could need some advise on a character sprite - mckracken style

[movti]

hello,
so this is my very first attempt at drawing/pixeling ..well, anything. so i began by trying to pixel myself. i started by pixeling over this zak mckracken sprite because of it being the best game developed so far. i ended up with this.
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although i obviously love the style of zak mckracken, i felt that i needed a little bit more space and detail. so i doubled the resolution of my sprite and pixeled over it again. this is what i came up with.
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now, i guess i'm happy with the head..the shoes are almost still the ones from zak but i think they are ok, they look just like mine
but what do i do with the rest? especially the legs and the hands? the legs are flat and the hands just look stupid. tips on the hoodie are welcome aswell.
i couldn't come up with a way to shade the legs, so i tried dithering them. here's my poor attempt at that.
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not really satisfying. also, do dithering and other shading techniques even go with each other? not that i sticked to any rules anyway. i'd love to do dithered shading in general but i wasn't able to apply it on the face or hoodie.

any advise on improving this sprite is appriciated. especially paintovers. those are always welcome. also i would like to hear some critics on the overall style from the colours and pixel art view.

speaking of overall style, here is me in some strange colourful environment. this wasn't pixeled or dithered by hand. it was achived by gradients, filters and various colour adjustments. without dithering the character doesn't seem to fit in there so well, i think.
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alright, i will take a nap now. have been sitting in front of my pixel self for quite a while now..
hopefully there will be some helpful responses.. good night

[Babar]

I really like this style!

As far as crits go, the arms should be a bit longer. Even when relaxing them (not having them straight), they come well below the crotch. Stand up straight (with a backpack if you have one around), and let your arms fall to the side, and see how far low they go.

Some may suggest getting him to bend his knees a bit, but personally, I think it is great as-is.

I know you said you are happy with the face, but those nostrils are seriously bothering me . They shouldn't be visible from this view. Something you could try instead (to break up the monotony) is having an extra 3-4 nose pixels on the line where the moustache is now.


Also, I quite liked the dithering attempt, and yes, different shading techniques most certainly can go together, in fact, I specifically like yours because the dithering captures the texture of the jeans in a nice way, while, for example, the face wouldn't be shaded like that.

[Khris]

Tried to make him look more human-like without diverting from the style too much:


       

I loathe drawing noses with a passion

Moved the light source above him.
Mostly kept the original's colors, could still use a bit more contrast.

[abstauber]

I like the flat coloured version with the gradient background best (not the background, just the sprite )

Dithering would make your animation job harder and the flat colours already look cool.

Just one thing, try to move the light source on top (like Khris did). It looks more natural on your backgrounds since I guess you'll never have light completely from the left or right.

[Monsieur OUXX]

try to move the light source on top (like Khris did). It looks more natural on your backgrounds since I guess you'll never have light completely from the left or right.

+1.
The side light is the thing that was bothering me when I saw your srite, even though I couldn't put my finger on it.

[movti]

old & new

updates:
- new shoes
- adapted drop shadow
- jeans shading improved (i think)
- new zipper
- slightly longer and bent arms
- few changes on the hoddie
- nose

so what about the nose? is it any better?

i left the lightsource where it is since i'm not working on any game so far. so that's not an issue at the moment. (btw, if someone's planning a game i might join, pm's are welcome). this is rather a test to find an appealing grafical style i can live with.
i see that the dithering can be a lot of work when animating but i really like dithered shading and rather want to keep it.

thanks for the input guys. keep it coming.

[Monsieur OUXX]

i left the lightsource where it is since i'm not working on any game so far.

I understand what you're saying, but BEWARE! In 90% scenes there is at leat one strong light source coming from the top, and considering the lighting is the main part in actually drawing your character, I wouldn't consider it being something that can be postponed, unless you like having to start *again* from scratch later.

[movti]

what i ment was that not only am i not yet working on a game but that i don't even have any particular idea/story for a game. so there's a high chance that the sprite will never show up in any game. as i was saying, mainly for grafical style finding and training purposes.
thanks for your concerns though.