C & C on my Battle sprite

Comments and Critiques please. Especially about the colors.
And also a question, would this sprite be okay for a game with futuristic medieval setting?

The shading doesn't look right.

and it does look futuristic\medieval.

his arms remind me of spaghetti..

I think it needs lighter colors..

though, colors aren't my strongest spot, I have trouble with colors, too.

Can you tell me which part that is wrongly shaded? And what do you mean by it doesn't look right? Out of place or wrong color?

Lighter colors eh? Well, he does look like he was tanning it....I'll change that then.
....
Agh! I have trouble with skin color....
Any suggestions?

Hm....

try experimenting with the skin colors.

that's what I do.

I experimented and this is the result.



Is it correct?

Yeah, it looks much better.

his shorts are pretty dark. Maybe add some lighter colors too it, and define the wrinkles.

his feet are in odd positions, and the way his back is curved, he'd fall over backwards if he was a real person.

First thing you've got is anatomy issues. As the previous posts said about how it doesn't look natural, you should show the muscles in the sprite, it has a skeleton, a muscle structure, think of all that and create a pose.

The lack of shading shows the sprite as flat. The body should be shaded with more depth to show those muscles, and make it a bit larger since he looks weird. The shirt should at least show the chest, and some wrinkles on the clothing to make it stand out, it looks flat so far (the whole sprite, really). Same goes for everything else.

The hair needs more hairlines, as if it were real don't keep it flat.

Experiment with the colors, don't limit yourself with light colors only, use less saturation a bit and use darker shades instead.

Shade over the outlines according to the light source (same as you did for the shirt).

And never use pure black in pixel art, for metal shading: http://www.eminweb.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=407

For examples, check Dollmage's thread for some execellent side view battlers (Only as an example, though). You don't have to follow it, just see how it is worked.