Hi there!

I was wondering if i could get some help with something.

I'm fairly new to pixel art, well, by new, i've been doing it for a few months. Mainly to make my own assets for a game i'm working on (i'm a novice coder aswell ), I've only really been able to do top down views of spaceships, since the game i'm working on is a SHMUP. But recently I've decided on homing my skills and working on other things other than spaceships, since i also have a few characters who i could make art for, if i had the knowledge of how to make humanoid characters or just living things in general, which i can't do.

So here comes my question:
Does anyone have any tips or anything like that on making actual living things or just humanoid characters in pixel art? Try as i might i can never seem to get it right, and it's starting to get a bit annoying. I won't give up, but some help would be nice as Google doesn't help.
So, like i said, anyone got any tips?