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Whenever I read one of your posts my brain starts to hallucinate.

The problem I do not like it is how you sing. I mean your phrasing, the dynamics etc..there is something disturbing me

It's ok, I simply don't have a very good voice! It's just a hobby and I do what can with what I have - I prefer to let others sing but they're not always around...

Here are two new versions.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/beforethetide6.mp3
http://www.esseb.com/andail/leave5.mp3

Before the Tide has had the drums toned down and softened quite dramatically, and most of the generic fills have been disposed of. The bass has been revamped and is slightly more varied now, hopefully to avoid the marching ta-da-rythm it had before. Also new vocals and slightly varied lyrics.

Leave us without any Choice has been modified in various ways, including new vocals, slightly altered lyrics, and a second voice to make a duet during some parts. The harmonica has been disposed of, as it interfered too much with other instruments.

Hopefully these changes have been improvements....

Loominous' version is without doubt the "best" so far, although I can't help but feel a bit guilty that we've now completely changed the image and its style.
Then again, this is a title screen, and it doesn't really need to be consistent with the style of anything within the game, it's just supposed to be as good as possible.

Oh, and

But when I would change the whole image(like you did(and I know it was only a demonstration)), my drawing and painting work on paper was useless, which took a long time.

Listen, if you're only going to bring one piece of advice with you from this thread, it's this: Don't ever reason like that! That something took long time to make is an awful reason not to change it. Improving in any art is all about killing your darlings.

I've tried to diminish the ken-doll-like tackiness and keep the features closer to the original. It's still cheezy but hopefully it illustrates the points I made a bit better than the previous version:

I think this is arguably the best face version so far.

I would still like to bring focus to his pose - I made an attempt to increase some sense of drama and tension, but the edits after mine have gone back to the initial stance, where he's basically just holding up something without expressing the least what he's intending with it.

Good luck! Fingers crossed!

I agree that the original shading is quite unsatisfactory, and makes him look old and dirty in his face, and I'd also say that DrewCCU's version is basically the original version with a lot of cheap photoshop effects on, which makes it arguably worse, but I'm not 100% sure Ali's versions are better - to my mind they appear more rubbery, like Ken-dolls, especially along with the very strong contrasts around his eye and the tacky highlights in them...

I'd make another paint-over with more attention to his face, but I'll probably save that for tomorrow...

I don't know really...I think the overall design is nice and retro and all, but his pose and expression is just...hard to read.
What is he trying to convey? It looks like he's just holding up something he found on the floor...there's no swooshiness, no drama, no tension.
I think there's definitely room for improvements here.

edit:
had to make an paintover:


just to show some ideas on how to make it more dramatic

Hm yeah the accent thing is an issue, as I usually speak with a very british accent, but try to sound american when I sing just because I think it reads better with more pronounced R's etc, but unfortunately it probably sounds a bit weird at this stage.

About the drums in Before the Tide, yes they're pretty generic, and I guess I could try adding some reverb to them too, and change some of the fills to make them sound less loopy and more varied.

There is little to do about the vocals - the girl who usually sings is in another city and I can only wait until she comes back...

thanks for your advice, I'll work on them later today

Check last post for updates.

I've picked up the music making for a bit and recorded these two songs. Unfortunately I don't have Ida to sing at the moment, so it's all me.

composition and arrangement by yours truly.

Criticism? Thoughts? Opinions? Be frank!

Is anyone else flying to Pisa? I get pretty decent Ryanair prices to Pisa

Certainly.

What I meant is that you've painted symbols. This is very common for people who don't paint much, and you'll always find that children do it. You paint from memory, and conjure mental icons of certain objects. What does a tree look like? It's brown and has a thick vertical trunk. What does a house look like? It has a rectangular shape, a door and a number of square windows. How does a sky look? It's bright blue and has white clouds, and often a bright yellow sun. Grass is green and is occasionally decorated with grey rocks.
Then you apply all these objects on a big white screen, and voila, you've got a picture.
Everything in primary colours, straight on.

This is boring. Challenge your mental symbols - find new colours, new perspectives.

You seem to have painted your picture based on a symbolic recollection of what a house and a tree looks like, instead of looking at an actual scene and painting what you see.

Instead of getting dozens of neat little tips about how you can add a flower here and a squirrel there, I think you should go out and find a scene that you like and sketch it up using pencils and paper. Or, use a photography.

No, but I intend to pay when I get home from my vacation in Barcelona, which is tomorrow.
On a side note, my girlfriend can't make it, so there's one spot more for somebody else's girlfriend to claim, although in return I might claim that girlfriend, being there alone and all. Just saying it's a risk you're taking, ya know what I'm saying.

What does it mean to make a black outline around each frame/cell? I can't really wrap my head around that statement no matter how I try.

Dualnames, sorry if I'm being blunt, but this picture doesn't really work, and I think you're on the wrong track, basically.
Instead of decorating an empty space with arbitrary objects, you need to build your image, starting with the background and working your way up through layers.
Draw a sketch with the basic perspective outlines, then add furniture and clean up the image as you go. Also, you're being way too sloppy with lines and shapes - there's not a straight line in sight and it makes for a very jumbled impression.

I was just gonna say the same - a middle way between the two extremes you've got now would be ideal.

I'd just like to chime in with the previous posters and say that the style is really nice, but the bounce is a bit too pronounced.
furthermore - though this isn't a biggie - his chest and shoulders appear a bit static. With such a high-res animation, you could let the shoulders turn with the stride, so that he'd turn away slightly in frame 3 and 4, with less of his left side visible, and more of his back. Just a thought.

Yeah I guess we could start a new forum, and save what we can. But it wouldn't really be the same.
I'm thinking a name like "Andail's Gaming Society" or something.

It's funny how you can just ask something like this on a forum, and get answers back. You said you aren't a therapist, but sh*t you might as well be haha. There's always good advice to follow here, and I think that's why I've never really left this place.  

This is indeed why AGS is a very good community, as long as you take everything for layman tips and not professional councelling.