[WIP]Owl Character Sprite for game. Need some insight.

[Pantamime]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forums and to pixel art. I have been messing with ASE for the past 4 days or so. I am learning a lot just by looking at the posts here and reading up on what people are talking about. I guess i am still having trouble really knowing how t pixelate it the way i want. This character was originally for  web comic. His nme is Nycteas. But i have decided to go with a game.Any tips and critiques would be mych appreciated.

Thanks in advanced!!

[Mathias]

Why all the blank space in the image? Makes it hard to click zoom here.

Is he sitting with legs crossed or walking?

He has wings AND arms, with hands? Odd. That's a total of 6 limbs. Usually a cartoonized owl has feathery flappy arms with feathery fingers so they serve both purposes. Google some cartoon owls. I think you need some ref.

Head is ambiguous.

Too much black outling/detail everywhere.

Whole sprite is very dark and dingy. Freshen up that palette.

A better representation of directional light with shadowing would improve.

Dither and noise texturing overload. Got redundant shades, too.

[Pantamime]

Sorry for the blank space i uploaded i in  weird way. Still figuing out the tricks to ASE. Do you think the arms and wings is too much? I wanted him to be an Owl-Man . Kinda roughly based off of the owl man from the old myth. I was thinking of a concept of the wings draping off o the arms but still with hands somewhere in there.

What about the head is ambiguous is it the palette i chose you think? Or just the design?

It is supposed to be a first step position so walking.

For the black outlining Is it better to just go with the darkest shade of which ever color your using? I E Red robe = dark dark red outline? I think i need to study color palettes.

I am not sure what you mean by Dither and texturing overload. But you def gave me some things to look at and work on.  I agree on the redundant shades. Think im gonna brighten u his face/beak.

[Mathias]

As for making the wings+arms thing work, I'm not sure. Maybe he ought to be more of a human biped with wings, rather than a humanized owl.

Head is hard to read I mean, tough to discern what is what.

Often, outlines are completely unnecessary. But tinting them the color of adjacent colors may be beneficial, yes.

Your dither texturing, I think, is excessive. You got 50/50 dither going on that doesn't really help to describe the owl's form at all.

Try for an overall simplification of this guy, decrease the details. For instance, give his wings less, but larger, feathers.