 I like to sprite on occasion, though I haven't made anything new in a long time. When I do sprite, though, it is usually always in the style of a specific game. As far as examples go, just look at my comic. I've made original Superstar Saga-style characters, Partners in Time-style monsters, and Yoshi in Kirby Advance style, among other things.
When you're using the style of a game or a person, it's really important to study the source material. Study not only the things like lines and shading, but also things like color choice and character design decisions. For example, let's use Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The game's art style is characterized by cartoony shading and a distinctive use of outlines. So, let's say you decide to draw Solid Snake in this style because why not. If you simply used the same color choices and body proportions as in Metal Gear Solid, the sprite probably wouldn't come out very good. Snake's dark, grey and gritty color scheme wouldn't work too well with the shading and outlines, and Snake's facial features would be too small to make out, if even possible to draw in the first place. You'll have to either make his sprite giant, or tweak his design to work with the style.
To make him fit in with the rest of the characters in the game, his colors will have to be lightened and saturated. On top of that, his proportions will have to be made cartoonier. Give him a big head with large, expressive eyes. I find another thing that helps is trying to imagine how the sprite would animate (not that you have to). Back to Snake's face, try to imagine (or even draw) what it would be like for him to talk or to look around. Zoom out to normal 1:1 size and ask yourself "is this noticeable?" and "is this something I could see happening on a GBA screen?" If you have an animation program or anything with layers, you can even try flipping between the frames to see if the different is noticeable when zoomed out.
Of course, that example is just for Superstar Saga. Other styles will have slightly different considerations. And when you're making your own style, these considerations are things you yourself get to decide. Will you use vibrant colors? Or pastel colors? Or even unsaturated colors? Will the shading have few colors or many? Should the shading be high-contrast, or low-contrast? Should the subject be highly-detailed or stylized?
As far as the sprites you posted goes, they are pretty decent. The lines on the strawberry for Strawberry Venusaur are good and match with the sprite style, but the coloring and shading need work. The light on Venusaur's body is coming from the left-hand side, but the light on the strawberry is coming from a little ways directly above it. You should try and have the light sources be the same so that they look like they belong together. (That said, the official shading on Venusaur is pretty crazy, so I'd reference something like the Egg or Chancey for shading the strawberry.) The colors on the strawberry, while a nice vibrant red, don't have the same level of contrast as Venusaur does. The highlight on it is so faint, and the shadows on it are so bright, that it almost looks as if the strawberry is glowing red.
Sorry if the wall of text is a bit much. Sprite edits can be a good place to start if you're a beginner, but try to make your own original art and the work you come up with will be more satisfying.
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-Peardian-
| "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." -Mark Twain
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