Well, I've decided to go do my own edits from what I learned from yours (editing not from yours, but rather from my original), and it's to a point where I'm proud of it ^_^



The eyes are different than those in your edit, I felt there was more of a "d'aww" effect with the eyes closer together.  Also, I anti-aliased the eyes like crazy, which made them a bit blurry but gives them what I feel is a nice 3D effect.  And, I of course made the colors closer to the show's colors like you did,  since the ones I had before where really dark in comparison.

I think it looks nice!  There are two critiques I think I'm capable of giving on this one, though:

- Color.  I think the brightest two colors are too far away in luminosity from the darker two, so I made an edit where I bring them closer together, for a more natural feel:



- Visibility in gradients of shading.  It looks almost as if there are distinct layers of where the leaves are shaded and where they are not.  I did a quick, rough edit where I tried to bring these layers together more:



Basically, I dither in some of the darker shades along the way towards the lighter colors, and then blend those lighter colors into the darker outline that surrounds the leaves as I moves up as well.  It's not perfect, there are quite a few pixels here and there that could be made darker/lighter to better the effect I was aiming for, but I'll leave that up to someone who can do it better here

Something about the trunk doesn't seem right, but I'm not quite sure how to fix that, either.  I'll give it up to one of the more experienced artists here to give advice on that.

I've recently gone and tried to get back into pixel art again after a hiatus of about a year; I think that after that hiatus I was able to get from where I was before in ability (Advanced Beginner) to a higher level (Somewhere in the beginning to middle Intermediate level) in pixel art drawing.  I really want to get a lot better, and I know there's only two things that I can get better from (now that I know basically how all the techniques work) -- Practice, and looking at tons of examples.

So, I've decided to put away my programming in my free time for the next few months and replace it with 2 hours a day of practicing pixel art drawing and looking at examples.

I was wondering if the amazing pixel artists here could set me on a course for where I could start with my skill honing/learning?  For example, what should I start with making first to learn new styles and improve my skills?  Could you give me a few small to medium sized tasks for me to try and draw, so I could see how well I can do a dry run of making them, then get help here on what I can do to improve them (and then improve them on my own)?  I'm willing to take harsh criticism and take up any task! (within reason)

TIA for the lessons/tasks/help,

Ashbad

I think you're probably right.  Here's what it looks like without:



When I zoom in on your edit more, the more I like it just noticed the light shadow below Twi, the addition of more glare on her legs and right face, and some small anti-aliasing fixes.  I actually like the style!