It takes a few hours (around 3 to 4) to make a sprite and animate it, and thankfully having it be animated in the game itself was surprisingly simple! Turns out Quest has had native gif support this whole time.
Most of the spritework is actually done by an artist named Vel'Roz (also goes by wown00bify over on Furaffinity), but I'm the one who animates and edits them. Vel'Roz certainly has more experience making sprites than I do, but by helping him, I've learned a lot and have even started making my own!
And it goes without saying that I love the small community that adores my game, so I want to make them as happy as I can!