First side-scroll sprite [WIP] [C+C]

[Mitharu]

Greetings! I took some time and started trying to sprite my first side scroller base and the following is the result so far:




I can already spot several spots that seem "off" to me, but I'm not quite sure how I'd go about fixing this up to make it look more correct, since this is my first time trying to sprite in this style. I'm hoping to shape up this base and use it for a very small 2D Fighting game project, that'll also give me practice in coding/animations.

I would be grateful for some advice and critique, no matter how harsh it is; any comment would be sure to help. :]

[YellowLime]

Lighting is off, especially in the highlights: the head suggests a weird frontal light, while the shoulders have a strange upper light...

A good rule of thumb is that two shades shouldn't touch if you already have one that can go in the middle (excepting when you want to show a big light contrast in a low-res piece)

Also, your brightness shade a jump in brightness that's too big, in my opinion

The head has a protuberance approximately where the eyebrows should be which (the blue eyes help) reminds me of Dragon Ball characters

I think that in general, you placed the colors attending to the outline of the shape, instead of the lightning source.

The torso was also bugging me, I think you left a space too big between the armpits and the shoulders

Quick edit in which I mainly went for the head:


(I think I should have put the forehead highlight more to the left, but anyway)