Smash Sprites!!!

[Rosencrantz]

So it should also probably be noted that just because you're scaling up on the sprite, doesn't mean you need to *thoroughly* stick to the original sprite's silhouette. There's a ton of detail that is usually lost in a small-resolution image, so animators tend to do exaggerations to make sure they get the right details across!

Move the frontmost hand down a bit to make it look less lop-sided compared to the other hand, and redraw the legs so that they're a bit closer to the pelvic region (they're really spread out toward the bottom). The button furthest away from us should be rotated a bit to emphasize that Mario's stomach is round; use the Mario pic you have as a reference to help you a bit more with that. Mario's hair should be tucked underneath his hat in the back; right now you have the hair look like it's riding up the rounds of the hat. I say extend the hat's bulge a bit in the back so that the round part is past the hair.

Try to also set up your shading so that it's more consistent with Mario's round shapes. The bottom of the cheek, for instance, should ride along the curve and not flip into a convex shape like what you have there. Tone the shading down just a tad there. The hat itself looks overly shaded towards the bottom still, though this may be more a fault of the color choices rather than what you have shaded already. Play around with the shades some more, since you can get away with a smoother contrast than what you're working with right now.

When you get down to the overalls, try to shade it in a way that makes it seem like whatever's lighting up Mario's face is lighting up the rest of the clothing. His back should be darker, his front should be lighter, and shade Mario's stomach like it's a sphere.

You made some crazy progress between those two sprites, so I'm looking forward to your next iteration, sir