Thanks for the words of encouragement, tim (if that is your real name  ) I guess I have somewhat unrealistic expectations sometimes.

Here's a slight update.

Uh oh, Manupix gave me the frowny face 

Thanks for the feedback, guys! The background was something I rushed in the end and I think it really exaggerated all my problems, so I've removed it. I didn't really want to do some kind of crazy wide lens perspective, but I can see why the floor tiles gave that impression.

And while this is a "berserker" character, I'm actually going for more of a menacing, intimidating look, instead of a frenzied, energetic pose. Not so much evil super villain. Think more Luke Skywalker encountering Darth Vader in "Empire Strikes Back". Darth Vader isn't swinging his lightsaber like a madman, he's just standing there in the darkness, waiting. And then he flips out. So that's what I'm going for. Encountering Khârn the Betrayer in a dark hall.

Aside from the background I think the previous version had a problem with the legs and hips, perhaps.

Maybe this version is better?



Or did it make more sense to have the left leg forward, to balance the heavy chain axe? Fizzick, I don't know if the arms should be so much longer, because they're extending in opposite directions, not hanging right down. And if they were hanging right down, they shouldn't extend far past the crotch. Am I wrong?

Current version:



Original post / earlier versions:

Spoiler

I agree with Imagician 100%. I was going to say the same stuff and make an edit when I had time, but he beat me to it.

Not every girl needs to look like Barbie, even at this size.

I also like the changes Imagician made to the head. But I agree that the legs are the weakest part of that edit. I also agree with Neirda that you may want to explore other ways of drawing the eyes.

I tried to make some changes to the legs here. I think the shoes had too much noise before, and they were too big for a normal woman. I also made the bottom of her knees brighter, which may seem dumb because you'd expect there to be shadow there, but it makes the broken line softer against the background, so the 90 degree angles at her knee don't seem so sharp.

- Please don't make us scroll past one million pixels of solid colour. Trim those images 

- I don't think the trees benefit from dark outlines. You can use some toned down outlines. The main issue with the trees right now is that they look flat. The light direction, I guess, is just sunlight from above, so you won't have any light from the sides to show the cylindrical shapes. But if everything deep in the forest is darker, then the sides of the tree trunk should be darker, as they're further away. My only advice is to be consistent. If you only outline certain objects, certain trees, certain rocks, then those will stand out as significant to the player. If they're not supposed to be significant, then it will get confusing. (Not talking about very distant background objects, like mountains and clouds, of course)

- Maybe you could show the roots a bit better. If they're connected to the grassy surface, then you could put some grass between the roots, where there is more soil, so the grass looks more organic and not just like a flat carpet.

- It looks like we can see the forest floor in the background, but since this is a side perspective, that wouldn't happen unless there's a hill in the background. And if it is a hill, then I think the tree roots need to reflect that better, by extending further down vertically.

- It almost never looks good when you're mixing different pixel scales. This piece is no exception. Your pixels are 1x1, 2x2 and even 4x4 some places. Render everything with the same scale.

-  In order to make the objects in the foreground pop and stand out from the background, you need to rely on either high contrast (e.g. bright stuff against dark background, or dark stuff on bright), saturation levels (e.g. strong colours on a washed-out background) or contrasting complementary colours (e.g. everything in the background is different tones of green, while important objects in the foreground are different tones of red). I guess that's the rule of thumb you're asking for, unless I'm very much mistaken.