Judge my first public sprite.

[SeeingBlue]

Ok, so this is a simple sword. I made it in Gimp, which is my first time using. I'm more familiar with photoshop. I know it's nothing great, but I would like to hear some constructive criticism so I know what I am doing wrong & where I need to improve or what else I need to be doing.

Just from looking at it now I see it could use some AA on the blade tip. Agreed? How would I properly do that?

[BabyJesus95]

Not the worst I've ever seen, I suggest shading it more, the blade has a nice shade, but the handle and the yellow part above it, forget what thats called, but it needs more shading, otherwise, its pretty good. I'm pretty sure your going for a cartoony look?

[SeeingBlue]

I wasn't going for a look other than good. lol I rather it not look cartoony though, no. I feel that it is missing something though, it doesn't look real enough yet. I'll work on the other parts though, thanks.

[BabyJesus95]

If you want it more realistic, make the blade taller and more slender, and the yellow part outstretch a little farther, and the handle a bit smaller, looks kind of fat. A new pallete will also make your sword look more realistic.

[blkcrow]

your shading is no good its seems like your light source is inside the sword  and you need more texture in the handle

[TWIN BLADEZ]

I'm liking the shape. But as Blkcrow said, you need some sort of light source. make the blade have a bit of shine. give the handle a bit of texture and enhance it by brightening and darkening bits depending where you want some light to shine on it. best way to learn is to do what i done. i looked around the forums and copied what other people done. then i eventually came up with my own style on designing blades. but i reckon you off to a good start. good luck in the future :)

[Scribbyz]

Your pillow shading the entire weapon. That's why it doesn't look real. Try looking at a regular blade and use it as a reference. Another thing is color, experiment with different colors. Try saturating it.

[Nayte]

[](http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/#3f1b63aea597f99f5368542cc4cb8e30.bmp)

Hey man! It looks fantastic for a first sprite! But if I went easy on ya, you wouldn't be learning much! I wish I had come here when I started my pixel art hobby, as everyone is pretty tough and brutally honest which is definitely an awesome thing.

The picture above is what I did to your sword by changing the upper lineart, and giving the handle more a decor/thinning it.

What I'd advise is thinking of what you know a sword looks like (UNLESS you were honestly going for that rigid tipped look.)

Like Scribblyz said, pillow shading will get you no where, but it is a good start.

Take a deep look into what I did to your sword, and let me know if it helped! There are also some wicked tutorials that have helped me as well! Take a look :)

All the best man! Keep it up :)

Nayte

[SeeingBlue]

Thanks a lot guys. I've made some changes to my sword but I wasn't ever happy with the results. My light source was suppose to be from the top left, so I tried my best to show that, but it just turned out to be a classic case of pillow shading like you said…

I really appreciate what you've done, Nayte. I will take your image & zoom it to study the changes you've made.

[Nayte]

Try and put your lightsource from the bottom left or top right. As you can see, if you put it down the top left, you would only have light streaming DOWN the blade, leaving you with no option but to make your handles fairly dark and boring.

Location wise, for all items or sprites, it'd be best if you chose a spot that will distinguish one side from the other. For example, the sword  had done has a very light 'right' side and a very dark 'left' side which also allowed me to give the handle and handguard (forget the name :( ) a little bit of texture.

Again though, your initial attempt is not terrible whatsoever :) Don't be scare to drastically change colours in your palette! It's a big step haha.

Hope that makes sense!

Good luck, man :) I'll keep checking back!