New to spriting

[C.R.E.]

Hello this is the first time i posted my art on a forum to be critiqued and i'm looking for any way to improve be it managing my colors better, using a different program, etc.
I originally made these in Photoshop

this one i did a while back



while the last two were recent

[Chaos680]

Stylewise I think these look okay but it doesn't look like there was any 'pixel-level' work done on them. They just look like characters you drew in photoshop with no actual pixel based editing. They would fall into Oekaki at this point I think.

[Chaos680]

I forgot to mention - personally I like to use Graphics Gale (free), and then the editor within Multimedia Fusion 2 (not free). Photoshop is fine to use as long as you well... avoid pretty much all of the tools besides pen, line and fill. Having the layers and stuff is nice, but Graphics Gale is good for that also.

[Peltast]

Pretty much what Chaos said.  The biggest apparent issue is that the lines are really rough and jagged.  If you wanted to go at this from a pixel-art perspective, you really have to get in there and smooth everything out pixel by pixel.

[C.R.E.]

Stylewise I think these look okay but it doesn't look like there was any 'pixel-level' work done on them. They just look like characters you drew in photoshop with no actual pixel based editing. They would fall into Oekaki at this point I think.

when you pixel-level work what do you mean? i forgot to mention i made these from scanned drawings i drew and thank you, i'll look into graphics gale and multimedia fusion 2

[C.R.E.]

Pretty much what Chaos said.  The biggest apparent issue is that the lines are really rough and jagged.  If you wanted to go at this from a pixel-art perspective, you really have to get in there and smooth everything out pixel by pixel.

thank you for your time but how would i go about smoothing it out?

[Peltast]

thank you for your time but how would i go about smoothing it out?

For example, many times throughout your figures there is a Z-like formation which creates a jagged appearance rather than a round one.  To make it smoother, you have to go back and get rid of the extra pixels that are obscuring the shape you're trying to make.  Here's a really quick example, before and after:



Very incomplete, but hopefully it gets the point across.

This thread is a fantastic read for getting started.  I would specifically look under the section "Jaggies".

Hope that helps!