Glitch needs some help with not sucking.

[Glitch]

Generic Jedi

Glitch, custom character

Generic Ninja
These are all my most recent things, and really all I can say I'm proud of recently. They're all 100% custom, but I had shit tons of help with the anatomy on Glitch. The generic ones were line art and shading practice. :/
I've gotten as far as I can on my own, since the other forum I visit gives me almost no help, so please don't hold back on the criticism.
I need good C+C.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

First of all, well done for posting customs.
I think currently the biggest issue you have for now is contrast: this is probably due to the background on which you're working on.
I suggest you stop working on pure white backgrounds: choose a colour which contrasts well with the sprite, or a colour that would represent the environment this character's in.
What I also mean by contrast is mainly the difference in value between elements of your sprites: for instance the tunic for the generic jedi doesn't seem to be affected in the same way as his cloak; the generic ninja's gun isn't very readable on the arm or on the background. Some of your outlines, like the lightsaber's, isn't visible on the green background.
Another aspect of contrast is being able to distinguish a form from a background: Glitch stands out well from the background, but since he is dark and there is little contrast in this darkness, I have difficulties seeing the details of the sprite in relation to the white background, which draws my attention more than your sprite, in fact.

I'll be able to illustrate this if necessary.

I hope I've helped!

[Glitch]

That helps a bit, I took a long break from spriting and have just got back into it in recent months, seemed to forget about the no white backgrounds rule.
Glitch has a lot of black in him and I'm planning to change that, but so far I am unsuccessful in making a more recent and more accurate rendition of him. :/
Contrast is probably a problem because if I can't seem to get the shading to convey what I want, I end up lowering the contrast so you can't see how bad it looks on instinct. :/
Thanks for the help though. I'll work on making sure I don't rely on lack of contrast.

[Glitch]

Started a new WIP of a mage. I've wanted to make one for a while, and when I made one, I was awful. So I'm revisiting it.
The first stick figure is just awful, ignore it. I just want to keep all of the progress so I can look back on it later. The second is in the pose I want, but knowing me I'm sure the anatomy is awful so please point out the anatomy mistakes now. The third is the mage with some staff, probably not the final outline, but for reference right now. And then the separate staff, again, for reference.
So, anatomy issues?

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

No no no. One thing at a time. I want you to improve one of those first sprites. Then we'll talk about your mage!

[Glitch]

How's pink working out? :/ I couldn't seem to find a good background color... But I did notice that I was for some reason using 5 shades per color on him and that was probably not helping the contrast issues at all... So I cut back and used 3, and tried upping contrast. Getting better?

[Gors]

usually a grayish green works well as sprite backgrounds, but any color that is faint enough is good enough. Pink is good as background in this case.

the sprite has now a better difference between dark and light tones but the white on his legs and light brown on his tunic mixes a tad, if you know what I mean. Looks like he's using a one piece clothing instead of tunic over the pants. I suggest dividing them with a stronger line such as brown so people can make the difference out easier.

Also don't forget that things cast shadows on others, so it's likely that the cloak will shadow the tunic a little , and the position of the guy's legs is likely to form a curve on the 'skirt' part of the tunic, making it darker.

still, I applaud you by trying a custom sprite; that's certainly the right step on the world of pixel art

[Glitch]

usually a grayish green works well as sprite backgrounds, but any color that is faint enough is good enough. Pink is god as background in this case. Glad I made a good choice. : D

the sprite has now a better difference between dark and light tones but the white on his legs and light brown on his tunic mixes a tad, if you know what I mean. Looks like he's using a one piece clothing instead of tunic over the pants. I suggest dividing them with a stronger line I understand here such as brown Here I am lost, did you mean black? so people can make the difference out easier.

Also don't forget that things cast shadows on others, so it's likely that the cloak will shadow the tunic a little , and the position of the guy's legs is likely to form a curve on the 'skirt' part of the tunic, making it darker.

still, I applaud you by trying a custom sprite; that's certainly the right step on the world of pixel art

I'll get to work on everything as soon as I'm sure of what you mean about the belt situation.
I'm glad I'm moving in the right direction, I just wish I could've said so sooner. I've been trying to get started in the right direction for a long time. I started attempting to sprite at least 3 years ago, I think it was closer to 4 or 5 years, but I have no confirmation and my memory is a bit foggy, so I'll stick to the 3 that I know for sure I've had.
Didn't even attempt custom spriting until november of 2009. And after that I've been making about one sprite per year. :I

[Gors]

yeah, pixelart is a pretty cool art media because of its accessibility and all the retro culture context. It's interesting to keep practicing it (as well as many other types of art media too; most of the techniques applied here are minimal changes of 'real', paint-and-canvas art).

About the sprite, yes, I did mean brown. Never use black on your sprites unless you're using some kind of limitation or it's well-placed. In this case you'd get the same result (or even better) with brown. I'll wing up an edit when I find the time c:

[Glitch]

yeah, pixelart is a pretty cool art media because of its accessibility and all the retro culture context. It's interesting to keep practicing it (as well as many other types of art media too; most of the techniques applied here are minimal changes of 'real', paint-and-canvas art).

About the sprite, yes, I did mean brown. Never use black on your sprites unless you're using some kind of limitation or it's well-placed. In this case you'd get the same result (or even better) with brown. I'll wing up an edit when I find the time c:

This is again where I'm lost. : ( I realize most times black is a bad idea, but when you said brown I was confused. :I
The belt is brown? Unless I just completely misunderstood. :/
EDIT: I did read that completely wrong. You mean a darker brown outline between the end of the tunic and the legs, right?

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

there you go, illustrating what i was saying about contrast.

[Glitch]

Well that looks simply amazing. I think I get it more now. I need to work on pallette choice a lot. Thank you

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

If you still aren't quite sure about what I did, or if you want me to go over it, just say so and I'll cross over the edit with what I've written and stuff.
I haven't changed the palette (apart from the lightsaber), I just mixed the colours a bit more. I hope you can see how I made the elements stand out from each other; give it a try on the other jedi sprites!

[Glitch]

Can you explain a bit how to do folds in clothing before I give it a go? I struggle with that quite a bit.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

basically, folds are created for several reasons in clothing: either they're creases in the material, or they're material that is either stretched or overlapped from a point in the human frame (shoulder, neck, head, sides, elbows, etc). If you disregard what's underneath the clothing material, it won't look plausible. Remember that material is also a affected by gravity!