WIP: character base for sidescroller

[UncleSporky]

This isn't for a typical Mario sidescroller, more like a Castlevania with weapons and such...how original.

I started with a sprite I made a long time ago, intending to make something in the same vein using the smooth outlining I've seen around here.  I'm happy with the final result aside from his left arm which I can't decide what to do with.  Actually, now that I look at it, both of his arms could use some work.

I've also run into trouble with the head.  I feel like the guy is proportioned too well for an oversized cutesy anime head, but I want to show some facial detail/emotion.  I could just go with what I have but I thought I'd ask you guys first if you have any other ideas.

[bengo]

Most Castlevania games have a more realistic look to them, well the people do anyway(Maybe not for those giant portraits they use while they talk). To show some emotion in the face of your character, you'd either have to make him pretty big or disproportional, if you want to stick to a smaller more proportional look, I would suggest trying to show emotion throughout the entire body, aka body language(I think). For me personally, I think you should go with a more realistic style.

[UncleSporky]

Oh, by Castlevania I meant the gameplay, not the art style.  I could go with the typical method of portraits for emotion + body language, but personally I think I'd find it hard to use a realistic style throughout the whole game, I'm much better with cartoony.

If I was going to have a more normally-proportioned head, does anyone have any good sources for that sort of thing?

[im9today]

Typically an arm is two to three heads long and ends below the waist and a person's body is seven to eight heads tall.

[PypeBros]

i'd say head = torso = legs is quite usual for cartoony character (it works well for the reference fox, for instance).
Still there's something odd in it. The neck and the head suggests somebody more muscular than the body you pictured.

Either "shrink" is head, or boost his shoulders ...

Considering the proportion you'd like, i would recommend megaman as a posing model for your future tests. Beyond that, thumbs up. That's nice pixeling ^_^