I am working on a small personal project that will be a platformer. I've been designing the main character for a while now. Honestly, this is my first real foray into the world of pixel art and while I've admired many artists and their pixel art, I've never felt like I had the creativity and talent to make it work for me.
[triplesnip]
I'm curious as to what people's opinions are on these so far.
Throughout all of these variations, even the latest one, it's still whispering into my ears constantly flooding them with faint cries of "Cave Story sprite edit." The second one didn't help much, the head's practically the same. You could use a bit more originality, and let your character's personality show.
I honestly think that restricting yourself to the NES palette wasn't the best idea. Keep in mind that a limited palette also limits your piece. There are a lot of colors, let's face it, you don't really need for a sprite this site. Additionally, the piece lacks contrast. Use darker darks and lighter lights, and use more color variation throughout the design. Now when I say "color variation" I'm not saying "turn this piece into a rainbow furry wannabe", but I'd at least like to see the jacket a different color than the hair to help distinguish body from head and, in turn, improve readability.
In this edit I might not have hit the nail on the head when it comes to the character of this, well, character (went with kind of an adventurous tomboy semi-ninja thing but yours seemed to lean further in that direction), but it does prove a couple of points. More contrast to make shading more apparent, a better head, bit of reshaping on the body which I hope doesn't come off as fat... Basically it.
Three variations: Green, pink and blue jackets/jumpsuits, less colors on top row, more colors on the bottom row (but frankly there isn't that much of a difference at a glance). Personally I'm most fond of the blue jumpsuit, green jumpsuit as runner up, but that's just me.
One last tip: For sprites this small you're gonna have to sacrifice some details to keep it readable, so I'd recommend ditching the striped bandana. If you must, a row of pixels over the hair for a headband will suffice but I don't suggest that either.
No offense, Piff, but I think you're going in the wrong direction by suggesting to pack in
more details into something this size, which is essentially what you're doing by taking details over from a larger drawing into a much smaller one. Or having to thoroughly explain things people don't get, just visually. Excuse me if I'm getting something wrong here. (Doing it anyway though,
lol)