[CC] Beginner's pixelart, critique appreciated

[nanoblit]

Hi. I'm a complete beginner.  I made these two pictures. I hope it doesn't count as an artdump, they are pretty similar in style. I don't have any specific questions since I don't know anything and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.
I try to limit colors, because, you know, pixelart. I know you limit colors in pixelart... I also try making darker colors more purple/crimson and desaturated and lighter colors more yellow, I guess and lighter colors also get closer towards white. I've heard doing so makes pictures look good.

But please, don't comment only on colors, because I'm sure there is much more wrong with these.





I hope CC means critique.

[SmashAdams]

Hi there, and welcome to pixelation!
I think your pixel art is pretty good for a complete beginner.
I made a quick edit to your first drawing. It was probably a stylistic choice, but I found that the black outlining of the eyes and mouth really flattened the character.
I also felt the face was rather flat (being all one beige colour) when compared to the detailed flames, so I added a bit of shading to the face to give it more volume!

[nanoblit]

Well. I feel like having shadow on a fire would be a bit weird. I also tried to limit colors and now there is about four more of them. Another thing is that he is intended to look cute and maybe like he is surprised or maybe about to start talking. I didn't actually think too much about it. Yours looks very different stylistically. Maybe there is too much or too little detail somewhere but I wouldn't like to add another bunch of colors. But now I also feel like there is a bit too much at the top or too little at the bottom.

I see one of the things i did wrong is the mouth. Fire in the mouth looks like teeth. It wasn't intended to look like teeth.
Here, I replaced the mouth:


I'll try to so something about inconsistency in detail and other stuff later.

Thanks for the feedback.

EDIT:
I've edited eyes and mouth a bit. Not sure if it looks better. Like if the mouth is distinctive enough. And I wouldn't like to give him lipstick.



Oh, yeah. When I was making the first picture I used this as a reference:


I added swirly flames, because I though they would make it more obvious that he is a living fire-thing but they may be making top a bit busy (too many swirls?). Also, I just wanted to try making flames. Originally the background was more red but I though the colors were too similar so I made it bluer for contrast.