[C+C] Silent Hill GBA

[Ma3vis]

So am attempting to capture horror qualities of the Armless Man [Above] in GBA format, here:
Certainly the quality is a horror in its own, but seriously

...

Don't know if I am on the right track, or not?

[eishiya]

The pose looks good, there's a subtle lack of balance to it that feels creepy.

Your sprites look very flat, so they don't read well. I think if you give the sprite some volume, it'll read more like its intended, creepy shape.

Use the highlights more sparingly. Get the form looking good without them, then add a few highlights to add some extra volume/clarity. Right now it looks like you're placing them randomly.

Here's an edit of the largest sprite focusing on the major forms, with fairly minimal details:

I also added an outline to most of it, which helps it stand out from the background.

[pistachio]

Good points but eishya's edit totally missed out on the grunge/noise in the original pixel. OFC you want to clean up, it's looking really rough, but keeping some of that roughness added to the vague/horror feel. Keep the wacked out proportions also, this ain't the vitruvian man we're dealing with.

[eishiya]

Pistachio's right, some noise is good! But, I think it should be added later, once you figure out the overall forms and shadows. My goal with the edit was to show how you can start with the forms to create a base to add texture too, so that you don't lose the important forms when you add texture. When you start with the texture, it's very easy to lose sense of volume.