youmu pixel
If you want to get some solid advice and perspective on pixel art, I would suggest checking out wayofthepixel.net
Here is their general pixel art board where most people post and get critiques and advice.
Here you can find their archived threads where there was very noticeable activity and improvement on the part of the OP, very worth checking out. And then
here is their thread on tools and various tutorials, also worth looking through.
Even if you don't make an account, just lurking around can prove very insightful.
I can try give you some critiques right now though. First of all, you're using way too many colors, all you need is a base, shadow, and highlight color, just 3. I think I'm seeing like 5 colors on that hair, that's way too much, especially for such a small sprite. All that detail is going to be lost. You're also missing an outline, I can hardly tell where Youmu's head ends and where the grey background of the forum begins. In order to make the sprite stand out in any context, do an outline. The black square hair ribbon also sticks out like a sore thumb because it's the only shape that's entirely solid and angular compared to everything else.
Here is a really general, all-around tutorial that will greatly help you, on PixelJoint. Just ignore that section on sel-out, and don't bring it up on wayofthepixel since it's a bit of a controversial (and already more than dealt with) topic, with the general opinion there being that it's an erroneous, bad technique.
Color palettes always fascinated me when it came to pixel art.
This tutorial starts to explain some basic color picking choices. Specifically, the idea of 'color ramps' in particular were really fascinating.
This thread has a few posts explaining it, as does
this thread. From the not many I've seen pixel artists, I've become a big fan of
syosa, and there's a small interview with him
here where he also talks a bit about color ramps and it's all really interesting and cool. Definitely check it out.
And finally,
this is a really cool interactive online tool on developing a color palette.
e: oh, and I thought
this gif, also by syosa, was a really cool way to show his process when developing pixel animations. I think it's way further down the road, but it's really neat and may perhaps motivate you to continue working on your pixel art.