Trying to animate in Java, but not sure how to go about it

Question

I am working on trying to make a game as a side project with a few friends of mine. But I am kind of stuck at animating in java.

    private void render() {//Everything that renders
    BufferStrategy bs = this.getBufferStrategy();

    if (bs == null) {
        createBufferStrategy(3);//Triple buffering, increases speed overtime.
        return;
    }

    Graphics g = bs.getDrawGraphics();//Draws out buffers
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    //Between these comment lines is where images can be drawn out to the screen
    g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight(), this);//Draws image

    character.render(g);

    //End of drawing
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    g.dispose();//Destroys image
    bs.show();//Shows buffer


}

So this is the render method I am using to render my character onto the screen.

public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
    int key = e.getKeyCode();

    if (key == KeyEvent.VK_W) {
        character.setVelY(-2);
    } else if (key == KeyEvent.VK_A) {
        character.setVelX(-2);
    }else if (key == KeyEvent.VK_S) {
        character.setVelY(2);
    }else if (key == KeyEvent.VK_D) {
        character.setVelX(2);
    }
}

And this is where I am checking to see if the button is being held down. I was trying to run a thread in the button checking to update the image every 200 milliseconds to a different image. Then to reset it to the first image in the line. But that wasn't working. Is there something else I should of done? Or is there another way to handle animating? Or should I attempt to make an animation class?

EDIT

The issue I am having does not deal with actually getting the image to move across the screen. But having the image switch back and forth as a key is being held down.