Especially compared to the referenced art
One big problem I ran into making these is that the art drawn by Yin/Sophiera has several stylistic differences compared to my own work. I don't mind these little differences, but at times I've changed them back to how I originally had it.
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g295/ZanSidera/NoxFinal2.gifTo name a few changes I made between the reference and the sprite:
-Nox's face was made more pale (and chubbier)
-The complicated shape of Nox's shoulders.
-The way Nox and Vipera's 'vests' are shaded based on material. (Which probably results in the thickness of Nox's clothes)
-The length of Vipera's 'vest'.
-Changing Vipera's pose a bit because the dress isn't that wide.
As you might have noticed as well, the references are cut off at the feet. Something the sprite format didn't permit. Some changes were done because of that as well. Especially with Sententia, I originally tried to use the non-wide dress I had originally designed, but ended up using the wider dress Yin drew because it just worked out better for the pose.
As for this newest sprite; I don't get why you're not using pure black. You're basically using it, so why not? I know you run into issues with transparency, but that doesn't ever stop game companies from using it themselves. I'd also say that using that much of the darkest black for the dress makes her lower body look flat, since you don't do that anywhere else. I think it can be a really effective shading method if you're consistent with it, but right now, it just draws your attention right to her lower body.
I'll be honest and say that I have absolutely no idea of how the folds would fall, otherwise I would have just shaded it with less dark black.
I also don't really like the effect in her hand... I think you've got too many colors in there, and the palette is pretty close to her own. I would put fewer shades in there, and make it a bit more spastic looking. Since it isn't animated, for it to be effective, I think I should be able to look and it and see it move in my head. It looks too compact with detail that I can't see it happening; it isn't dynamic enough.
I reckon that it probably should be bigger, ignoring the size ratio in the reference, and just going with whatever size is best displayed in sprite format. As is often done in games.
I would recommend looking at some Renaissance paintings, because I know that there's tons of poses similar to that one floating around
I actually looked around quite a bit for references on folds for that pose. Couldn't find any, even though it's such a classic pose...
You outta post some animations ya know; you've been doing these single poses for these ladies for quite a while now!
The sprites I post here are the times when I decide to sprite something that I "can" show to others. Just enjoy the dancing monkey in my signature for now.