The most important advice I can give you -- and this comes from personal experience -- is to read others' threads on this forum as much as possible and see how keen you are in spotting mistakes or things they've overlooked in their work. The critique they get is only going to help YOU improve as well. Others will spot mistakes you didn't, but the moment you can spot those mistakes first, and especially when you are validated by others more experienced than you, you'll start to realize you're getting the eye for pixel art. The cool thing is -- that may be sooner than you think! -- and when you start to critique others' work -- people you know are totally better than you at art -- you'll start to improve because you'll start to notice all the things they did *right* in their work too, and on top of that, you'll learn how to avoid the same mistakes they did because, after all -- practice what you preach, right??
The more you challenge yourself to try things you never thought you could do, the more you realize just how capable you are.
Outside of that, remember, if someone offers you advice (i.e. add more contrast) and you feel like you've added the hell out of the contrast, go on and try to add a little more, just to see if it helps. Never play the victim and keep pushing forward to see if they can offer any advice on what you did wrong if it still looks like crap when you post the update lol. -- Remember, everyone has an opinion on how to improve your art (i.e. you need to add more blue, you need to make this character taller, etc., etc.), but when you call them on it and ask them *why* it still looks wonky after you've implemented their suggestions, that's when you get the right to say to yourself "this person has no idea what they're talking about, so I'll try it a different way" because they can't (or usually WONT) offer more advice. At this point though, somebody else more experienced than them will usually step in and say "wait, wtf, don't listen to that guy -- THIS is your problem..." because most of us have been around that block before with bad advice and had to learn on our own how to fix our problems. Now we can do the same for you.
This is a community, so don't hesitate to be a part of that. Ask questions (specific questions) and people will likely answer you. Give others critique -- and they will likely return the favor when you want critique too!
Above all, even if you're just a total beginner, participate and read these threads with the full-intent to learn -- especially when it's others' threads. You can learn lots from other people making mistakes so you don't have to make the same ones. Granted, the lesson won't stick as hard unless you're part of that lesson -- i.e. make edits of other people's artwork -- and by doing so, you can see firsthand if your advice was good or not. Plus it's a great way to get practice in other styles you yourself might not think to do!!
I hope this gives you some inspiration to keep practicing. Pixel art is fun once you get a good feel for it. I suggest getting a copy of Graphics Gale and an imgur account to start practicing in because it makes it easy to throw pixels around freely. Get an imgur desktop uploader too. This should help you participate here a lot easier, and by doing so, you'll learn a lot faster.
Good luck man!
