[C+C] First Pixel Art Characters

[JoshBurnstein]

Hey guys,
I'm pretty new to doing pixel art and I started creating a couple of characters.
I'm not that good at shading yet, so I'd like to know how I can make it look more natural.
Also I want to know what you think of the overall look and anatomy of the character and
if there's anything that needs a drastic change.

[MysteryMeat]

The anatomy looks pretty stylized and nonhuman so there's really not much I can critique here.
I'd say use the turnaround of Winston from overwatch though, you seem to be going for a vaguely gorrila-esque look for this character so it might be worthwhile to check him out as a visual aid.
The shading on the abdomen makes his chest look concave, try to soften that some! And also look into fixing the light source, your shading is kind of all over the place here! Set up a circle and use that as a guide for where the light would fall.

[JoshBurnstein]

The anatomy looks pretty stylized and nonhuman so there's really not much I can critique here.
I'd say use the turnaround of Winston from overwatch though, you seem to be going for a vaguely gorrila-esque look for this character so it might be worthwhile to check him out as a visual aid.
The shading on the abdomen makes his chest look concave, try to soften that some! And also look into fixing the light source, your shading is kind of all over the place here! Set up a circle and use that as a guide for where the light would fall.

Thanks for the tips.
I widened his torso a bit and fixed the lighting, though I think it still doesn't look quite right.
I also changed my color palette up a bit.

[Bollie]

The thing why it doesn't look right is because it looks flat. It looks flat because of the shading. Also, you don't need to use so many colors for the shadows and highlights, especially if the colors are so similar. I did a quick edit so you can see, what i am talking about

[JoshBurnstein]

The thing why it doesn't look right is because it looks flat. It looks flat because of the shading. Also, you don't need to use so many colors for the shadows and highlights, especially if the colors are so similar. I did a quick edit so you can see, what i am talking about

Thanks for the tip. I did it again this time only using 3 colours.


I also redid another creature with your tips in mind.

[Bollie]

It looks much better now. Can you see, it is not flat?