Lopear Elf [WIP]

[Puppet]

I'm having some serious trouble with the anatomy of things which makes my pixel art worse then what it should be.
I've tried making a elf base from using the refference I have given.
But obiously it's feet are terrible and whenever I try to change them they look even worse. The arms and the tummy off the base I have improved from what I could but it still just doesn't look right. I've tried lowering the arms, marking them higher, wider and smaller but still it just doesn't look good.
The tummy was far to fat and is still a bit to fat for my liking but I just can't get it to work with the arms and hands.
I can't pixel hands nor feet sadly and because of this I have hit a rock in my path.
Here's what I've got:

I've used the head from the dark elf because it seems to fit but I do plan on altering it.
I have no added colour to it because I feel it's lacking in a good outline.
What I'd like to use this base for is not just for a elf base but able to change the heads on the base to fit multiple races with a few modifications.
Sadly in the refence there was no real base so I shrunk it, took the colour out and this is what I got. I altered the arms to make it a bit better. But some help on this base would be greatly appreshiated to help me get in the right direction instead of being stuck.
Refference:

[progFX]

Hmm it looks more of a chibi to me.

Things to consider based on Lore Elfs are whimsical characters, that don't age, so they are always to look around the age of 19/20, and elders no older than 28. Elfs are fit, with sharp features kind of like the vampires from twilight lol, you want to make them look tall, i did a base head to kinda give you an idea around the style you seem to want to achieve, using proper anatomy rules in this would not quite apply, since your character would be rather tall in that case. I would probably choose a body size nearer to that of your reference for height, just think of very victorian slender posh kind of style when designing a elf.

heres just a sample head to kinda give you an idea of what I meant, I haven't done pixel art in years so hopefully it helps a bit.

[Puppet]

It does look chibi because I've mostly done cartoon like pixel art haha.

Hmm I see, I guess my base is too child like. I should of done some research upon Elfs.
Twilight lol. But I understand the refence.
Victorian Slender Posh.. Thanks, I'm going to try and give it a good go in a moment.
As for your sample thanks, It helpes a lot.
I didn't expect such a quick reply.
I'll update this later when I redo the base. Thanks for the advice.

[Puppet]

So after a few days of still trying to alter the base I can't get it to look anything like an elf.
Here is what I've got. 1st attempt is me altering my original base to try to fit it a bit more, 2nd one is a clean copy and paste of progFX's head onto one of green ravens templates because I wanted to achieve the big hands, 3rd one is a stretched and a few alterations to green ravens base.

I know I shouldn't really just be modifying people's template but I think the last looks okay-ish with it.
I don't know how to make a good base, I've tried redrawing the head and decided that maybe progFX's design is a similar way I should go, for now progFX's head is just a temporary place holder.
Oh also the elf I want to persue for the looks are the Lopear Elfs.
Some help would really be appreshiated in what I should do to improve and create it to my own base.

[ErekT]

Shoulders are too narrow, arms are too short. Fingertips should reach down to about the middle of the thighs when you hold your arms down along the sides. Look at the arms and shoulders of the elves you posted as reference. They're stylized with huge heads and all but most of their anatomy, like length of the arms and legs, still follow real-life proportions. Well, relatively

If you find yourself frustrated because your figures all look wrong somehow but you can't say why exactly then chances are it's because your knowledge of anatomy isn't solid enough. I recommend checking out books like this: http://www.scribd.com/doc/255814/Andrew-Loomis-Figure-Drawing and practice drawing people, the more the better, using the principles in this and/or similar books. Tedious perhaps, but well worth it.

[Puppet]

Ah yes! I was trying to figure out what was wrong haha.
The only reason I use big heads is because I can add some really nice hair detail to it and not make it look so stupid although I have only really done anime based hair and nothing much to do with real life.

Here's the sad thing, In traditional drawing I can draw a person with decent anatomy just when pixeling it goes to crap... I guess this is my first real attempt at trying to make a base for playable characters, with the monsters you don't really need to know much about the anatomy of things because obviously it's not real life so anything is possible and the outcomes are endless.
Thank you for the link it'll prove use to me yet.
Maybe... I can draw what I'm trying to create, take a photo and edit the photo in paint. (That's all my computer can handle that and Graphics Gale but I prefer paint for now.) So I can have a nice basic outline of which I created.
Opinion upon that?

[Puppet]

So after a few days of trying to draw a decentish elf I came up with this:

Oh also it's not a sketch, it was taken from my sketch I just cleaned itup via pixels.
I would however like some help on how to turn this into a decent sized Sprite for a game because as of right now I have no idea how to do so.
Tried shrinking it down to a decent size but it destroys it.

[Cure]

there's not gonna be a way to shrink it and preserve 1-pixel thick linework. only thing you can really do is flood fill it and preserve the shape. Really it'd probably be best to be blocking out shapes and working with volumes before getting into the 2d linework stuff. that's what I find easiest, anyway. also the torso is too thin, hips are too narrow, and neck is too short.