Hi man:
Im quite liking what you have so far, i think that maybe using that dark purple to colour maybe too harsh, maybe using a lighter variation of it, and keep the dark purple to sort of outline the dark parts.
Is the head supossed to be the head of the animation sprite or is it a portrait? If its the first case, i would recommend that you reduce the size, since this is your first animation, you will have a harder time with a large size.
Also, you may want to cast a shadow from the face to the neck area of the jackal.
Like i said though, my main concern is that you try your first animation at a large size...try your hand at a smaller size first.
-Krut