[WIP] absolute beginner - why doesn't my sword look good?

[inhumancode]

Hi guys

Absolutely love the community here and am in awe of everyone's talent.

I have taken the first step in trying to become a pixel artist and as you'll see below am an absolute novice.

I'd appreciate direction on why this doesn't work. Why haven't I got the AA and shading right? I've checked some beginner tutorials but am struggling to put them into practice.



I tried to portray that the scabbard is made of some kind of wood, but really struggled to get this across without it looking too shabby and grainy.

Any pointers on how to take the next step with this would be great, though I'm particularly focused on the technical side of things (shading, AA).

Thanks again for looking.

[Xenon02]

So yea being a pixel artist. I wanted to be and pixel artist to but when I was drawing it was all time a failure (even my 12 years old sister was drawing better ...) so I left it for a while then came back and doing nonsense imitation of pixel character or something similar to it. Huh I guess I am a little bit upset of myself well ignore it ... But the thing I want to say is that you must to spend a lot of time drawing.

If it's your first pixel art (or any attempt) then good job really ! Because thinking about what size will fit katana, shape (I suck at it ...). I tried my best to make this problem part as good as it's possible from me




Ps. here is a link where a pixel artist is doing shading on characters (maybe it will help you somehow)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUwurlo9g3c