Hey guys, thanks for the replies!
I like to search online for colour palettes (or even rip it from other sprites) and try them to see if they fit. I also use photoshop a lot to apply some contrast when necessary haha.
You don't even know how far up my alley this is.
Made some quick edits to illustrate some of the larger issues you're facing. Sadly it's really late and I should be sleeping, so I didn't get to finish the edit, but don't worry I'll work on it tomorrow again.
Your hair and face were very messy and I think I cleared up a few unnecessary colours.
I pushed his chest further forward to imply how strong he is.
I also applied some rules to help differentiate from things closer and further, in this case for further things to not have as much contrast, but I'll need to find a way to give the metal shine without that contrast tomorrow.
Mostly this was a clean up job focusing on clusters, so try to look at my changes and see if you can spot where I've chosen to group my pixels and for what reason.
I checked your edit and it looks pretty clean on some parts. Thank you!
I kept some parts of my sprite with some of your changes and this is what I've got so far:
When working on humanoids, I usually draw everything above a naked body so I know exactly where to draw some clothings/acessories or even use it again when drawing other humanoids. I don't know if this is a good technique, but most of the time it gets the job done haha. I'm currently working on updating to remove most of the outlines on most of my sprites (already did it on the legs and on the head, as you can see below).
This is the "torso sketch" I created:
I did the same on the legs:
Head:
Just a quick question: dithering the hair is a good idea?
EDIT:
New torso: