Cute Girl Action RPG Sprite

[Sunjammer]

EDIT: New stuff at bottom

Any crits regarding colors, design, or whatever else are welcome. Pretty new at sprites and want to improve as fast as possible! I think some of my clusters are ok.  The hairband in particular is something I'm stumped on! Anyone know why it looks a lot worse at 100% zoom?

[Pix3M]

I shrunk the body height so the style of the face better fits with the body. Eyes are larger to better convey the intended cute look, hair style changed so the frontal locks of hair curve inward, and some pieces of hair perks up to better capture the tsundere look. Arms are opened up to make the figure more easily read, and skirt is flared to exaggerate the width of her hips. Boots are tweaked to better fit with the given top-down perspective given. Hands are reduced to simple circles to match the round, simplified style of the face. Colors are changed to be much lighter to be cuter as well, since cuteness can only work out with so many dark colors.

Dunno.... that was my attempt at this.

[Alp]

I bumped at few darker shades around under the band, to make the hair "pop" more, and to better show that the band is on the character's head, rather than a part of it.
(I've never used imgur links before, so if this is broken I will edit this post.)

[Ellian]

*jumps in*
Hey; Love that design, this character looks great!

I wouldn't change the shapes much, as it's part of the character... So I think you might want to look a bit into contrast? If you look at your sprite in greyscale, you get this:

The hairband disappear completely, and the hair/coat/skirt/etc melts together.
Make the hair and scarf brighter so they pop out a bit? Also/or add a bit of outline to them to define their shape. The long skirt is better, in my opinion, because it's easier to read as a skirt.
Also you might want to make the coat more simple; those drape effect are cool, but they gives a shape that makes it hard to read. Especially on the right sleeve, it looks like she has several layers of fabric.

(sorry if I don't provide an edit, I'm at work! Maybe later today if I find time...)


(ahahah I feel so uncomfortable at giving people advises I wouldn't follow myself because I'm dumb .__.)

[PixelPiledriver]

The character has an overall good feel.
But the coat is definitely confusing.
Is it a puffy coat?
A sweater?
A cloak?
Try to describe it more specifically.

[Ellian]

Edit~
Obviously the left arm would require more work, but you get the general idea~

[Sunjammer]

Thanks so much for all the feedback! I realized I miscommunicated what the character is supposed to be, it's intended to be a kind of noble traveler girl and not so much a schoolgirl!

Everyone helped a lot with the hairband and the contrast was definitely a problem, thanks Ellian. I'll work on that and the colors more.

PileDriver, your advice about describing the garment better helped a lot, I realized that covering the top part with the bow thing made it unclear if it was a coat (open at the top) or a cloak, but it's meant to be a cloak... I did some changes to try to represent it better, maybe there's still a way to include a bow thing. I wish I knew how to describe forms with so few colors and big clusters like in your edits, it would make animation much easier.



Attempt at simplification ~_~

[Pix3M]

Hairband and the accessory worn at the collar threw me off and thought "schoolgirl?", but lavender colored-cloak and a tiara might tell us 'noble' a little more clearly, and tried drawing hands put together to get that cute and feminine look.

[Sunjammer]

With help from the advice you guys gave I practiced a little and came up with this, which I think is better than before, so thanks! Still have a long way to go obviously

[astraldata]

The hair and the jacket colors are waaay too similar in both hue and contrast. I suggest either brightening the hair or the cloak colors to give it more contrast because, as it stands, the hair looks like a hood to the cloak (especially on the front facing frame.)