@32 Ah, ok; I can see the posing as being less direct and dramatic as it might be.
The eye-line/pose generally was intended as a bit of a nudge and a wink; I've been trying to take things in more of a self-aware homage/light ribbing direction, there’s a lot of gently amusing stuff going on that I didn't necessarily want to turn everything up to 11, (not right away at least; there’s a couple of other large graphics for game-over and completion that might be better candidates for more wish-fulfilment type stuff). I’m really pleased that something of the idea seems to be working for you anyway.
Talking of strange boxart! Inexplicably that was (apparently) the quick and dirty separately-packaged version in the US, sci-fi chrome pterosaurs and all (most had the shareware bundle). It also boasts of the 'outstanding sound' (silence) and 'over a hundred monsters' (about 60 sprites, although some are reused for lazy powered-up versions).
I was pleasantly surprised at the yellow/grey skin combo myself!
On the yellow-washing, yeah contrast, though you could go for an alternate color for the shadows(see below), I just don't like the gray shadows since the yellow has such high saturation.
The massive brightness/sat. of the yellow is why I went for the grey; as a temper. Increasing the coverage and pairing with the similar ochre or even the complementary actually seems to increase its potency to me? I'm quite happy with the balance now but certainly was little leery of overdoing it at first ‘cos I found in the sprites that a little too much (grey) could turn them into corpses.
...hm, that’s quite a lot of talk and little work from me. It may take a little while but I'm thinking maybe I should sketch up the other couple of big graphics and evaluate them as a group before making decisions (and god-forbid, finishing anything).
Oh, just saw another reply! @bbrother: yeah I was worried about mirroring them completely but they are meant as alternate gender versions of the protagonist so I did want to imply some kind of parity, I will try a dark version though.