So I decided to take the edge off during this particularily stressful time in my life by making pixel art again. I looked through my old Froakie line skins and was inspired to finish the Chespin line, or at least try at it. The fact that I have to break so many pixel art norms tends to throw me off a little--such as not being too conservative with my colors, else I create a blocky look and too much contrast--but It's just due to the fact that instead of viewing a skin at x1 magnification like you would with regular pixel art, you're viewing it at somewhere around a x6 or x8 magnification...so you have to compensate. Still, though, it's fun.

I reworked this skin a couple times. At first, for some odd reason I used no hue-shifting at all (really a strange thing for me to do, tbh); then when I reworked it again, I added hue-shifting and more transition colors for more anti-aliasing; then my final rework made me realize that I had used TOO MANY colors and it looked too gradiented with no good contrast at all. It's a bit difficult getting just the right contrast: too high and it looks terribly blocky; too low and it looks gradiented, which looks especially icky. Nonetheless, you'll probably never see desaturated colors from me, if I can help it...I really enjoy using vibrant colors / color schemes.

I did try something different than my previous attempts at the Froakie line, though. It looks a little bit smoother now, but at the same time not TOO smooth. Still, I'm wondering if the skin tone doesn't have enough contrast.

Oh, well would you look at that! This should get the record for the fastest-typed wall of text, at no more than five minutes. OTL

Criticism is ALWAYS appreicated. :>

I use GraphicsGale, as I do for my pixel art. And then Minecraft Skin Viewer Extensive alpha, which is a nice, simple, ram-eating-free program. :D If you'd like to see the shiny versions of all of the starters I have completed so far:
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/GOCYLHX.png">Froakie</a>,<a href="http://i.imgur.com/g0kuKno.png">Frogadier</a>,<a href="http://i.imgur.com/13vEyqc.png">Greninja</a>, and<a href="http://i.imgur.com/7Gs6UHS.png">Chespin</a>. Btw, if you see a color ramp on any of the actual skin layouts, don't worry. They've been put in the unused spaces, so it's all good.