardware limitations)

This is the piece in question:

It is a sinking swamp.

Broken down:


For reference, it currently sits alongside static ground which looks like this -

(This was drawn by another member of the team.)

It actually looks okay in-game, provided you don't give it too much individual scrutiny, however, I'm not totally happy with it. 

I spent a lot of time getting the silhouette of the surface correct, then experimenting with getting the details to corroborate that motion.  However, the details themselves simply look a bit amateurish.  Any and all feedback, opinions, tips and advice are highly encouraged and gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.