not to derail the topic, but fleshtones is reflected on metal all the time. dirt, wood, stone, grass, and many types of building materials all cast that color on metal while the sky reflects those blues. Personally, i find that they complement each other nicely and tone down the armor, which too me looked too crayola. The brown in the hair again is just to take the color down by adding a complement. It doesnt seem at all to have holes in it to me, although sprites of this size are rather open to interpretation.
i also would be careful about defining or redefining why people do certain things, or what they should or should not have noticed, or label things as abuses, or claiming that perfectly reasonable things do not make physical sense. In my experience, That kind of talk has never served anyone.
I like your edit in that the forms are more clear. i worry about making the midsection armor appear to be spandex though, as many games do, when they remove all of the shines. perhaps there is some better medium?