ive got to ask, for a first time doing pixels did [bleep]ing you expect us to go "ooooh its amazing i love it" because for peoples first pixel attempts that seldom happens for example: this is my first pixel.... as you can see its a PIECE OF [cabbage] LIKE EVERY OTHER FIRST PIXEL EVER PUT IN THE GALLERY but what did i do? i listened to the advice i got from people, little by little i got better and now im making sigs like the one i have as my sig right now. i cant say dont use line tools ever, everybody uses them so anybody who says use 100% pencil doesnt know what theyre talking about :roll: but only use them to make hard lines on buildings, windows etc. dont use a line tool to make a person is what i mean. as for gradient tools, just DONT GO THERE. it will look so [bleep]ed up that ill be sure never to give you 2 minutes of my time to give more advice theres plenty of guides on this forum as well as WWW.PIXELJOINT.COM, i bring this website up all the time for people because it is by far filled with some of the most tallented pixel artists ive ever seen. and btw your welcome about the reference advice