Gameboy Soldier - C&C please

[AteOneZero]

Hi there. Here's my intro and now that that's out of the way...

I've been reading some tutorials around and tips from the more advanced pixel artists around saying to try and limit the palette when I work. So with that I tried practicing with the Gameboy palette stolen off Wikipedia.

Here it be.

> Unarmed - Sword - Shield - Sword & Shield <

I've found it extremely difficult trying to get certain things to show properly, such as sword and shield. Working with limited colours and in such a small area is harder than I thought it would be.

Hoping for some guidance along the way. Would appreciate any help I can get with these.

Edit: Made walking animations and tried out another palette.

[Lazycow]

Haha, excellent! I would just change the legs a bit: Don't use the same animation frame for standing and walking. Like ths:



More of them! 

[AteOneZero]

Woo that certainly does look better!

Using the standing animation as a walking frame was a habit I picked up from times when I fiddled with RPG Maker, haha. I'm not really sure if it's necessary to have a different middle frame for walking, but I've been looking up several references. They mostly just leave it as the standing frame though.

I thought of increasing the number of frames, but I don't really think that it is suitable for these kinds of tiny sprites. Do you have any suggestions?

Minor "update":

Top: 2 frame walking
Bottom: 4 frame walking

Will probably get started on the other directions soon.