The VG Resource

Your shading doesn't really fit the style of the game (as far as I can tell, certainly not any of the Dedede-sized characters). Also, why did you shrink his head?

I didn't shrink his head. This is what Dedede looks like since Kirby's Epic Yarn (at least when he's not "yarnified"). But I think I've figured out the shading problem and I'm fixing it.

I see there is a LOT going on in the sprite in terms of AA and shading and and that color nonsense.
Does the style even allow for all those colors? Surely it wouldn't help to cut down just a bit.

I do love the sprite though, but again there's a lot of shades going on. Try to show more of the main color for a certain section, let that shine (don't add another shine shade). It'll brighten up the sprite.
Less could bring it out more.

This sprite only has fifteen colors. I don't see where I would cut down on the shading. And this sprite style calls for anti-aliasing, as if Kirby isn't already an example. I made some edits, but I'm not sure if you'll all see a noticeable difference.



I'm planning on making animations if there are no more glaring flaws.

A lot of pillow shading is present. Try not to use every single shade of each color on each and every body part. Pillow shading just screws up the light source.

not so much pillowshading as trying to cram in as many shades as possible in a confined area, which creates banding. i think you're overshading the sprite, take a closer look at both the way kirby and the original dedede are shaded.

I made an attempt at reducing the color count



Its not the best edit for color, but mostly for the amount of colors used when observing the other king dedede sprite. You can see how the areas colored in make the elements stand out which helps with readability. Adding too many colors can sort of blur the detail, what I think is important is a nice crisp look.
And as for shadowing, I went ahead and make some parts darker so that it adds some depth to the sprite. Not sure if that's something you want, but it's just something I'm suggesting.

All in all though its well done

I don't see any reason for reducing the palette, seeing as how I actually did use the same amount of colors for my sprite as was done for the original Dedede sprite (15 colors). I think I finally found that I need to be consistent on how I shade the hands and the feet, as well as using less shades. (Even though Kirby has seven shades on his body, his feet only have four.) And I like how you shaded the sleeve, so I may use that as well.

I'd say your current Dededee sprites are good enough (they're pretty awesome in my eyes, but I'm not really a pro spriter), but a few details need some work.

Especially the rightmost image's fist, which is pillowshaded and looks a bit too light on top of that. Try reducing the brightest area of it to a little spot near the top of the current bright area.