{WIP][CC] Temp Work Mercenary - 3 Protagonists Needing Design Touch-Ups

[Quady14]

Hey folks, I need some pointers on good/bad pixel art practices to improve from where I'm at with anatomy, detailing, color, etc. The leftmost sprite is the first of the redesigns I'm working on, the other two characters I still need to update and touch up.



EDIT: Removed some misc. pieces of art and updated description of what I'm seeking for feedback to make the post less cluttered and vague. Apologies for that 

[7Soul]

So which sprite do you need help with? Sorry but I don't feel like reading all of this (sorry, not trying to be rude, just your post is a little vague)

[Quady14]

Sorry that's my bad, I should be going one sprite at a time. Mainly I want to know what I can improve/add to the latest design below, so that I can strive for consistent quality when I update the other two character designs. From there I'm mainly just looking for suggestions to improve their designs for when I do their touch-ups.



I feel like I could implement more depth in perspective by learning how to effectively use anti-aliasing, maybe dithering too, that my lines may be jaggy or anatomy may be off-kilter (I mean obviously on the bulbous head but that's intended, more the limb lengths I mean). I'm looking for critique on what could be better with color palette for readability, whether there's too much color or just color in the wrong places, are my pixel clusters okay or should certain bits of shading be moved/increased/decreased? That sort of thing.

[CFKaligula]

Edit:
In my edit i mostly saturated the colour, cartoony chars look best when saturated. Also you gotta draw attention to special parts of their design, for this one, the eye is the biggest part of her char design, so try to make that more stand out.

For techniques you should use, i would definitely recommend anti-aliasing, especially for large sprites like these. You should aviod dithering tho, dithering is best used for texturing background, it doesn't look good on characters, except if that char were to be made of rocks.

[Quady14]

I appreciate the detail on saturation, will definitely fiddle with colors a little more towards your edit. Some details I don't want to blow up as much like the lips, but the pupil could definitely use a little more prominence. I agree based on past experience about dithering, definitely better for environments, which I also need to push my experience with soon. I'll take a look at some anti-aliasing tutorials and see what sticks for me as well. Thanks for the input!

UPDATE: I implemented some of CFKaligula's suggestions on color and detail as well as a couple extra accessories to make the outfit stand out more. I also added some animation to her face, though with her body frozen in place it looks a bit unnatural.



Next I'll either go to work on some different body poses/animation next or move on to The Horror.

P.S. I don't really know how people tend to organize their color palettes. I sort of mish-mashed mine here together and the transitions seem mostly smooth, is that generally the purpose or am I missing some execution on my palette?

[Quady14]

After a good while I've got an update on The Horror and Ulon's designs. Any input/feedback is appreciated!