Help with RPG base

[Dazz]

Hey guys,

So let me start this off with this. I suck at pixelart. I've known it for a long time, I've not done anything custom in a long time, and frankly I've been somewhat scared to share and ask for help with anything and really even dedicate my time to something, because I know that whatever I show is going to be pants. I run a large spriting community, but I'm crap at spriting.

I used to be hugely passionate about it, but that dissolved after little success in making anything of the minor skill that I possessed. I'd like to think I've got some balls actually asking for help, but here's why;

I've recently been inspired to actually work on an RPG of some sort; I already have a rough draft going of the story, concepts are in place, gameplay has been mostly worked out (no calculations of the the stats system yet, but we'll work on that soon) and all that's really left is an art direction.

That game is going to be set in a sort of alternate fantasy universe, but have massive ties with the real world; politics, historical war, that sort of thing. The game is mostly going to revolve around the theme of liberation, betrayal, regret, sorrow, but also joy. I don't want it to be seen as TOO serious, because seriously, it's an RPG which should be fun.

So without further ado, please help me out here. I've got a long history of how I got to the final product, so I'll explain my progress after you see it here;



I started with that monster in the top right, with no real direction for what I was going for. I think that would be an alright style if I didn't screw it up, but then I tried something else.

I took a photo of a person standing, shrunk it, distorted the perspective, and traced over it a bit. I then cleaned up the lines, and tried to give it a bit more of an obvious structure. I laid out the skeleton, and the fake muscular patterns that would be within that body, and then tried to shade those in to look more normal. I then cleaned up some of the lines a bit, before noticing that the character looked like he was seriously squatting like he was getting ready to take a poo.
I then added facial features and jigged around a few parts, and increased the shading's visibility. I then added a stupid haircut that looks like shit.

I want outside thoughts on it; and please do be harsh. I'm not going to be doing the sprites for this game, but I want to have some input into the overall visual style of the game. We don't, as of yet, have anybody on the team besides me and Raz. I'm waiting to ask for help from a few people until we have something to actually show of our work so far... We've only been at it a couple days, so everything is pretty rough still.


edit: urgh, now I fucking hate it, looking back at it...
I'd rather take this step by step with advice. Please look at this instead, and let me know how I can make it not look like a really fat guy. Or have the other one not have such massive black areas.

Additionally, I'd appreciate any edits to anything too. It'd really help!