Where to go from here.

[Aey]

I have limited experience with spriting, but a pretty decent background in art in general. Here are a couple examples of my current skill level. I'm experimenting with dithering and I've decided that I absolutely hate generic dithering (as in the far right) and adore patterned dithering (as in the far left). Got any examples of patterned dithering I can see? I'd like to look at more techniques and Google has been oddly opaque on that.

   

My question:

What should I work on? What area do you see that most needs improvement? What type of practice would you recommend?

Also, where do you stand on combining traditional digital with pixel digital? Is it extremely taboo? Such as using a traditional gradient in some areas and a dithering effect over/under it.

[ErekT]

Hello,

Here's a good read to check out if you haven't already. It covers all kinds of principles specific to (modern) pixel art, including dithering techniques:
http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

Also, where do you stand on combining traditional digital with pixel digital? Is it extremely taboo? Such as using a traditional gradient in some areas and a dithering effect over/under it.

Not taboo per se. But it tends to be strongly discouraged around here for several reasons. Pixelation users do a lot of edits to help point out problems in posted pieces, and that's hard to do when an image has thousands of colors introduced by tools like gradient, smear, blur etc. So for that reason alone it's best to stick to non-"dirty" tools, otherwise people won't be able to help out. The link above mentions other reasons it's not a very good idea as well.