U can often remove some or all outlines inside a sprite as there are other ways to separate forms.
This frees up pixels.
You also don't strictly need an outline around 100% of all sprites to make them pop, but that's more of a case by case thing.

I quickly drew some clouds to fill the sky with and I think it would be hard to have the pigeon read well without outlines. Or at least, not without a proper color change

edit: forgot to attach the picture



This picture isn't particularly a good example since most of the clouds happened to be further away rather than around/closer to the pigeon

This is a flying gray carrier pigeon for a low-res 3D game



intended size to be viewed at: 300% or 400%

Notes:
1. The sprite seems to have became more cluttered than I had initially imagined it. I think this is something that could be fixed with more efficient clusters? Maybe?
2. The red tail has been giving me a lot of trouble
3. Those are its feets sticking out at the bottom. I realize that birds don't fly with their feets like this but I think it gives it a bit of a style/personality.
3. I wanted it to have goggles, but I'm unsure how to represent them well at this small resolution. For now, I made its eye stick out on the left.

edit:



looking better already I think

Practising a bit before ludum dare begins tomorrow



I'd like to keep the strong contrasts but I find it's kind of hard to organize the colors in the foliage without losing readingness, especially the top portion of the tree. Also need help with the trunk I think

edit:



I think the shape is a little bit better now, though I'm still completely clueless on how to do the middle/top part of the tree.

In December 2013, I participated in the Ludum Dare event as I always do. I didn't have much success (the game only had one level because of time limitations!) but I was pretty proud of myself with the pixel art. The next Ludum Dare is in August and I was thinking I should try to polish and practice my pixel art skills until then.

This is the guy from my game that I would like to rework, Eugene



The first frame is stationary and the three frames after are the walking animation. You can ignore the third row, I didn't clean that up.

This is how the sprite is presented in-game, scaled up about 300% or 400% in size



As some have pointed to me before, the two UI sprites probably shouldn't have been higher resolution than the game itself.The trees were more programmer test art than anything, you can safely ignore. This thread is more about the character sprite than anything

I will rework the sprite over the upcoming days (and perhaps the rest of the game's environment if I have success with Eugene  )


--- EDIT ---

I have reworked, recolored and cleaned him up a bit, unsure if it's better



Again, scale it 4x