sorry optic but....
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Editing does NOT MAKE IT EASIER TO MAKE CUSTOM SPRITES. It does not give editors a proper understanding of anatomy, shading techniques, palette selection, working methods, and a myriad of other miscellanea. Due to the neglect of these areas, editors are WORSE OFF when trying to move to custom sprites. That and as far as practice goes, it's pretty lacking due to having basically all the work done for you from the get-go.

Here's a weight lifting analogy for you. There are two types of weight lifting, lifting for muscle mass, and lifting for muscle tone. The former involves lifting very heavy weights in order to increase your muscle's capacity, and the latter involves lifting lighter weights in order to make it all look pretty and work a bit better. You're not going to develop very much muscle mass at all if you just lift for tone all the time. You need to lift heavier weights or you're not going to get anywhere.



IN SHORT: Yeah, it's damned hard to learn how to do something with prior experience, but learning it the wrong way does not make it any easier.