Hellosies! I am trying to become more advanced in the ways of pixel art and I would very much appreciate some help with the shading of this here piece:
(http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/058/3/a/BeaWIP_by_svartkejsare.png)
I havent really made a background yet, but I think that the bear is supposed to sit in a dark room, lit up only by the gameboy (s)he is holding. It might not be realistic for it to make such a concetrated beam, but its what my head wanted to create, so maybe its a radioactive game boy or something like that.
(Oh yeah, its my first post here so.. hello AGSF!)
The light is too bright! The teddy is also too bright for a dark room.
Ah, and welcome to the jungle marine!
Welcome to the forums!
I made a little edit to give you some ideas. Jakerpot is right about the teddy being too bright, so I've darkened him right down here. Also note that I've used desaturated (ie. more grey) colours instead of just darker versions of the browns you used, this is helpful for simulating how things look at night. I also changed the colour of the light from the screen because light isn't actually yellow, as we all know. I edited it so that it looked like the bear was being lit up from the screen, but it still has the direct cone of light feel that you wanted. I also added some shading, for instance on the top of the head, around the neck, and on the arms, to make the light concentrated on the face and make the lighting more realistic generally.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/teddy_bear_playa.png)
...Then I went a bit overkill. I've uploaded these separately so you can see them both, because I think the first edit is probably better as a C&C device. I felt the colours still weren't desaturated enough, so I tweaked the values until I had this. I remembered that when you see someone lit up at night in poor light, they always look very grey faced. I then added some bright and saturated highlights to the face and chest, to make the gameboy look really bright. I gave the cheeks a purply colour, to imply they look red in daylight. I also added more shading to the body. Remember that when you have such a concentrated light source, everything else is left in very major shadow. I hope there's something you can take away from all this.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/teddy_bear_overkilla.png)
By the way, I really like your lineart, it's very nicely formed and no double pixels or anything. Little shading practice and Bob's your uncle.
I tried one too yesterday, but couldnt quite get it right as well, i had never tried doing this kind of lighting before.
Well, muy advice would be to try and see how would this only lightsource affect the shapes of the bear. Try searching for pics of "spooky face light" on google
Heres my attempt
(http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6620/bearbc.png)
Other than that, mr fibble has given some good advice, i think you can manage from there