Thats contradicting eachother. Do you mean you can't like his sprite because he has be doing it for too long?
That must mean that you love every beginner and find them better than a profesional sprite artist.
I understand what you mean. And I also think Shiva could have been far better than he actually is if his only concern was in making sprites. But he is a project leader mainly. Meaning he can't put everything to his artistic side, which I find sad myself.
Jokes aside, I understand what you both mean. Like you suggested, I also feel like I'd improve much more if I only focused on spriting non-stop, but since I'm also studying, learning graphic design, managing Necronia and scripting/mapping for it aside from other common-man things, there's only so much training one can fit in between all these activities.
I am however proud of my achievements in the last couple of years, and I'm happy that many people can appreciate the effort put into these sprites and find their quality sufficient to accept them into their own projects and provide me with an opportunity to work, improve, and earn some money all the while.
Then again, each artist has their own style to it. I've grown accustomed to a certain way of working that is clearly reflected on most of my work, and it is completely normal that some people find a certain style distasteful while others absolutely love it. It is as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
If someone really dislikes my work with a passion, they can feel free to ignore my posts. Nobody's forcing them to look at it. :O
One more thing to consider is the fact that I've lately been working for old-school projects, where the standards of what is good and what is not get entirely shifted. For example, this tree here:
I'd say it's atrocious any day, but once you put it into a 7.0 Tibia environment where every other sprite looks as "bad" as this, it fits and radiates a specific taste.