Draw as a png, no background.
I recommend GIMP and starting by simple pets, your basic citizens (peasant, baby, child) will take you a lot of time.
Well Boltgun, actually I'm drawing the basic citizens. I'm doing a fairly good job at it though. It's just that in order to speed up the process than is drawing a few other sprites. Than is actually drawing wasp "gods". They are summonable creatures that are so powerful that the wasps lore-wise worship them as god's. Here's a list:
WASPEN GODS (NOTE: THEIR MEAT IS NOT EDIBLE):
Colossal Cave Lobster(Goddess Of The Lakes): A lobster of immense size, the Colossal Cave Lobster possesses mighty pincers, hard chitin and a very bad attitude.
Price:2 Leather Packs, 6 Meat Packs, 1 Soul Pack
Doomweaver(Spider Queen): A bigger cousin of the Nightweaver, the Doomweaver is the biggest spider of the Masterwork world. It's not poisonous, but it has mighty claws and jaws and can spray web.
Price:2 Leather Pack, 7 Meat Packs, 1 Soul Pack
Imperial Scorpion(Scorpion God): A gargantuan scorpion (noticed a pattern yet?). It is not poisonous, but more than compensates with his mighty pincers and stinger.
Price:2 Leather Pack, 7 Meat Packs, 1 Soul Pack
Golden Centipede(Crawling Emperor): A really big centipede. It has very expensive body parts, a paralyzing venom and can pack a serious punch is combat.
Price:2 Leather Pack, 7 Meat Packs, 1 Soul Pack
Fire Wyrm(God Of Fire): A hybrid between a dragon and a giant worm, Fire Wyrms possess red scales like a dragon, the ability to breathe fire (and resist it) and the body of a giant worm.
Price:4 Leather Packs, 9 Meat Packs, 3 Soul Packs
Earth Elemental(Chthonian One): A living incarnation of the earth, Earth Elementals possess bodies made entirely out of marvel and generally look and fight like smaller Bronze Colossi.
Price: 9 Soul Packs
Tarrasque(The Great Devourer): Twice as big as a dragon, the Tarrasque is a sight to behold. It resembles a giant rhinoceros and fights like one too. It is huge, but extremely fast for its size.
Price:8 Leather Packs, 10 Meat Packs, 10 Soul Packs
Saving in gimp will make a xcf file you should keep for working on, then saving in png is done with File > export. Don't worry about the options it produces.
So why use GIMP? Isn't paint good enough?