I am new here and new to pixel art in general. I have read tutorials to try and understand AA, pillow shading, contrast, etc. I have a very basic understanding of what I'm supposed to do, but applying it is a lot more difficult.

I am working on some 16x32 sprites and it seems that the clothing is always so boring looking. I don't know if I am shading it wrong, or maybe the colors are poor choices, or maybe I need to try and find another source of inspiration. Any feedback would be appreciated.

P.S. I would love to design a game, and this is me taking the first steps towards that goal and trying to learn a new art style. If this sprite was going to be used in the game it would 3 or 4 times larger. I figured I would include this info in case anyone wanted to see how the sprite looked at the size it would be used.

Thanks in advance!



Edit: Here is another one I'm working on. I think this looks a little better. Maybe the first just has too many flat color surfaces on the clothing. While the second one has a little more diversity since the planes are smaller.