Ethan's sprites

[8obis]

update: shaded karate davis a bit more

Try using a even darker colour like grey for the shadding. But i do think your gonna get better. Reading some tuts really helps. I find my way with these:
PF's sprite detail tutorial
Eddie's base making tutorial
Chishio's shading, hair and head tutorial
Alolectric's 2 in 1 head tutorial
Gad's random sprite making

And you could try doing more than just simple edits. Make some new hair, clothes. If you wan't to make it better make a new face maybe add a weapon and so on.

Anyway hope i helped

~RtXaS~