It will always be pixelart, right from the start, as long as you use no brushes and filters and whatever effects there might be... if you do it with the pencil dool with whatever size it might be and a solid color, it is pixelart !

There's definitely improvement there! And when you have everything correct contrast/anatomywise you can start the detailwork !

There isn't a particular style I have. Seeing as the resolution on this pic was 72, and the size is 200x200, I can hardly imagine a drawing like this being 'realistic'. This is a fantasy sorta themed drawing. Also to make this more fun, you guys can make some edits if you like, I'll even allow you guys to name this character

Thanks for the advice, I'll do some work on it as soon as I can!

Alright, usually, when pixeling, I don't draw out the references because I already have a picture in my mind... so what I did here, was just drawing a concept of a contrastful and proportional Knight/Hunter to show the fundamentals, also with a skeleton on the original sprite to showcase some minor errors...

Point 1. shows that the overall sprite is leaning a little back, that doesn't quite ensure the idle state he's supposed to be in so I rotated the overall statue accordingly so it has a stable stance! As you can see, the legs were a little too long (can tell by looking at the original sprite aswell), otherwise, the fundamental skeleton you have, is quite nice! Just little changes here and there like misplacement of thorso and so on.

At 2., I placed the original sprite, to show the differences between all the changes!

And yeah, there isn't much more to it... what I did at 3a, is overpaint on the skeleton modeling the final character with the specific colors it should have, starting with a base color and later on defining the shadows...that's what we do, we work with light and darkness to define shape! That is why your sprite looked so paper-like, as you said it.
Also did I change the scarf, the wind compared to the spears little clothing, was contradicting, so I chose the non-windy version, because it would just enhance the idle stance itself.

So far for the conceptual things. The actual pixeling that should occur right at the beginning, with the concept already in mind to save time, starts now. Since we have the concept, we can set up the palette, and draw what we see henceforth! The result should be somewhat resemble the concept that is in mind... applied with the specific techniques (As for myself, I refrain to use dithering techniques, except I have no other choice, instead, I apply alot of AA with accordance so it is sharp but still smooth.)

Last but not least, what I used to create this, was simply my Tablet and Photoshop... the latter is not really required to create an output better than the actual shrinked concept.

I hope this helped somewhat... If you have any more questions, just shoot


Last advice I give, have the guts for brutal change, try abstract colorcombinations and create depth!

...starting from scratch on a game...

 
You could have refed influences though ?

I also assume that this is for Byond...