I'm worried that without an outline the sprite will not read very good in front of the background, even with this blue-ish outline it doesnt really stand out yet.
Good advice on the shading, I have a habit of trying to shade even the smallest bits which usually doesnt work out that nice. And yes, I should probably move the hair back a few pixels to make room for eyes at least.
About the feet not being horizontally aligned, I think I should slightly show the tops of the platforms since the water is not exactly front-on either, so I will adjust the tiles a bit.


(don't mind the horribly dithered background, I quickly generated it and it looks shit)

I understand what you mean about the sides of those platforms, I'll try a darker edge like you mentioned and see how it looks.

Any pointers on the waterfall, is it too bright?


update:

I think the legs are a bit too short and the (his) left arm is a bit long, If you sort out the proportions a little better it will probably look a lot nicer

Any thoughts on how to do the waterline for those rocks in the background? I already lowered the water where it's not on the foreground rocks by 4 pixels to make things look less out of perspective (as compared to the last pics)

It looks awkward at the bottom above the water, but i think something like this is probably what i should be going for.

About the trees, I was thinking the same thing but I dont want them to look too flat. I might just forget about having the player walk on them but maybe just make them move when the player jumps through them, and perhaps sometimes a hidden item could fall out or something like that.