Alright, I've been at this for a while. I've completely scrapped this twice and have taken a drawing class since I've started. I figured it was time to ask for some opinions, since that could only make my work better.
(http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3846/sprite1.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/sprite1.png/)
I've got the basic look and feel down, but I'm missing something, and I want to get it right before I finish. Any thoughts?
I think you've got it! If you're going for something more "feminine" then try widening her waist a pixel or so, and bringing in her shoulders a pixel or two. Other than that, try darkening any shadows for a little more contrast, or make the backgrounds she goes on more "Shadowy" so that she stands out well in your game! :)
Yeah, maybe take that one gray line of pixels off on each side of her shoulders, so the shoulders seem narrower. Also I suggest you shorten her torso in favour for her legs (shorter torso, longer legs).
The helmet bowl thingy looks kind of weird with gray glass, have you tried blueish tones?
In her side view you bended her arms quite a bit so now they look too long. Try making it just a slight bend (just so it isn't a straight line) like by 1 pixel, instead of like 5px that is now.
Her face needs to have a hue consistent with the colour of the helmet applied to it.
E.g. if you go with a blue-toned helmet, her face should be bluer.
Update:
(http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/503/sprite1h.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/694/sprite1h.png/)
I've rounded the shoulders, and raised and widened her waist. I tried to take the bend out of the arms, but now they look stiff. Also, I don't like the back view.
And I just realized the shoulders look angular.
Hey Red Runner.
Apologies in advance for the large amount of text that follows. I'd like to just give a few general pointers that might help you really define your sprites. Let me start by posting a paintover of your sprite next to your original:
(http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss21/SpacePirateCaine/spacegirl-examples.gif)
I haven't actually made that many large changes - the biggest thing I did, aside from messing around a bit with the pose, is to greatly increase the contrast between the colors you're using (Light and dark valued colors next to one another) and to define the shadows to a greater degree. I am actually using fewer colors in the paintover, as you had a handful of colors that were so similar that it was near-impossible to tell them from the colors surrounding them.
As a rule of thumb, a sprite in low resolution, like your space girl, usually won't need more than three tones for a single group of colors, and in many cases (like the pink), two should even do the trick. In the case of this sprite, there weren't a lot of colors that I could reuse, aside from the gray of the hose to create the dark tone of the gloves and boots. If I wanted to be particularly palette thrifty, I could have also changed the color of the eyes to the darker purple and it wouldn't have been so noticeable.
By using colors that compliment one another as well as having a high enough contrast to be easily told apart, you can create a lot more definition.