I'm starting to wonder what those other sprites on the site look like. Is their lighting really as ill-defined as this one? Yeah, sorry for being a bit harsh there. I'm probably among the group of people that aren't very fond of adoptables, probably because the typical adoptable, at least ones I see all the time, are like this one. Not the greatest, but that's not to say all of them are bad.
Sometimes, you have to wonder if it's really worth sacrificing your style to this level, given you're above this. Yes, I did--sort of--steal that from ptoing
here. (
!) But you can still say it counts.
As stated before the lighting is pretty ill-defined. I have a feeling that had it not been for the huge amount of noisy texture you piled onto the shading it'd all add up to be banding. Even then the texture doesn't look very convincing, I must admit. More like pixel noise than anything. As for the palette, a considerable note on the side, it looks like you've taken hue-shifting to the next level. It looks strange, to say the least.
It seems here as if you just used that thing they call "selective outlining", basically using a slightly lighter outline for slightly lighter shades, which usually doesn't look very good with so many colors. You also seem to have forgotten about the segments of the worm. Each will stand out a bit, have their own little highlight and a bit of shadow around them. They should be defined, but not that much. Just shading the basic forms won't cut it here, especially if this is a final version.
Perspective seems a bit out of whack. I suppose this is because the tail end of the larger worm trails off to the right too much. You know, that bit to the upper-right where his body bends one last time? Also, the segments of the body surrounding the "collar" seem to curve too abruptly. It makes for a strange and rather uncomfortable position, in my mind. Think of it this way: It looks like an L. The less it looks like an L the better. It would probably be better off looking like some sort of a C.
I understand. That part seems a bit confusing. An edit may be needed.
