Cartoon Punk - Any Pointers?

[EnoRed]

I've been out of practice with spriting for quite a while so I decided to try and get back into it again. Here's something I recently made, a character that I might use for a future game if I ever get round to it.



I'm kinda happy with it for the most part (there isn't much shading but I wanted to keep it simple) but there's something not quite right about it... I want to see if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve it or what might be wrong with it.

[Stupot]

Hi EnoRed.  I can't see your image.  It might be because your Photobucket library is private.
Seems to be okay now :/
I like the image by the way.  The only thing I would suggest is to get rid of the black outline of the nose. It makes her look anthropomorphic.

[Ghost]

It's a nice sprite, and I think the lack of shading works quite well. I'd probably make the nose a darker shade of skin-tone instead of black, and the left hand's (her left) thumb seems a bit off. Try moving it one pixel inwards, maybe?

[Anian]

Just a small tip - forum now has [imgzoom ] tags, so when you put an image link inside it, while hovering over you can change the image size. 

Smaller eyes, larger forehead (to even out the proportions) and the pupil is now the color of the pants (saves you a color in the pallete, plus it's darker thus more contrast). Changed the color of the nose (it looked like a snout in black). removed almost all inner darker lines (because you want to save pixels on this low resolutions). Changed her left (our right) shoulder, tried to make it buff but still feminine). Moved the lower part of the legs a pixel to the back, so the stance is changed from slouched the menacing. Changed the hair style a small bit. Changed the skin outline color to something with less saturation but kept the contrast by making it darker.
I tried to keep your style as much as I could.
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/qfhMG0b.png[/imgzoom]

[Igor Hardy]

I think the left arm is a bit weird. Other than that very nice sprite.

[EnoRed]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, everyone. I've made quite a lot of modifications to the sprite in the meantime and I've used some of Anian's edits (mostly a somewhat modified version of the legs on his sprite) as well. The main and most beneficial changes that I did myself are probably the eyes; I changed their position a bit and made them larger and a bit more "cutesy" you could say, and I'm hoping they make the character look a bit more expressive and attractive. I also added a belt and a few pixels that are meant to represent ear and nose studs. The legs maybe still need some work, but I think they look a little less stiff now, mostly thanks to Anian's edit giving me a few pointers.

[imgzoom]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/EnoRed/Sprites/PunkyV2_zps04b586a4.png[/imgzoom]

[Andail]

I don't really like her look, or maybe I just can't read what she's expressing.
I've tried to adjust the proportions in her face a little, and cleaned up unnecessary pixels. I've also worked with the colours and shadows/highlights to add some depth to her shapes.

[imgzoom]
http://esseb.com/andail/graphics/punkedit.png
[/imgzoom]

[EnoRed]

I don't really like her look, or maybe I just can't read what she's expressing.
I've tried to adjust the proportions in her face a little, and cleaned up unnecessary pixels. I've also worked with the colours and shadows/highlights to add some depth to her shapes.

[imgzoom]
http://esseb.com/andail/graphics/punkedit.png
[/imgzoom]

Hm, the shading works pretty well but I'm not a fan of the face. I've tried adding in some shading and altering the face a little bit. I've also started on a front-view sprite but I haven't gotten round to the head yet.

[imgzoom]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/EnoRed/Sprites/PunkyV3_zps004f4a15.png[/imgzoom]

And yes, her shirt is getting more and more low-cut. I think if I continue down this road the next update is going to have her in a thong, so I'll try to show some restraint next time.

[Khris]

Pushed some pixels:

[imgzoom]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb259/khrismuc/PunkyV3_zps15ec33e4.png[/imgzoom]

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

She's looking more and more like a Final Fight enemy with each edit.  It would help if we knew what the mood of the game was going to be.  If it's a comedy than obviously her proportions can be more cartoony and her look a bit silly.  If it's more serious then her proportions should be more realistic and her overall appearance more serious.

[Andail]

I don't really like her look, or maybe I just can't read what she's expressing.
I've tried to adjust the proportions in her face a little, and cleaned up unnecessary pixels. I've also worked with the colours and shadows/highlights to add some depth to her shapes.

[imgzoom]
http://esseb.com/andail/graphics/punkedit.png
[/imgzoom]

Hm, the shading works pretty well but I'm not a fan of the face. I've tried adding in some shading and altering the face a little bit. I've also started on a front-view sprite but I haven't gotten round to the head yet.

[imgzoom]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/EnoRed/Sprites/PunkyV3_zps004f4a15.png[/imgzoom]

And yes, her shirt is getting more and more low-cut. I think if I continue down this road the next update is going to have her in a thong, so I'll try to show some restraint next time.

Really? I mean, it's fine if you don't like my edit, it's not that well made, but is that main character going to walk around with that insanely aggressive look all the time? Is it a parody game? Eyes nearly popping out, mouth almost frothing with rage... Her facial muscles are gonna cramp eventually. Like Progz I'm starting to wonder what level of seriousness you're aiming for

[EnoRed]

Sorry it's taken me a while to reply. The character is supposed to look pretty cartoony and exaggerated, and I don't intend her to have that facial expression the entire game; I just A: thought it'd be more interesting than her standing there with a neutral expression in the preview and B: I wanted to practice facial expressions a little as I don't think they're my strong suit.

Edit: Also Khris, that's a really good edit of the sprite. I'll see if I can learn some things from it.