I've never drawn a cat before, and even with a reference photo it's proving to be really difficult.
I would appreciate any comments or improvements on the following sprite. I've put him next to a human character sprite for purposes of scale.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/cathelp.png)
2x
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/cathelp.png)
It looked like a monkey at first glance. The coloring makes it seem like it's a two-legged animal, rather than a four-legged animal sitting down.
Also, what if you made the head a little bigger in relation to the rest of the body? With so few pixels you might have to exaggerate a bit to achieve a "realistic" effect.
The guy you put in there for scale is fantastic, by the way.
Without putting too much detail into it or changing your colors I made this edit.
1. Reshaped the body to face more foward.
2. Made the face easy to distinguish and added a tail.
(http://members.cox.net/progzmax/pslimex1.png)
(http://members.cox.net/progzmax/pslimex1.png)
It could still use some work, and different colors with better contrast might help to emphasize the shape of the cat better but this should give you some ideas.
Thanks, ProgZ, as usual. :)
What I wanted most was a way around spending a disproportionate amount of time struggling with that particular sprite when there is so much more to do on the game I'm working on.
I'm still working out whether or not he'll need a walking animation, and if he does I expect to be back here in a few days with tears in my eyes.
This will be my first post and maybe it's not appropriate to give advice, but... :-[
With such a small number of pixels, you really do need to exaggerate the features that make a cat look like a cat. What you've done here so far doesn't need drastic edits to fix, in my opinion... i just made some subtle changes to it. The ears. And a visible tail (kind of runs off the bottom of the frame, and may be more fluffy than you like, but.. that's the idea).
Sorry if i'm out of line.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/cathelpmod-1.png)
Anyway, those ears are probably kind of big for a real cat, but i think it works to define the features of a tiny sprite.
This forum is for giving and receiving advice, and yours is well taken. I really like your edit.