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I really wasn't putting this much thought into the colors I used. I wanted a colder purple, and a warmer green. I wanted the sprite to look sharp and dramatic, almost like 8-bit, so I used very vibrant shades(I was aiming for clashing, in other words). The green/purple color combo is one of my favorites since I was little, and both of those colors represent poison, to me...
Anyway, you obviously know a lot more about colors and pixel art than I do, and your examples are nice, but they don't exactly capture what I was going for. To me, anyway.
Do you have any advice on my dithering, or the cape, or the sheen on the horns? These are where I wish to improve. I could definitely learn a few more things about color, but I'm not worried about that so much right now, especially with this sprite. (And yes, I know the teeth are sort of messy)
But the saturation feeling can and should be achieved without going full sat, and this sprite is an excellent example! No color in it is 100 % sat except the darkest purple (and the red), and the greens have large hue shifts. Also the small spots of red really enhance the greens apparent saturation, you might try that too.
Actually, the saturation was intended. I was going for the most vibrant colors with this one. The color scheme is inspired by this: http://images.wikia.com/megaman/images/1/1d/MMX3-TriadThunder-Sprite.png
Nice creature! The colors are too uniform and saturated: both ramps have unchanging hue and max saturation, and clash with each other. Edit with 2 possible options:
Dithering is probably unnecessary, except maybe in the face axis. Solid black shadows would better convey volume in the ribs, for instance.
In the face axis, maybe solid black would work too (not sure though): both lights come from the back, so one would expect to have no light on forward-facing surfaces.
The cape folds looks good, the 'frame' (for want of better word) looks solid which might be intended, considering this guy doesn't have much flesh to provide stuffing for clothes. The black forward edges in the front part of the frame might be better replaced by highlights, or even just scrapped. If you keep them, you can use the dark purple to AA the black on green line.
Mixing the colors a bit might help too (just a few pixels of green highlight in the purple side).
The horns might look shinier if the ratio of dark to bright was inverted (mostly dark with one or two bright lines). Maybe use the other color for part of the highlights here too: each horn catches light from both sides.
Teeth: again, use the other color for part of the highlights.
I didn't try any of these points, quite possibly some won't work!