Help with tiles creation.

Community Forums/Developer Stations/Help with tiles creation.

Valgar(Posted 2004) [#1]
Hallo to all.
Recently i have searched for a person who can make me the graphics for my game;i have finded no one :(
So i have decided that instead dropping the whole project i can do the graphics myself.
So the question is:what's the best method to draw tiles?
What's the best program to help me draw these tiles?(i have only propixel and paint shop pro try-version)
Because simply i don't know where to start,if draw a simple pattern and add detail later or starting from a photo ecc ecc.
I want tile for a background,like:grass,dry land,mud,rocks,water,sand...and so on.
All the person i have hasked their opinion,says that the tile looks like a work of an "amateur"...but they can't tell me how to improve those tiles!
Also...are there program that can take a pattern and transform it to make it tilable?(i have tryed texture maker,but it change the texture too much!).
Thanks.(i haven't founded any tutorial on the net)