Some advice on these sprites?

[awipe1]

Hello everyone!

I am making my own ROM hack and I am trying to make new trainer sprites but I am horrible at it. I just want to know if anyone could offer me any tips of the new sprites I have already made? I mostly have problems with shading but if you could give me some tips on how to make my pictures look more 'natural' I would greatly appreciate it. Here are the pictures I have made so far.
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Thank you in advance! I really would like feed back on these!

 

[Emburn]

Yeah, you definitely need to shade better. Try gradually switching the colors instead of going from straight white to dark grey and things like that. Also, there's a lot of smaller details that need to be fixed. They just look not defined enough. They are pretty good though.

 

[awipe1]

Yeah, you definitely need to shade better. Try gradually switching the colors instead of going from straight white to dark grey and things like that. Also, there's a lot of smaller details that need to be fixed. They just look not defined enough. They are pretty good though.

Thanks, I have been trying that shading thing but it doesn't work!

I am horrible at shading.

What small details do you think I need to work on?

 

[GFA]

For a first-timer your stuff isn't too bad. Try placing a light-icon in your program to help you remember how shadows should fall. Remember that in Pokemon games the light source is coming from the top left. That is if I remember correctly, anyway.

 

[Elaitenstile]

I'll give you a few tips to boot:

Always get the limbs right. No person in the games have twisted legs and arms, right? Try stretching your arms and legs to see if you can imitate that person's pose. That way, you'll find out if it's realistic.

Try to make a general pose on paper about the pose. Like, a stick-man version. That way, you can get to relate through your poses more.

Try not to depend on other sprites' parts too much. If you want a good pose, it should not copy a game character's. This obviously means you'd have to go more than imitating an other sprite.

Try not to make the outline pixel colours of the sprite (like the ones you use to colour the outlines) too bright. Make them dark, so it won't look awkward when you see the difference between the brighter outlines and the black outlines.

Make sure your anatomy stays right. If a person is bending, then don't make the person unnecessarily tall or disjointed. Like I said, a general sketch beforehand helps.

Lastly, use dull colours for the clothes, especially pants. When you're selecting the pant colour in the colour picker, make sure the Sat value stays a bit high.

I'm not saying your sprites have these problems, but this should help you in the future. Good luck on your project, as well.