It's not realistic so there is not much to do on anatomy. I think more interesting colors can save him/her. Shading is decent but could use more contrast. Its cute 

I see a way to improve your work Quar. You should first keep the external outlines only and try to turn the inside outlines into surface effects in dithering. That's a common problem with pixel arts, having outlines then making the dithering and keeping the original lineart unchanged. For example we see a outline on the bottom of the belly that a nearly no influence in dithering, shades or so. Then on the top of his head, the green thing is too flat and shows no surface effects. You should definitely work on that point.  the left arm dithering seems to be absent.

Well, that's just advice ...

There's just a complete lack of detail, all the colors are neutral and uninteresting, the understanding of fundamentals of art are lacking here and it's got nothing to do with the technical aspects of pixel art. Getting rid of the dithering, using flat shading and anti-aliasing, it's not going to change the look of this dramatically. The character itself needs changing.

I'd suggest you start drawing a lot, especially from life, if you really want to learn. It sucks and it's overwhelming at first, I know, but you've really got to get into practicing these sorts of things if you ever want to understand what you're doing or where you're going with any art form. Few people ever seem to do it and they make the same mistakes and always have amateur looking pieces, but that'd explain why there are so few truly great artists out there. If you do get back to practicing the basics, you'll find that your pixels reflect your traditional art improvement.

Another good way to improve is to study images made by various artists. I don't mean glance at them, I mean go in and see why they have made the lines the way they do, learn what combinations of line and color work well and incorporate them into your own pieces. Personally, I keep an archive of pixel art, some that I look at to study the color theory behind them (Helm, Miascugh, Monsoon 2D and Fry Chiko pieces mainly), some that just inspire me (Alex Marsh, David Stoner, Ptoing, Miguel "Ndeal", Adam Tierney are some good ones), some that I just spontaneously save because I like the character or scene and want to see if I could somehow mimic the style or mood of it. It definitely helps.


Edited by Blick - 22 August 2006 at 5:39pm