Singidava's spriting tutorial (with GIMP):
In this tutorial I'll show how to create custom sprites in GIMP. If you don't have GIMP and don't want to download it (it's free) I recommend reading LunchPolice's spriting tutorial in which he uses MS Paint.
I use Nova Kaine's first emote as an example in this tutorial.
First of all you need a sketch. Don't make too complicated character designs since sprites are going to be small. Smaller the detail harder the spriting. Rest is up to your drawing skill. If those skills are not so good you can also use a photo as a sketch.
If you sketch with computer don't use too much zoom. It's easier to understand the big picture when you draw from afar. Also don't use black lines! If you do it becomes diffucult to tell the sketch and the line apart.
Here's my sketch of Cyrus' close up which I have drawn with computer. The clothes aren't ready yet though so girlies may get a nosebleed.
When your sketch is ready you can start doing lineart. Naturally the line should be drawn on a new layer above your sketch (if you don't know what layers are click here). Instead of black you should use ”line colour” of the colour of the area next to the line (if the line you're drawing is between two colours you should choose the darker line colour). I use brush tool to create my lineart. It creates a softer line than pen tool.
When the line is ready it's time to move to colours. When colouring the layers are a big help. You can do every color to their own layer or have several on one.
Step 1:
Add the base colour.
Paint the shadows.
Erase unneccessary colour and repeat.
Here's my sprite ready: