Help me improve these human enemy battle sprites

[Gors]

You have a very different method of making sprites - which isn't wrong per se, but it can be a problem when making characters.

Using a figure to create poses can help when creating art, but tracing it will make you too "tied" to the figure. Usually, clothes don't wrap our body so tightly, and thus the fabrics drape a little and leaves some breathing space between the skin and the clothes.

The ones you've drawn with pencil are the best because you applied the cloth draping and thus it seems much more lively, with better silhouette expression.

this being said, the downside of using a figure to model your characters is that probably you only have one figure - and using the same figure to pose all characters will result in everyone having the same proportion. People are quite varied in physical appearance - be it a womanly shape, or a manly shape; fat or thin; and even size of limbs and torso in comparision to the head can change a lot even between people of the same family. So, even if a figure is great at giving you insight on how you do the pose, don't be afraid of playing with the types of body you can apply. Diversity is inherently fun, and helps your game stand out.