Sprites are "too small"

I've been messing around drawing some enemy sprites in an art program. I follow the suggested sprite sizes, 34x34, 50x50, and 80x80. I'm showing them to people and they say the sprites are "too small". I don't understand what is wrong with my design.

http://oi68.tinypic.com/etwqr6.jpg

What can I do to make a deliberately small enemy design like this make sense?

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Thou art dead.

You really have to see the graphics in context - as part of a screenshot - to know if they're too small or not. They have to be in proportion to the resolution of the whole screen. Did you show people a screenshot or just the individual sprites? And, of course that sprite looks small in that screenshot, because it is, relative to everything else on-screen!
Also, when you drawing low-resolution sprites, it makes a big difference how efficiently you use pixels to show details.

Your sprite seems just fine to me, except what are the red dashes on the ends of the arms? Are they blades? Is it holding them or are they parts of its arms? Not that it really matters.

yes, it IS an ant with swords. I've not imported the sprites into OHR yet. I suppose time will tell how big it REALLY looks. In the meantime, I'll use more colors...

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Thou art dead.

You might check out this really cool tutorial on small sprites.

http://androidarts.com/pixtut/pixelart.htm

(You can find more here:
https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/How_do_I_learn_to_draw_better_graphics%3F
)

My suggestion is to use high contrast and shading.
This picks out things in the foreground and background, and shows which parts are connected, and how.

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"Imagination. Life is your creation."