08-09-2012, 08:00 PM
While you're clearly making efforts to try to improve this, I think in the long run it would be easier to remake the body from scratch, to fix the anatomical issues. It's a cartoon animal character, so don't be afraid to use looser shapes than circles and boxes to base it off! What I like to do is do a loose sketch first before settling down on everything, so you can tweak proportions before investing too much into pixeling them. Also, be sure to use references. Perhaps you could look at other professional cartoon characters to get a feel for how to portray an animal character in such a way, while picking up pose ideas to give it more life.
And of course, after getting the anatomy and everything down, make sure you're consistent with the shading. For example, on the one you have already, the pants have less shading than the shirt does on the same side, which on top of having one whole leg be in shadow to signify that it's farther away, looks rather odd.
Of course, work at it bit by bit. There's no harm in getting some done and getting feedback before diving into a big project.
And of course, after getting the anatomy and everything down, make sure you're consistent with the shading. For example, on the one you have already, the pants have less shading than the shirt does on the same side, which on top of having one whole leg be in shadow to signify that it's farther away, looks rather odd.
Of course, work at it bit by bit. There's no harm in getting some done and getting feedback before diving into a big project.