Icon advice?

[megachrono]

Hello~

I'm fairly new to pixel art (or digital art in general) and I'd like some advice on how I could improve something like this.



(I think I'd like to do more similar icons but I'd like to do them as well as I can so any advice would be greatly appreciated.)

Thanks~ 

[Zia]

I like this. This is cute. You've got a good grasp of lighting and general shape.

Since it's an icon, I'm assuming that you're going to be viewing this at size rather than zoomed in or anything, so with that in mind: it's very difficult to see the dorsal fin. I'd also perhaps make the eyes a bit friendlier and more cartoony rather than just squares like you've got right now. You also have a LOT of colours in the background - you can't really see that gradient from so far out. Some other colours, like the highlights and the belly, work well as the same colour, too. I did a quick edit that might give you some ideas. I changed up the colour ramp a bit in my edit - the darker colours are a bit bluer, while the lighter colours are leaning towards yellow and green. This gives a better sense of depth.

[megachrono]

Thanks Zia~

I might upscale it to 120x120 for use in some places but it'll be 40x40 normally.

I moved left a tiny bit and tried something else with the eyes.

 

[Parkerbaby]

I think the new edit is a step backwards. The shading on the snout was better before being replaced by a line, and I basically disagree with all the changes and the edit. The original is a good style and done well. I makes me want to see more art from you.

To the original, maybe you could add some aa and read up on the theory of pixel art. http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139320#139320

[megachrono]

Thanks Parkerbaby~

It is a change in style, so I edited both. (I wish there was much else to show but I'm still fairly new to this.)

This my first attempt at using AA so I'd really appreciate some advice here also.
 

[Parkerbaby]

I tried my hand at AA-ing the dome of the head; I didn't touch the rest of it. I don't profess to be an expert on this subject or understand the theory fully, but it looks smoother to me.



I also changed the outline color on the inside of the figure. Usually with outlines, I've seen it looks better if the silhouette outline has higher contrast than the rest of the outlines.

[megachrono]

Thanks again Parkerbaby~

I combined the two.