To Tourist-
I really don't know what you're getting at, actually. Are you trying to tell me differently how to do a deer in general or pixels themselves?
Neither. I offered suggestions for improving this piece in particular, and tried to make the suggestions useful for improving your pixel art as a whole. Mostly because your first post said
I not new to art, but certainly to pixeling. ... I have no idea what I am doing.
Let me try again.
Improving your skills at the traditional 2d art basics will improve your pixel skills. Line, form, value, color, perspective, composition, all the good things that art classes teach fit here.
Learning techniques specific to pixel art is necessary to improve your pixel skills as well. The small tutorial on cleaning up your lines, and the link that bengoshia provided fit here.
Style is important too. Pixel art as a medium contains many different styles within it. Just as there are different styles of painting (realism, impressionism, portrait painting, landscapes, and so forth), there are different styles of pixel art (iso, game sprites, realistic, abstract, and so forth). Some styles are more focused on specific techniques, others are focused on more general choices.
When I look at the original work you posted, I see a confusion of different styles. For instance, the smoother vector-style shapes conflict with the noise in the chest/neck fur. This weakens the piece, and makes it hard to see what you were trying to achieve. It's your first pixel art (and it's better than my first pixel art), so no big deal. To help you improve your pixel skills, I suggest limiting your artwork to one or two styles at a time. This lets you focus on improving a subset of pixel and art techniques rather than trying to do it all, and lets you discover which styles appeal to you the most.
I think that reworking this piece with only one or two styles will not only improve this piece, but help your pixel skills overall. Does that better explain my post?
Tourist