PixyKat's Progress Thread (C+C Plz)

[PixyKat]

Hi everyone! I'm rather new to pixel art (started around a month ago) and I'm wanting to hone my skills. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, and started digital art a few years back. Problem was, I was never satisfied with my shading and line art... I'm a bit of a perfectionist so my squiggly lines drove me up the wall. I feel that pixel art is my calling; I love working on this smaller scale, paying attention to all the details, and how clean the lines are... but I digress 

My idea is to have a thread devoted to my practices and smaller stuff, hopefully getting comments and suggestions to help me improve. Once I feel something is done, I'll throw my progress into a "spoiler" and start on the next one. That way I have all my growth in one thread. Is that I good idea?

My first practice on here is something I whipped together after reading one of the great tutorials on here. Looking forward to your suggestions!
~PixyKat

[Decroded]

Welcome PixyKat 

Good start.
Try using more contrast.
Don't let your compulsion to anti-alias control your forms.
You've ended up with an outline that is just a bit too blurry because you've ant-aliased every pixel.
Draw the thing, then consider where you can benefit from smoothing pixels and where you really should do without.

You should move onto some sprites IMO.
Do you have a particular project in mind?
Also its great practice to edit other user's stuff on this forum as I've been alot doing recently.

[PixyKat]

Yeah, I need to work more on my contrast (I seem to be scared of shading haha)
I do have a few sprites I was working on for a game concept,  so I'll probably post those next. 

[Decroded]

Nothing wrong with using the software to increase your contrast rather than doing it manually.
If you got Photoshop you can tick Preview on and off to compare it to where you came from and find a good balance.
Levels is also great and not as complicated as it looks really, just play around with it and you'll figure it out straight away.