Help understanding pixelart

[ArgyBoi]

I there! I'm trying to "understand" pixelart (so far I've just improvised sprites). I know I suck at drawing, but I'm trying to get better (with practice). I've read a lot of tutorials on pixelart, so I'm familiar with the main concepts. My problem is aplying those concepts though .
I'm going to use a quick example. I sketched a frog:



OK. That is not the best frog ever, but I think it's a decent sketch to start with. Then, I just scale the sketch to a properly small size to work with.



And then (here comes the "fatal" step)... I start by doing the contour pixel by pixel, and later on I use a few colors (I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible). The result, this "THING":

[IMGzoom]http://s9.postimg.org/drcmacp6j/crappy_frog.png[/IMGzoom]

Yes, I know. It's terrible. I feel so frustrated! So, could you please give any advice or tips?

Another one:
[IMGzoom]http://s17.postimg.org/4uczgxf97/brown_mush.png[/IMGzoom]

[Babar]

That's a pretty good frog. As a frog, I don't see much wrong with it (you seem to have messed up a bit with the back leg, and the front leg might benefit from having the outline start higher. But those are small, easily fixed issues. Also, while it depends a lot on the backgrounds you'll have in your game, my personal preference is always no outlines (or at the very least, outlines that are a darker version of the fill colour, rather than pure black).

As for the mushroom, the shading you used makes it look a bit flat.

[Khris]

Made a quick paintover, just to give you some ideas:

[imgzoom]http://s9.postimg.org/drcmacp6j/crappy_frog.png[/imgzoom]
[IMGzoom]http://i.imgur.com/1FOpp4Y.gif[/IMGzoom]

My image uses 5 colors total.
-most importantly: contrast
-first sculpt the volumes, then worry about coloring it
-don't botch anatomy, it sticks out like a sore thumb
-use references (I used this)

[ArgyBoi]

Hey! Thank you both for your feedback! I really appreciate it! There's another one, any comment or feedback will be welcome (I didn't shade this one yet);

1:
[IMGzoom]http://s8.postimg.org/t9ni70bep/image.png[/IMGzoom]

2:
[IMGzoom]http://s29.postimg.org/5yb0eu2w3/image.png[/IMGzoom]

3:
[IMGzoom]http://s29.postimg.org/jhrukjgv7/image.png[/IMGzoom]

By the way, how do you enable the zoom in the attachments? (Thanks Penguin)

[Armageddon]

Scaling images down and painting over them isn't the best way to learn, try to do stuff from scratch. Also read lots of tutorials. Here are a few:

http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/42648699708/pixel-art-tutorial

http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/

http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/

Good luck! You'll improve in no time, you have pretty good shape at the moment but you should avoid the jaggies on your outlines.

[kaput]

Hey, JuaniT, buddy ol' pal,

You zoom an image like this:

[ IMGzoom ]your image link here[ /IMGzoom ]

That's all the epic knowledge I can bestow to you right now, but good luck with things and stuff.

p.s - there shouldn't be a space between brackets and text in the code, but it won't let me show you otherwise, buddy.

[cat]

The outlines and fillcolors of the guy are almost the same. If I don't zoom in, I don't see the difference. When working on pixel art, from time to time look at the picture in the original size, not only zoomed in.

[Monsieur OUXX]

You madea typical pixel-art beginner mistake, that got pointed out with Khris' version of the toad -- but the same could be said of the mushroom :

LACK OF CONTRAST

What's directly under the sun should be very light.
What's underneath the shape must be almost black (see the toad's belly?).

Keep that in mind for every single drawing you do, and you'll do great.

[Khris]

Also very important, looking at your avatar: don't mix resolutions. Although you can get away with it if it's clearly a stylistic choice.