Hello there. Before we start, I'd like to ask you not to get offended. I'm sorry if I'll come off as blunt or even rude sometimes. My intention is not to make you feel bad, but to give you an impression of what should you work on.
First of all, comparing Julie Law to your newest sprites, I see that you've improved a lot and your grasp of anatomy is better. However, without beating around the bush, it's still very poor.
Let's start with Chris Toll. The anatomy is horrible. The arms connect to the body in a scary, unnatural way; the proportions are way off - it looks like his hands would reach his knees when he has his arms down. The hands look more or less like sporks.
The colouring and shading is fairly nice, but the overall sprite looks more or less flat. Actually, the whole character looks pretty much like a cheap figurine - he doesn't look like he's wearing an actual shirt nor that his hair is real. Your shading gives us an impression that the clothes are a part of his body and he's wearing a helmet. I know that it might be quite hard to make believable hair. Try not to make angular hairstyles; it's hard to pull them off realistically. While shading, try to define the individual strands.
Clothes... Remember that they tend to fold, the contour of the shadow changes depending on what it's covering. Guessing from the shading of your sprite, his body should look like this:
 =  ?
I'm sure that's not what you had in mind while shading that sprite. Look at Gumshoe here:
Notice the round edges of the shadows. They give us an image of a round, slightly barrel-like body. Not angular!
Hugo Craise is much better. The anatomy is better, I guess you could make his neck wider, but it doesn't stand out all that much. The clothes look good. The real problem here is his face, especially the nose. Try to stay away from cigar shaped ones, as much as you should try to stay away from angular hairstyles. Focus on vase-like noses first, they'e easier to get right. Leave the more outrageous shapes for when you feel really confident with the 'standard' ones.
I'd suggest you make your shading lighter and more delicate in that area as well.
Rosa would have to be my overall favourite. It's a very nice sprite, just make her head slightly rounder.
There aren't many problems with Doug Deep either. All he really needs is a bigger space between his eyes. And a less angular hairstyle.
John Shades... I see you've worked on the folds here, really nice. I'm not really sure about his torso... There's a large space between it and his arm on one side and none whatsoever on the other one. Try to balance it out more. Stay away from the line tool as well; use bezier, the effect is much more natural.
Overall? I applaud you for free-handing your sprites, still I would go back and look at the official one again; you have a very poor grasp on anatomy and it is a serious problem if you want to make sprites entirely from scratch. I suggest you study anatomy a little; there are many good tutorials there on internet. DeviantArt is full of them!
If you don't want to do that... There is another way, but it won't help you forever. I don't know what kind of program do you work with, but if it has layers, you will have to make use of them. Before you start your work, make up a pose using the parts of official sprites. I'd suggest you do that for the face as well. Then, you make a new layer and start your work from there, using the 'frankenstein monster' sprite as a sketch. Still, it's not a very viable method. Better grab these anatomy tutorials.
Also, the outlines of your sprites are way too sharp. Try using the antialiasing technique.
So... Thank you for putting up with me and I hope my post was of any use to you. Keep up the good work and practice ;)
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I know it's not good, but the style of the characters were very different for me by the time, and this was my first attempt ever at creating a PW sprite. And yes, it is crappy .
I have an upgraded version of her, but I'm working on it.
Larry Butz: Ace Cosplayer (I know it ain't funny...). Just for laughs
This is my second OC, made with my amazing skills with the touchpad...He's a prosecutor for an upcoming project of mine, that is, a fan game. I've got a better version of him, but I can't access it since my laptop needs repairs.
