Sword and shield

[KibaWolf]

I want to thank you all for the info and help. I am going to work on the sword and shield just to help me practice pixel artwork more and will show the edit. And then moving to another project. Thanks again 

[PsylentKnight]

Feel free to use my edit to work off of, I basically made it so you'd have something clean to use. I just got a little carried away with the hilt and the shading.

[thoughtmachine]

I want to thank you all for the info and help. I am going to work on the sword and shield just to help me practice pixel artwork more and will show the edit. And then moving to another project. Thanks again 

Cool. Right now you have an opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

Imagine you scanned an awesome drawing that you drew on paper. I call that a "dirty picture".
The scanned picture now has 500 to 10,000 deviant pixels that you have to remove.

Everyone knows its easier to draw with pencil than with a digital pad (or god forbid a mouse), but if you spend too much time cleaning that dirty picture then you might as well had drawn the picture on your PC and saved time in doing so. It's a matter of time spent versus time wasted.

Having said that, a lot can be learned from editing your own mistakes.

Feel free to use my edit to work off of, ....

Rather than using an edit (of your art) from someone else to assist your efforts at this one small project, I would take the picture that you turned into a jpg and clean it.
Use this as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

There are many, many different techniques to quickly clean a "dirty picture" but IF you don't know what those techniques are, you could spend hours removing all of the pixels while trying to not mess up your scan. Whereas the dirty picture can be cleaned with two or three clicks of your mouse, once you learn the right techniques.

[KibaWolf]

Here is my edit, thanks to all your help. I edit it from my source which was a psd file (photoshop file). I saved it as a png. So that much should be fixed lol. I love the edits that were shown to me and helped me with coloring and shading. Other then that, I love to hear anymore critiques and comments about the art. I will be posting more pixel art on this site because I feel the community was really helpful. You guys were a big help, thanks!

[PsylentKnight]

I'd take the dithering out. People think because its pixel art that omg it *has* to have dithering. But unless you're going for an authentic retro look or you need it to imply some sort of rough texture, then in my opinion dithering should just be left alone.

[KibaWolf]

I'd take the dithering out. People think because its pixel art that omg it *has* to have dithering. But unless you're going for an authentic retro look or you need it to imply some sort of rough texture, then in my opinion dithering should just be left alone.

Interesting point. I will try that. Thanks

[Kazuya Mochu]

I would also remove the dithering. Dithering adds texture because its noisy pattern, so in a situation like a smooth surface you should be carefull using it. I think you might get a better result keeping the image with no dithering

also, and considering that this is metal, I would use stronger highlights