I spent most of today working on an avatar for my 2D RPG. I'd like some opinions of my work, and suggestions on how it can be improved.

(I've made a couple of minor variations on the same character, to test what looks best)



One of my main difficulties is the legs... they look weird. How can I go about improving them?

Some ideas:
1. Take a look at some references over here at polycount.
2. Use some substle, more relaxed pose, i.e. the left foot points to the front, the right foot slightly to the side. The right shoulder is behind the left shoulder.
3. Put the feet on the ground, currently is looks more like floating sitting pose.
4. The legs are too short compared to the body, take a look at the reference (distance between feet-crotch and crotch-neck).
5. The arms are almost as thick as the legs.
6. The pelvis could be smaller.
7. A more stylized look could be it a little bit easier: exaggerate legs (thinner), pelvis(smaller), shoulders(larger)

Thank you for the suggestions; I altered it in a number of places based off your feedback:



What should be tweaked more? Did I lengthen the legs enough?

I've done a paintover (forgive my lacking pixelsprite skills).I've compared it with the refernce image.
1. I've grounded the feet.
2. I've leveled the crotch up which leads to a further lengthen of the legs.
3. I've pulled the arms farther down. Your arms are too short. The wrists should move on a circle on level of the crotch. Let your arms hang down and compare the wrist position with the crotch and you will see what I mean.

The arms look 'unbalanced' to me... but I don't want them to just be mirrored versions of each other; how can I fix that?
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I would sugguest to take a more relaxed pose. Slightly from the side, in an idle pose you could cross the arms. When holding a weapon your avatar could hold it in the right hand resting on his right shoulder. Bend the whole body slightly. Try to experiement with one avatar, do some quick paintovers and rate them until you get one or two poses which looks good.