How do I make these not shit?
Hello!
I think the main reason is that it's not finished yet. All you have is a purple blob, but there is no light source, the light source is what can give it all the details. Here's a little tut I made quickly which may or may not be useful.
First off, working with a plain white background may be a bad idea. Pick a colour that makes you more comfortable or one that coincides with the topic of what you are working on. In this case we are picking blue since it's a calming colour imho.
1. You start with your simple shape that defines what the character will be (a slime?). The colours have been changed only since I find working with green is easier than purple.
2: You imagine where the light will be coming from so that you can add detail.
3. You can change the eyes and make them bigger so that you can add pupils (or something of that sort). The pupils can give more character imho. You can also add a "middle green", that green can act as a buffer colour (AA) to give the shadow a softer feel. Some people might disregard the buffer colours since for some cases a sprite may look better if you can clearly see the pixels, which in this case the buffer colour does not do. Also, rounding the corners of the slime can make things more pleasant on the viewers eye as opposed to a sharp diagnosed line of pixels (I guess that's just the opinion of the artist's style).
4. You can give him an outline, this doesn't necessarily need to be done but if he will be in a game it is usually best to give him something so that he will not blend. I guess it also depends on the artist's style too. You can add a spot of light to show where the light is hitting directly off of, it sorta makes the character "pop" in a weird way.
5. Since he's a slime (I'm just assuming that
) the light should reflect through a bit of his body which causes a pinpoint of light to appear on the bottom left corner, you can also add a second light source in the sense that light is hitting his back. I find that it can add a really cool affect that makes things more lively instead of having one light source which can be in some cases a bit boring.
6: Lighten up the right side of the outline. Since the lightsource is hitting there it will look more pleasing on the eye and make a feeling of completeness in the sense that the light is affecting everything accordingly, including the outline. You can also add some pixels by his eyes, I have no clue what to explain that as.
I have no clue how to write tutorials and this was rather rushed, so sorry if something does not make sense! The most important thing is the light source, once you have that details will be easier to imagine imo.
I do hope this does help, or at least sheds some light on some things that could always to be used to improve your sprites.
Really sorry if some of the things I say don't make sense or are written in a weird way!
EDIT: and perhaps it may have been silly to make it a slime, I have no clue what it is supposed to be besides a blob of sorts. There are also multiple ways to do this with people who are much more qualified to say what should be fixed or not.