Hello!
here is my very first person sprite i drew up. i would like some c+c on it, so i can get better.
(http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/5442/firstspritehf7.png) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2489/firstspritex2ho9.png) (http://imageshack.us)
as its my first sprite, it isnt very good. The person isn't anyone in paticular, its just a person.
I'm not much into low-res, (work-wise) but how's this:
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y271/dagaran/howsthis.png)
Put in a little shading, made the shoulders broader, changed position of one foot.
The face has been slightly altered, eyes reduced to one pixel (less colours!)
altered arms (the right one [our right] looks a little wierd, I should have changed it)
I think that's about it. I'm sure someone else would have better constructive crittisizm.
I'd love to paint over, but that's not the point of comments, is it ;)
Now, when drawing a sprite and adding details (shadows, eyes, hair threads etc) you should always think, why they are there. It's not rocket science, but it's a must, see, the other arm there is darker, I don't see a reason for that. There should be no shadow just for the sake of it, especially when it's obviously not behind anything. That I can tell from the arm closer to his hand. Also, that way a part of the torso would also be darker, since the light would come from behind. Draw a shadow to where the light doesn't go directly, easy as that. Then his pose is a but like he swallowed a pole. I should recommend trying to make for example his shoulders look relaxed, as the are most of the time when you stand like that. Also, people only stand on two feet stuck to each other and straight like that in the army, he's not in army, is he? Basically because it reduces the balance area and needs an effort. Try standing up, you'll notice the easiest way to stand on two legs is to have them as far from each other as your shoulders are.
Oh, and the dots in his pants; You're going to have a hell trying to animate them without making it look like a proton war in a spinning universe inside a disco-ball there. I'd recommend just making the plain blue and add shades etc with shadows and per details.
Some technical notes:
1. Don't use the forum link imageshack provides. Always use the direct link in the bottom text field. (Your pics link to imageshack.)
2. You don't have to upscale the image manually to show a bigger version. Use the width param of the IMG tag:
(http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/5442/firstspritehf7.png)(quote this post to look at the code I've used)
This will avoid a screwed up bigger version, too, considering that your big sprite is different and doesn't use proper big pixels everywhere.