I'm fairly new to the pen tool and using Illustrator CS4, so I tried just making this umbreon using another image as a template: (you have to look a bit closer to see the subtle change in the blacks) All comments welcome, and yes this isn't just an image off the internet!
Very sharp and choppy at some places. The black should be dark grey, never use absolute black. It's still pretty good for a first attempt however.
By not using illustrator. Illustrator is a vector program. Try using a raster program like Photoshop. You can also use Gimp or you can try aviary.com.
practice, just try to keep the number of lines to a minimum and use the pen tool in a fluid manner. or you could learn what you're talking about first. using photoshop will result in a non-scalable image with either choppy or blurry lines depended if you check anti-aliased or not.
I know what I'm talking about. I'm not sure if I know what "smooth edges" are anymore though. As I said, There's a difference between raster and vector drawing programs. Also, "using the pen tool in a fluid matter" isn't exactly the solution here. The curves needed to draw it were fairly simple and couldn't have been any more fluid.
smooth as in round, rather than the opposite of sharp. then surely you must realise that because of it's nature, a vector based program will produce smoother lines than photoshop. i think "using the pen tool in a fluid matter" is a valid point, some of the lines look very square and pointy.
