I was going to add some general tips to help get you on your way of put it seems that Hevaricubed was very thorough in her explanation.
Here are two good graphic tips that I can give you. When you are making something like a gun in your case, you need to first figure the size you need the final graphic to be and then work on the outline of the graphic before you do anything to it.
Keep working on the outline of your graphic until you can tell by a quick glance that it looks like a handgun, sword, or whatever you are making. If you do not have a good outline or basic shape to go from, it does not matter how much shading and detailing you put into the graphic because it will not look good.
I hope those general graphic tip can be of some help to you.
Goes back to working on the EoA Forums,