pretagonist for a platformer

[gliding]

I thought this project looked fun; however the protagonist seems a bit boring atm. I think it has more to do with the shading being a bit flat. I made an edit for you as a suggestion of a possible direction to take this.

Note, I added the black outline for a more "cartoon-ish" look. They can be removed without ruining the image, so don't worry about it if you dislike the outlines.



What I did involved increasing the contrast between colors and simplifying a lot of the shapes. Your coloring had a lot of colors that were a bit close together. This sort of shading leads to more 2-dimensional images. I also messed around with the palette a lot, and included the color choices for your convenience.

[toaster]

I changed the arm movement:

[Gromit]

The new animation makes him look like he's thrusting his arms forward.

[toaster]

Try 4 :

[Chis]

The old arms were better; you just needed to deexaggerate them. Now he looks like he's punching the air.
If it helps, go outside and actually run a block yourself. Observe the way your arms move in relation to your legs. If you're casually jogging, your arms shouldn't rise above your head or even straighten the way your sprite is running, unless you're doing a gymnastics exercise 
Also, I liked that little swing his bag had in the original version, although it looks pretty lightweight so it could fly further out behind him as well.

[toaster]

Mmm. You're right, this one isn't great.
I replaced the old arms because I wanted to make it more like the guy in this game:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/44391-assassin-blue
Why is it in that game a quick run, and does my version look like he's trying to punch the air?

[Gromit]

Personally I don't think this works because you've only over exaggerated the arms.