Critique on Two Character Sprites?

[Scavenger]

I'm tweaking these sprites for my game, and I'm not happy with how they're coming out - they look very awkward and inconsistent, and I won't be comfortable animating them until I know I got their basic proportions down.

Namely, these two characters:
[imgzoom]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50882197/Ollie_Des_Crit.PNG[/imgzoom]

They both look a little wrong to me, but I'm not sure how. Ollie's (wearing orange/cyan) head looks fine to me, and I want to keep that, but I'm not sure about her body. It looks a little too warped to me, but I dunno how to fix it. Desiree's (wearing blue/red) sprites are just a mess, I can't even get her side head to look alright. (I added Jakob's sprite for reference, he's around the size I need everyone to be to fit on the screen)

Ollie's supposed to be boyish and a little chubby, whilst Desiree is supposed to be more conventionally attractive.

Basically, I'm floundering a bit trying to get their designs down in a way that looks consistent and good, and it's really bugging me. Any pointers y'all can give me?

Thanks in advance!

[Mandle]

Desiree's (wearing blue/red) sprites are just a mess, I can't even get her side head to look alright.

First of all: Gorgeous looking stuff!

I am in no way a pixel-art guy...But the problem I would say with Desiree's side head view is that a lot of "body" seems to have fallen out of her hair making her head look narrower from the side than it appears to be in the other views.

Maybe try adding a bit more "fluff" in her hair at the back to round it out?

Also maybe a bit more hair showing around the top-right side of her face sweeping back out of view, and a tuft sticking out slightly under her jaw-line?

[abstauber]

I tried to adjust the proportions a bit after a guide from ProgZ. After that I rescaled the sprites back to the original size - so there are few missplaced pixels.
[imgzoom]http://shatten.sonores.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/scavengerhelp.gif[/imgzoom]

From an anatomic point of view, the thighs are a bit on the short side, and the shoulders are too narrow. But they look great anyhow

[Anian]

I tried without much proportion rearragment:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/X64spbc.png[/imgzoom]

Btw the darkest blue hue on the costume is modified because I could hardly tell it apart from black on my screen. And you put the eye patch on the wrong side in the front view (or at least it's different from the side view). 

[Khris]

My take on Desiree:

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/XfUGCj3.png[/imgzoom]

[Ghost]

Maybe it's just me, but Ollie seems to be the "odd one out".

Jakob is a purely "cartoonish" character; Desiree seems to almost come from another game but she shares the crisp, high-contrast shading- the art style ties the two together and makes it work. Style-wise Ollie is a middle-ground (clearly human[oid] but more cartoonish shape) but her palette makes her appear "softer" and less refined.

On their own, each sprite works perfectly, but I imagine all three of them in one scene would look a bit odd (at least to me). I'd try to bring Ollie's shading to the contrast you use in the other two sprites, just to compare how that works.

[Scavenger]

Thankyou, everyone, for the feedback! It's invaluable!

Okay, I really liked the Desiree you did, Khris, so I tried to transform one of her other sprites into the design you did. I really like the darker skin tone on her, it sets her apart from Ollie and complements her other colours. If it's okay, could I use that sprite?

Ghost: I tried to redraw and reshade Ollie with the same shading style as the rest of the cast. I also reduced the size of her head, bringing her more towards the rest of the humans in the cast:

[imgzoom]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50882197/art/Ollie_Des_Update2.PNG[/imgzoom]

[Ghost]

Ghost: I tried to redraw and reshade Ollie with the same shading style as the rest of the cast. I also reduced the size of her head, bringing her more towards the rest of the humans in the cast:

Looks a lot more "in line" now!

[Khris]

If it's okay, could I use that sprite?

Sure, that's why I drew it

[Monsieur OUXX]

The contrast on Desiree seems more pronunced than the contrast on Ollie. When they're next to each other it looks out of place