[C+C] RPG base character sprite in need of repair

[Candy Man Criminal]

working on the base sprite for an rpg
trying to go for a chrono trigger / illusion of gaia / secret of evermore blend
the upper half i dont hate, but the legs... yeah...
help is appreciated

[Candy Man Criminal]

well i've made it a bit better, and started work on a female base, too
could use some input

[Johasu]

I really think you are overdoing your color ramp a little bit and taking the AA too far.  You'v got probably one too many colors to accomplish what you want to do here.
Rather than having a dark color bordered by a lighter color bordered by a lighter color and so on until you get to your highlighted color, try to let one or two shade tones carry the form.
The sprite is really too small for that much variance to each form, in my opinion.  So your body segments look really rounded and poofy.  Sort of like those muscle suits that people where http://www.fancydressmagic.co.uk/img.ashx?i=/images/products/5052_big_120805202349.jpg

Try removing one of your darkest 2 colors or adjusting the use of it and allowing your 2 middle tones to carry your form. 
I also think your faces are a bit too busy.  That heavy dark color on top of the head and between/around the eyes is taking all the color out of them and basically just masking the personality there.
Take the shading down on the face.  Let the eyes pop out.

[Joe]

Hey CMC, here are some thoughts.



The nose/mouth you have isn't working, especially with the broken line at the mouth. The size you're working at makes everything very hard, so props for that.
Definitely want to add more mass to the skull. The single pixel noise and the broken outline aren't helping readability. Other than that, some minor anatomy tweaks. And shading the form. The woman will be clothed but I think her breasts could be lower. Also relaxed the pose a little. Oh also, I toned down the saturation a bit, especially in the eyes. That blue is piercing.

I'm not satisfied with my own nose/mouth combo but it's just an idea for you. I would like to see how this turns out, keep it up.

[Candy Man Criminal]

came back from editing to find an edit
so i edited the edit into my edit



as a side note, the top of the head doesnt have to look good, its gunna be under hair

at the risk of innuendo, i love your body 

[Candy Man Criminal]

decided to toy with it more, im liking where its going but its still not quite there



i cant make a feminine face to save my life
did try messing with palettes for skin colors, not as disastrous as i thought it would be

[Telek]

Am I allowed to offer advice if I have no idea what I'm doing?  Still 100% new at this, so disregard if this is totally unhelpful.

I tried to soften the facial features a bit, in an attempt to make it more feminine.  Could probably still use some tweaking.

[Candy Man Criminal]

that actually helps a lot, thanks


also i just noticed i hadn't finished editing the female's arms... oops, lol

[Seiseki]

It kinda looks like a guy with a mustache and that is really hard for me to unsee now..
I don't think you should have such dark colors in the middle of the face.

I always leave the faces blank though, at this resolution I've never found a way to convey mouth and nose.

Here is an edit though, I also tried to make the female more feminine..
And I removed the pixels around the brow because I thought they looked kinda angry.

[Candy Man Criminal]

and thus begins me being indecisive
top row has the angry eyebrow pixels, bottom doesn't
though i removed some other pixels that were also making it look angry
with just the ones between the eyes i feel it adds a bit of intensity to the expression

also tired variations of face, just mouth, just nose, nothing
cuz you're very right, the mouth/nose combo i had just doesn't really work