My first Pixel Art ever

[Folis]

Here you can see my first piece of Pixel Art ever !

It's done in crappy MS Paint. Constructive Critique very welcome.

EDIT: The new edit is next to the original so you can compare it. I used different colors and a different shading method.
The texture is left out to make a smoother surface, also I added a palette if you wanna mess around with the colours.

It's a .. no not a trap, but a sapphire

Again C&C  

[st0ven]

ok... so, not to be mean on purpose, but what is it?

[WM]

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a jewel or jem of some soft. If this is so, then I suggest killing the dithering all together -- dithering creates texture, which is (probably) not what you want when trying to make shiny jems.

Also, try replacing the shadows with a more purpleish blue, and the highlight with a warm, such as yellow. This will make it much more dynamic.

[alspal]

Indeed, making a darker/lighter shade by just adding black/white isn't very pleasing. Try using different colours to shade things.

[Folis]

I'll do a Edit when I' back home again :]

[Sleepless]

Honestly, I liked the first one because the dithering added a sense of the crystal being CLEAR. It was really cool.