I think the mistake you are doing is that the trees get more complex in its colouring the farther away it gets, the trees in the foreground seems to have a very rudimentary shading whereas the trees farther away look pretty complex. It should be the other way around, because you obviously see more detail the closer you are.

Personally I like the palette,I think what you feel comes from that the background have more detail whereas the foreground doesn't have a lot of detail. It messes up the way you look at it and you start to look at it as if the farther away you are the closer it really is,which twists the brain.

Hey there!

This is my first foray into pixel art for quite a long time, and my first ever really 'serious' sprite. As usual constructive criticism, advice, et cetera would be very much appreciated.

Here we go:



Oh and could you tell me what the best image host for pixel art is?

So I have to ask, what is it supposed to be ? All I can see is something humanoid-shaped being surrounded by something green, and bits of red on top.
I don't think there's any best vs worst image hosts for pixel art, I use imageshack (or even deviantart) to host all my pictures. As long as they don't .jpg it you should be fine.

added the arms C&C would be cool so i know what isn't good.

Thanks

You need to add more frames, and make sure that the body moves a lot more. There is no movement in the body whatsoever, the only thing that changes is the arms and the legs.

Here, take a look at this ;


You'll see how the movement of the feet, leg and the whole body changes for each frame. If you want a smooth animation you want to have at least the part where the character takes the first 'leap', one where he is mid-air and one where he is about to land with his feet at a slight angle.
Four frames isn't going to do you any good if you want it to look smooth and natural, I'd say you need at least 8 frames of just running to make it smooth.

I just resgistered, only so I could say how much I think you've progressed from the first version to now. I was refered here from tigsource, randomly picked a topic and saw this ...  Only the nose still bothers me, like it would be crooked or shaded in the wrong direction. But otherwise, really amazing learning!

Haha, nice Yes, the nose is something I can't quite get right.
I've gotten a lot of help (both directly and indirectly) through this forum so a lot of credit goes to this forum in regards of me learning, it still amazes me at the amount of high-quality stuff that is posted here. And the people are extremely helpful too, every post you read with critique makes you learn something new every time.

Excellent job!  face seems weirdoo though       

Thanks! That is something I agree with you, getting it look realistic is pretty hard. I've done some more changes now in the face, such as making the helmet 1px shorter and the chin-flap more on the side to fit with the way he has angled his head.