Introducing myself.

[S51]

I'm convinced nobody actually reads these threads, but I figured I'd do it anyway just for the hell of it. I'm brand new to these forums and, having done a lot of artwork over the years (mostly traditional and digital 2D with some 3D modelling in there too), I thought it would be cool to try out some pixel art. I've seen some amazing things here and I look forward to seeing more cool stuff from others and hopefully producing some myself. My avatar is actually the first piece of pixel art I've ever made, I look forward to learning and improving. 

[Feron]

Hello!  and welcome.

For a first piece of pixel-art thats not bad    Perhaps post it in the Pixel-art section so we can help you improve it 

[Helm]

Hello. We do read these threads. WE READ ALL THREADS.

 It's not a bad piece of art. You should learn to not follow a curve with a color, then follow it exactly once more above it with another color, and again and again, this creates a very odd effect Peppermint Pig had dubbed banding once? I can't remember and the wiki is offline. Anyway, that sort of shading befits almost nothing.

Also, you have strange mixed resolutions, what looks like 1x1 pixels, 2x1 pixels and... 3x1 pixels? Is that intentional? Looks stretched and bad. Slowly you should begin investigating the concepts of antialiasing, and pillowshading (as in: do the first one, don't do the latter). It's a long road towards... something. Welcome.

edit:

please consider some of the points that arise from this modification:

[S51]

When you say resolutions, what exactly do you mean? I apologize for such a basic question, but I suppose everyone has to start somewhere. Your edit was extremely helpful, I've been studying it quite a bit and trying to change the way I think about pixel painting (getting away from banding, etc.).

[Helm]

Mixing resolutions is a bad thing unless you have a good reason to do it and do it stylishly. The forum banner for example, has successful mixed resolutions (the logo is 2x1 wide pixels mostly, the radial gradient is 1x1 pixels and the dither gradient is 4x4 pixels). Of course the bigger resolutions are faked, and are composed of zoomed up 1x1 pixels, but the effect on the eye is that of different resolutions on top of each other .

You did a lot of that, without any good reason, I'd say, on your former avatar. Looked stretched or resized at parts. I suggest you keep it 1x1 pixel maximum detail level at all times, for now.