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Sounds here like you're drawing the final figure but skipping a few steps...
What you do to fix that is construct.
You say drawing a line and building around it, if you mean
this, then yeah that's construction we're talking about.
Learning by tracing the final figure is possible but from my experience it was inefficient and slow as hell compared to using construction.
It also limits your ability to draw from imagination.
So do try out construction. It's helpful stuff.
If you want to take this a step further try posting some of those in the Daily Sketch thread (anatomy thread is dead?!) and we can comment and critique.
Obi-Wan there is a good sprite.
But not really 8-bit.
True 8-bit sprites have 3 colors out of a limited 8-bit palette. Overlays are possible so it looks like it has more colors in areas of the sprite, etc.
These and other specs discussed
here.
Tiny resolution and the 3 color rule is most of what makes a sprite look 8-bit, but if you want to learn restrictions then it's a good read.
Keep it up