Part I


Thanks for the compliments, Ginny!

Nasty Freak,
I like the whole “adventurer" concept, especially as a variation of Indiana Jones (but with a wife-beater and a safari hat). You did a good job with his proportions, too. They look pretty natural.
Right off the bat, there’s a few things I would recommend to improve the sprite. I’m not a big fan of black outlines, since they tend to make characters look flat. Instead, try to use a darker shade of each color you’re outlining.

His perfect symmetry also contributes to the flatness.

As in my previous post, I suggest drawing lines through the figure to represent the “contraposto." (This is when the lowest shoulder is on the same side as the highest hip.)



Rather than draw outlines of his limbs and fill them in, I prefer to draw them as silhouettes. It’s ok if they’re a bit sloppy, I’ll go back and refine them later with a small brush.



Next, I fill in our new shapes with your original colors, leaving the darker color as an outline. At this point, if the outlines don’t look quite right, I make small changes. (I’m leaving things a bit baggy around his knees on purpose.)



Now I’m going to add the hands, the belt, a third color level, and fix the shirt. (If you want to keep things less complicated to make the sprite easier to animate, you can always just take out the third color level.) From front view, when he has his hands resting at his sides, you will not be able to see all of his fingers.



I’ve been saving the best for last. The face is also pretty tricky to draw, so I’ll break down the process a bit.

Just like I did with the legs and the arms, I’m going to make a silhouette of the new face, then fill it in, leaving the outline behind.

I think the safari hat looks better as an off-white color.



It’s time for finishing touches, such as the moustache, eyebrows, eyes, and some shading. I also changed his shoulders a bit, giving them a more natural slope.



The new sprite sports a total of 17 colors.
Boots: 4
Pants: 3 (the really dark brown is a boot color)
Belt: 1
Beater and gloves: 3
Face and skin: 2
Hair and moustache: 2
Hat: 2

Here’s the original and the final one, side by side.



Hope this helps!

Ian


Part II


A few things should be changed with this sprite. First of all, his colors are too close to their outlines. Also, he should be shaped a little differently. There’s not much I can actually say for a tutorial, as most of this sprite’s changes involve basic pixel pushing.
I’ll fix him up, then give you a list of the changes I made.



-Used all the colors I used when I did his front view
-Shortened and reshaped boots
-Reshaped pants
-Redrew arms and gloves
-Redrew torso
-Reshaped face
-Redrew hat

I know it sounds like I did a lot, but it only took like 15 minutes...
You might want to look closely at the differences between this picture and the original (especially the body shape and form).
By the way, I’m not sure if this view lines up with the front one. You might need to modify it a bit.

Hope this helps,
Ian