How to improve this WIP

[tpendle]

Hi All,

I am new to pixel art and here is a characted I'm working on :

I have made several characters to this level, but I feel like they don't have enough texture/shading. What could I do to improve this character? Examples are welcome and feel free to take the image and improve on to illustrate your point if you'd like, thanks!

[Pix3M]

Something that jumps out at me was the character's balance. Dunno if you might feel the same, but I felt he might fall over... 

For texturing, you could totally push value contrasts farther, and sculpt the face and torso a bit to make it appear more textured. Also added pockets there too, which while isn't 'texturing', I feel that makes it feel more textured



Not a whole lot of texturing proper you can do at small resolution art, but you use other tricks to do that instead

[tpendle]

Hi Pix3m,

Thanks a lot for your response, that's good work! Good job on changing the color of the darker green, makes a world of difference, an the pockets are a great addition too. I think I still need to work on the boots, they look a bit too "simple" at the moment, and maybe make the legs a little longer so he doesn't look so top-heavy. In any case, thanks very much!

[heyguy]

Hey tpendle, I like your sprite a lot and I think Pix3M has improved it in some interesting ways. The boots still need some more attention at the moment, like you said. Maybe you can shade the hands so you can make out the individual fingers? Or you can give him a mouth? Maybe a patch or emblem somewhere on his jacket or bicep? Like Pix3M said, it is such a small resolution it looks like it's close to done to me but I think the additions are great.

I'd say draw his little 5 yr old sister and set her up next to him or post another one of your characters!