I don't know where the idea that this more detailed scene is more complex to implement into a game comes from. You literally just need to make shadow sprite, and one that goes in front of the player's feet to imply they're in deep grass. You don't need to shade every space to make sure wherever they're standing looks perfect with the blades of grass that are there. Where does that idea even come from?

Anyway the newer version looks good, I suggest for a next step you take what you learned with the grass and apply it to other areas in the scene, such as the bushes in the back. Right now they're looking pretty noisy. If you apply the techniques from the grass (simple shapes, hue variation etc.) you'll have a much more harmonious scene. Look forward to seeing your improvement.

Latest one. Not sure what I think about the flesh tone criticism. I think it's pretty hard to misread and to me it gives it a more painterly quality. I'm trying to keep the palettes sort of small and only use colors used in the small sprites on the portraits. I'll try some different things on the next one.

Hi, been messing around with this for a few weeks and I've decided I'm gonna finish it.

Just wanted to get some opinions on it before I spend a lot of time on it because I've never done anything this large before.

The thing that bugs me is the shading on the face seems to be coming from the bottom right, but on the helmet it's on the left

Is this a good way to color it?