Step 1 - The Outline:
Pixel out a basic outline for your sprite. Start with the head, I always find that helps for making sure the sprite is in proportion. It doesn't matter what colour you use or how big your sprite is - for beginners, smaller ones are far easier.
Hint: When doing your lines, try to get the pixels diagonal to each other rather that do your line in a zigzag. For example, rather than going,
"Left one, up one, left one,"
Do,
"Left one, diagonal upper left, left one."
Sounds confusing, I know, but it will make your sprites look one heck of a lot better.
Step Two - Colouring your Sprite:
Fill in each area with a base colour. Also, add things such as eyes, whiskers and the inside of the ears. I did the whiskers in blue for the moment, since they are kinda small *gets out magnifying glass*
Step Three - Shading:
Right, this is where your sprite really starts to look good. To get that 3d-ish effect, first decide where the light is coming from. Put a dot there (see the red dot on the example). Now imagine rays of light coming from that dot - where would they hit your sprite? At these places, take a lighter shade of your base colour for each section and draw a highlight on your sprite. Then take a darker shade and draw the shadows on the opposite side of the section.
Remember to draw shadows under overhanging areas, like under the nose, the bottom jaw, the neck etc.
Step Four - Finishing Touches:
Now it's looking pretty good! Almost there!
All we have to do is get rid of that icky black outline, so on lighter areas of your sprite (like the pale pink tail on mine) colour the outline a darker shade of that colour (darker than the shadows). Then, on all areas, colour the outline even lighter around the highlighted patches.
Note: On this occasion, I didn't shade the cheese. I really should've done >.<
Step Five - Admiring your Sprite:
Best done with a pat on the back.
Here Is a good Human Outline which I find useful:
