You should post your previous attempts and explain what you didn't like about them.
It would also help if you posted some context. Are there any environment tiles done? Any enemy sprites? If not, it may help you to do some of that, as they will give you a sense of direction for the player sprite. The player sprite should stand out from their surroundings, so having some environment work done (even if it's just rough, unpolished mockups) will help you with the colours and detail level. It'll also help you with the perspective on the characters.
16x24 is pretty small, so for the sake readability, it may not be the best idea to do very realistic proportions, as you'll end up with a very skinny sprite that leaves very little room for colour/value identity and defining features. Be prepared to stylise things to make the sprite easy to see and identify, especially in combat.