Techniques you use to make your sprites look their best...

I've been trying to google this and have come empty handed.

I'm very new to game design, and I'm a dirty peasant when it comes down to art (and game design.)

I'm currently using Gimp for my sprites and plan on using Photoshop to polish them in the end.

With all that said, what are the techniques you guys use to polish your 2D art?

While my artistic skills are as good as a child who's learning how to draw a circle, I want to make my sprites look as best as they can. I've seen some amazing 2D art, I really enjoy examening all the detail people put into sprites.

Thanks!

 

Valve made a great Character Design guide that talks about silhouettes, value, and color. Their characters are 3d, but same design principles can be applied to 2d.
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf

 

Thanks much!

 

One simple technique is to work on a much larger scale then is going into your game. I use x4 but other people use even larger.