I think it looks cool. there's nothing wrong with using sprites as a reference, it can really help in creating certain styles you may be going for just as long as you don't get too reliant on the original.
As for the adding colors bit, I took that as something like this:
![[Image: guy%20new%20colors_zps2cf152sb.png]](http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y452/moryoatminecraft/guy%20new%20colors_zps2cf152sb.png)
This is a quick edit I made to show a bit of an extension of what I said with the little white guy before. Don't think of adding shading as just darker than the original. Try and alter the hue of different shades, it helps add contrast and can make it more colorful and visually interesting.
Other than that there's just a bit of sloppy use of colors such as a color being so close to black that its probably better just to go with black anyway, and a few instances where you could've reused a color from a previous part of the sprite, but you opted to make a new color instead. this is an issue I had for the longest time myself. Just try and remember some colors you've already used and when making something similar, simply nab that color again, or I've seen a lot of artists make big palette blobs in the corners of the sprite in order to visualize the amount of colors being used and to grab and reuse them more easily.
Edit: Hmm. I just noticed something a bit odd when I uploaded the image. It made all of the colors darker for some odd reason, I may need to look into that... The image should still show what I was trying to convey.
As for the adding colors bit, I took that as something like this:
This is a quick edit I made to show a bit of an extension of what I said with the little white guy before. Don't think of adding shading as just darker than the original. Try and alter the hue of different shades, it helps add contrast and can make it more colorful and visually interesting.
Other than that there's just a bit of sloppy use of colors such as a color being so close to black that its probably better just to go with black anyway, and a few instances where you could've reused a color from a previous part of the sprite, but you opted to make a new color instead. this is an issue I had for the longest time myself. Just try and remember some colors you've already used and when making something similar, simply nab that color again, or I've seen a lot of artists make big palette blobs in the corners of the sprite in order to visualize the amount of colors being used and to grab and reuse them more easily.
Edit: Hmm. I just noticed something a bit odd when I uploaded the image. It made all of the colors darker for some odd reason, I may need to look into that... The image should still show what I was trying to convey.