Thanks. I just keep working at it, stopping for a while to get a fresh perspective, and then adding to and changing it until I get something I like. Now you know my secret.
While we're on the subject of VS Sprites...
I could really use some pointers / advice on a few I have been working on.
I started with some bad pixel art, which ended up being too large and didnt fit the pokemon style. So I copypasted two faces from the HGSS VS Sprites and worked my sprites around them to look a bit better. However, I feel these are a bit too small and they don't have that proper "custom" feel.
@Scarf
I've seen a lot of your VS Sprites and I think they look amazing. It's really interesting for me to see the process you go through in sketching one up, I might try mimicing the process and see what if it yields better results. With regards to your latest sprite, I think the second last image is better than the final pose because with the flesh adds a bit of variety and also makes the pose more obvious.
EDIT
After posting this, I decided to have another shot at fixing the heroine's sprite and came up with this (which I think looks better):
You know, I thought the second-to-last frame looked pretty good, too, but I didn't want to finish with a nekkid sprite so I rushed something to cover it up.
Your updated sprite is definitely better. Before it was somewhat lacking in arms. Actually, I think if you pushed the sprite more to the right you'd have plenty of room to add another arm. I've noticed that without arms/hands these kind of sprites don't have the same feel to them. (That's one more flaw with the one I posted). It would help to balance your sprite, too, since it's crowding the left side of the canvas. I'm not sure I like how you changed the collar area. Before you could pretty easily see how the neck flowed behind the collar, but in this version it looks... I don't know... something like the two sides of the collar are attached in the front. At least that's how it looks to me.
And I rather think your blond sprite has a pretty good "custom" feel although I agree with you that it's a little small for the canvas.