Yeah, you can embed any images between `img` tags. You can click the little picture button in the post editor, in the bottom row, second from the left. Like so:
Your stuff is on the higher-res end of pixel art, which will make your life a bit more difficult. Most stuff I see is 32x32 or smaller. The lower resolution you go, the more is left to the viewer's imagination and the more it becomes a sort of puzzle rather than an artistic challenge. Higher resolution means more ways to mess up. And I think you need a bit more detail and shading than you have to make it look professional.
There's a bunch of pixel art tutorials to check out at:
https://lospec.com/pixel-art-tutorials Arne's tutorial in particular is good:
http://androidarts.com/pixtut/pixelart.htmYour image is really lacking
consistency. The background seems like a high resolution texture with some sort of rectangular pattern, while the water is two flat tones. Different things use different outline colors, with no pattern that I can see. The water edges have no shading, the lily pads have a little bit of pillow shading, the trees are lit from either side, and the character is pretty much flat? (his hat is lighter on top, his pants are lighter on the sides, I dunno.) The good news is, none of that is very hard to fix! You just have to try some different options and make a decision on which one you want.
- Pick a light source and a shading style and stick to it.
- Try to pick a perspective. This is a bit tricky, you may want to show characters from a more head-on perspective than other things. Just try to be consistent for each type of object (all characters the same perspective, etc.).
- Pick a limited palette. Try: https://lospec.com/palette-list This isn't required obviously, but I think it will make your work cleaner and nicer and force you to think about your decisions more.
You also need
variety and
contrast so it is pleasant and interesting to look at. Having the same repeating tile for every bit of grass is boring and ugly. If you change maybe 20% of those tiles to different ones, instantly it is way better. If you change
every tile randomly, that's about the same as having them all identical. You want to mix up the intervals. Contrast flat areas with textured ones, large shapes with small ones, and so on.
Step back and look at the whole picture. Manage your contrast over the whole screen. This is not just for pixel art, but
the most important visual thing that most games fail at. If an object is important (and not explicitly a secret) it should be high-contrast, if it's unimportant, low-contrast. Period. For non-action games this is slightly less vital, but you still don't want your game to be a busy turd that people don't know where focus on. Trying to make one character or one set of tiles look good on their own is not going to work; What really matters is how it all looks together. It's a classic artists' trick to squint your eyes at something to see the general shapes and colors without the details. Try that with your game and then other games. I think you will see that they are more bold with colors, have more going on in their scenes, have clearer silhouettes, and a better hierarchy of contrast.
Look at stuff. Look at good pixel art. Lots of people have done it, there's no sense closing your eyes and trying to reinvent it all yourself. And don't just look, try copying other art (not to steal it, just to learn). Also look at real life! You want to draw a forest and a pond, well, go look at a bunch of photos of forests and ponds (or go outside?).
Just for kicks I did a quick little test of my own. Not really pro, and not the style you want (on purpose), but maybe it gives you some idea what I'm talking about. I used a 16-color palette from that site I linked earlier.
Developer
