So... About 'bout these ears?
I hope the light source is finally clear to everyone and that the ears no longer look attached to the skull. Last change I made to the sprites was adjustments to the eyes. I tried making the eyes white instead of yellow and love how they turned out. Though I also loved my yellow eyes. Maybe my color pallet choice in the yellows wasn't the best or do white eyes just work a lot better?
Now it looks like a cat with ice cream cornets stuck onto it's ears. It's because of ear shading. Bright pixels in cats ears give the impression that ear isn't hollow but that it's going outward, that's why they give conic feel.
Yeah... Lots of people noticed the ears looked very cone like. Hopefully the new ears look cat-like to everyone now.
I second HDMD's feelings about this sprite's ears, and also about the shading. Your new version also has a weird skull shape -- seems to be shaped like a rock instead of a skull.
My edit addresses the main problem of your skull issues, both in the new version and the old version, and it addresses the ear shape in your new version. In your old version, your ears were part of the skull somehow, and it seems that's the case in your new version somehow too.
There needs to be clarity in your 3d forms -- not just a stylized 2d silhouette -- to make it work.
I'm going to make a modified version of the cat sprite with the more wild ears look at some point and I'll definitely use some of your shading suggestions. I always felt something looked really off about those sprites of mine and you made it very clear (both visually and verbally) what was wrong with it. Thanks to everyone for the help. If it weren't for all the useful advice I've gotten here and other places, my work would look a lot worse. Constructive criticism just encourages me to try harder.
Edit-
Funny to think the color pallet had 18 colors when I started this thread and now I only use nine colors.
