[WIP] Soldier - C&C welcome

[Pixelchunk]

Hi guys, this is actually the first time I've posted something on this forum, the first time I've posted any pixel art ever if I think about it. But after going through the forum I saw that here I could get some good advice and pointers (since, well, I'm a newb when it comes to pixel art). I'm trying to design a soldier character for a possible game (platformer/shoot them up) but I feel that what I've done so far could be better, anyway here is the piece I'm talking about so have at it


 

[michelcote]

I really like the style you're going with here! The image is very readable, some places need a bit of work, I think.
The arm holding the gun looks very mannequin-like, like it's an action figure or something.  That sounds kinda cool come to think of it 
The helmet placement looks a bit off considering the pose, like it's on kinda slanted away from the camera. The back pack needs a bit of attention as well, it looks like it's planted into his back.
You did good saving this as a .png file but your colour-count could easily be brought down. For example, the darker green shading changes colour all over the place when a single like colour would achieve the same result. This might not matter for this piece, I'm not sure if you have a colour count limit, but it's something you might want to learn about in pixel art. Section II of this tutorial by cure explains this in further detail.

[Pixelchunk]

Thanks for the link, I didn't see the helmet was slanted until you mentioned it now It's kinda obvious, I'll see about that also I'll have to think about the arms, and yes you got me the backpack was "planted" as an afterthought. As for the color count, there isn't one but I guess a smaller color palette would help when I'll have to animate him.

LE:

I've worked on the soldier a bit and this is the update, it looks OK but I can't say I get how to cut down the number of colors used just yet.



LE2:

Here is another update: