You won't like hearing it, but I think some work on the fundamentals is required before you'll be able to go much farther. How are your traditional skills? Sketching, painting and the like? I'd suggest doing some light study on topics like anatomy, colour theory, lighting etc.

Don't get the wrong impression: I don't want to implay that I'm a master of anything (god no, soo far from it), nor do I want to be discouraging, but even for stylized/cartoony stuff, a basic grip on anatomy is required and the anatomical flaws here are beyond minor...

Some tips on colouring/shading:
The main thing is to try to think about how the light would hit on these objects if they were 3d. In your original picture, the shading is basically a gradient thatflows from right to left (light on the right, gradually darkening toward left). There are thing to take into account along the way. Like, eyes are generally a bit sunken in the head (resting in the sockets), so shadows fall around/under the eyes. The nose sticks off the face, making the tip brighter (highlighted), while casting shadows across the rest of the face.. not the best explanation, but maybe someone else can clarify.

Contrast is your friend. In this pic, the contrast is a bit low, making it hard to distinguish between light and dark, and, in the end, making the image appear flat. Up the contrast (make your darks darker, your lights lighter), and the end result will be a much improved piece. Keep saturation in mind while doing this, too, ass really high saturation can make a picture hard on the eyes (you saturation levels are good here: not to low, or bland, but not too high and eye burning, either).

As for colours themselves, a technique that many people around here seem to use (myself included) is hue shifting. Hues shifting is, well.. shifting hues... as your colours lighten and darken. So for example, if your midtone was red, the shadows might be, say a darker purple while the highlight might be orange (in which case, your shadow's hue shifts toward blue, highlight's toward yellow).

Apologies here, 'casue a friend of mine walked in while I was typing and I lost my train of thought I'll end it here...  I did a quick and dirty edit, though, that covers Mich of what I mentioned (didn't touch the lineart).

I really quite like this little guy. The animations are nice, too, very smooth and fluid.

I'd maybe make his chest expand a bit in the breathing animation, just to give it a little more life.  In the walk, the arms don't swing enough, and, now that I look at it, they move backwards, too. When the right leg is foreward, the right arm is, too, when it should be the left arm that is foreward with the right leg (if that makes any sense). Also, A head bob would add to the animation greatly, and right now the upper body looks pretty stiff. legs look fantastic though. Nice stuff.
Jump looks good, but maybe he should bend his knees a bit pre-leap? Otherwise, no crits here...

Finally, his head juts a bit too far foreward, methinks. Makes him look like he's slouching uncomfortably. Maybe move it back a couple pixels, and see how it goes.

Quite a few crits, I know, but these are honestly looking great. I really dig the palette for it's boldness, if nothing else (orange seems pretty under-represented nowadays...), and as I said, the smoothness and fluidity (especially in the legs) is sweet. Keep it up!

A very minor edit:


The major problem I've noticed with many people's RPG sprites is the fact that they appear to be looking at the viewer, despite being viewed from a pseudo-overhead perspective (meaning that the sprites appear to be looking upward, not straight ahead). I shifted the eyes down a pixel, and did the same with the hair line.

The palette is great. I didn't notice it till I did the edit, but you did a fantastic job making such high-sat colours look so appealing. Nice stuff.

Another update, and I think it's coming quite nicely. Changed up the palette, threw in the cane (thankees, Dhaos PTOING, whether you were serious or not ) and went back to the old tail (figured it was ok with the cane, plus I just... like it better so *nyah*).

*Edit*:

Sorry, ptoing. Dhaos used to edit a lot of my stuff, and that was an embarassing reflex. Thanks, p-t-o-i-n-g, for the cane.

I will definetly animate the head of the wave for the next version

heh

Anyway, I love the look of this. I don't know exactly what these tiles are for, but if there is an actual game in the works, I'm readying myself for the world's biggest eyegasm.