Dark Souls-like Art

Dark Souls-like Art

Hello all.

I am a 2nd year Computer Science student with several years of programming experience. I'm beginning work on a 2D Souls-esque game, but I'm a terrible artist and don't know anyone else who is good. My game, currently untitled, will play like a Souls game. That is, you're punished for dying, bosses are particularly hard, and you'll have to work at it to get good. I have access to tiles, since open-license tiles are perfectly usable at this early stage, but finding a suitable spritesheet for a basic character is proving to be troublesome. Since this is my first real game project, I don't want to spend money or request long-term help from other people in case the project fails.

All I need is a simple 4-direction sprite sheet with a simple sword slash animation. This should be done in pixel art, and have a dark tone to it, similar to the Souls games. A Zelda Link To The Past style perspective is preferred. 

If anyone has anything already made, or that they'd be willing to make for free and release on here, I would greatly appreciate it. Once the game is finished, it will be released for free, and is currently being built on a custom C++/OpenGL base. 

Thanks.