Thanks for pointing that out r1k. Though I think i would want to find sort of a middle way as the shading in your example makes him look like he's made out of smooth plastic. But I defintely agree that mine are way too messy and inconsistently shaded.
Anyway, I tried to recreate the stance of the example facet made, and turned it into somewhat of a tribal warrior. I didnt give him much clothing because I would really like to learn to draw somewhat realistic looking body shapes. The oversized head and old final fantasy like eyes are something that I really like when it comes to sprites of this size, so thats probably not something I would want to change. I think the shape came out pretty good, but once again I'm having a hard time with the shading. I went for three shades of brown (apart from the outlines) first, but changed them to a little brighter tone at some point, and added a darker one because now my darkest tone seemed a little too bright on some areas.
I also went ahead and tried to create a base for a walk cycle for this guy, as i really need practice with that.