my 1st week was all about coding, so I don't have anything much to show off yet!
but I did figure out a fast + fun way to draw sprites for it
Focusing on coding is usually a better way to start, I usually go for a simplified look for my games in the first weeks but couldn't hold back this year.
Very nice character art! I think I prefer the high definition version a little more, the pixelart conversion hides some of the pretty color ramps that your brush strokes create. You could try adding the colors to the palette manually before converting to force it to include the shades used in anti-aliasing.