I've worked on this sprite for around a week now.
What do you guys think? What should I work on, exactly? Do you think I should work more on my technique? I was planning on coloring it after getting some professional critique from you guys, as I have heard you are pretty experienced.
I'm thinking I might want to add more frames to the punches.
![[Image: 2woja5s.jpg]](http://i48.tinypic.com/2woja5s.jpg)
Most of the "professionals" aren't really around anymore, honestly, but that doesn't mean we can't be of help
Anyway, what stands out to me right now is
1) the proportions change significantly during the kick, specifically the legs get much longer and the torso much smaller
2) the body also gets lower on the y axis during the kick, as if sinking through the ground
3) the punches use almost the same extended arm for both the closer arm and further arm. It looks more like the arms are static and the lines are jumping around, not that the arms are moving. I suggest differentiating each punch more, via angles, length, etc. Nobody's going to punch rapidly at the exact same angle, you'll just look silly!
The punches probably do need more frames. There's no real sense of intensity as they are.
To be honest, this is just a doodle rather than a sprite. If you plan to neaten it later with color and shading, be sure to save a copy of the cleaned outlines so if you mess up, you have a backup.
This being said, you don't have good animation skills as pointed out by starsock, and to add to her post, you need to give the attacks some kind of startup and delay to make them convincing. When you throw a punch, you don't stick your arm forward like a robot, you bring it back to charge, then accelerate it quickly. It is not an uniform movement.
I would like to see your still sprite work though, to see how well you are in shading and colors (which should be good enough before attempting animation).