Well, if it's a new piece it deserves its own thread, ehehe. Is he holding a handheld game machine? Maybe putting some details from an actual system would help reinforce that idea. (i.e. a cartridge slot like the gameboy)

Is he not looking at the game on purpose? It's almost like he's looking forward in a daze.
Either way, it's got a really good mood to it. 

Hrm, I think you should add a bit more motion from the shoulder when she moves the staff. It'll give a stronger connection between the staff slam and the jiggle of her body. Also, looking at how much her belly bounces around, intensify emotion of the moment. Maybe have more lines to suggest the motion, or a slight shift in posture. There's just this bit of disconnect between just standing and the extra animation.

The greenish color does make her look menacing. Or just plain creepy. Actually reminded me of the fetish creatures in Diablo2 for some reason... Nice concept, btw. 

Hrm, the book itself is actually good. It's just that the specific shot you used as a reference isn't the best one on portraying a female body... As a supplement I'd recommend you check out Ron Lemen http://ronlemen.blogspot.com/. He's done some excellent tutorials in ImagineFX, and his gesture drawings are simple enough to deconstruct. He put me back on track in terms of anatomy.

A lot of art isn't exactly about what's real. What matters is the perception of reality; what we think is real. A bright red blob in a fruit stand will be seen as an apple. If it were a green apple, chances are you'd see it as some vegetable instead. It's the same with stylized anatomy. Females are more curvaceous, males have more straight lines. Females generally have lighter frames, males are stockier. Hybrid body types are much more difficult to portray, so be extra cautious when doing them until you're comfortable with the known archetypes (hybrids would include muscular females, effeminate males, fantastical humanoids such as half-elves, cyborgs, etc.)

Hoping to see your progression here, hehe.   

One issue might be the level of contrast between elements, and contrast between the colors in your palette. The brightness value of the colors in your palette are pretty similar, so things blur into each other even if they have different hue values. With a sprite that small, adding differently colored pixels against each other would result in unintentional dithering, so some of the detail gets lost. You just need to practice simplifying your character into its key features.

The teeny sprite also looks pretty masculine. I wouldn't have guessed that it was female until you posted the larger version. The upper part of the body is much larger than the legs, giving that inverted triangle silhouette that more males have. I know Samus from Metroid was shaped similarly, but it was done so you wouldn't expect a girl to be inside the suit until the big reveal at the end.

Here's an edit on your super-deformed sprites.


I've pumped up the palette contrast, removed two colors, removed some of the dithering, and added some definition by adding some black between the chest plate and the (character's) right shoulder armor.
I've added a more feminine version too. Reduced the shoulder armor's size, brought emphasis to the chest, slimmed down the torso, widened the hips, and thinned the legs and feet.

Your character has so much potential. Don't give up on it just yet. 

As Shrub and Olonthor have already mentioned, simplify.

Some people would disagree on this, but dithering is an advanced technique. A lot of newbies fall into the trap of thinking that dithering or anti-aliasing would automatically make their work look good. I've done an edit on your character, only using 5 colors. A little beefier than your original, but I hope you get the picture. There's almost no detail besides the chin and eyes, and there's absolutely no dithering. You MUST ensure that this stage is good before you start putting all the little things. Otherwise you'll find yourself putting all these pixels into your piece without knowing why it looks off.



Practice on the forms before working on details. In art and design work, roughly 90% of what makes a piece feel right is form. Detailing only accounts for %10, and you'll find yourself spending 90% of your total time on it. Sketches, doodles, things like that would definitely help in regard to this thing.