Long time ago since I posted something

[thernz]

Yeah, I would lay off the use of black. It's a very strong color that can destroy unity in a sprite and create readability problems. It only works on Robertson's sprites because they're used for light outlining and even then, it pops out a lot in his work.
As for a walking sprite, it usually helps me to block out the limbs to different colors like green for the arms, red for the body, and blue for the legs. I think the key to a good walking sprite would be lots of bounce. Hair, clothes, everything, to give it a fun mood to fit with your cartoonish sprite. So just accent the shirt and hair to lift up after the contact frame when sprite's legs make contact with the floor.