I know it's kind of pointless to post just to say you like something... but I really like this.  I really like the colors overall and the tiltiness of the trees in specific.  I almost feel like the darkness of the ground should be emphasized even a little bit more (that is, yes, I think they look better on the blue bg), maybe a few patches of dark moss or something like that in the open areas between trees could get a similar effect?
The only thing I don't really get is the wheel/barrel thing at the top.  I can't really tell what it is, or what's up with the shading on the end of it.

I've been working in a particular pixel art-ish genre of digital art for quite a while now, and I wanted to post a few pieces here to see what insights you guys might have (there aren't nearly as many people in this particular sub-sub-genre/community as there around here).  The things concerned are 32x32 item icons as well as characters/objects in a sort of oblique-ish perspective.  They tend towards being both detailed and high in color count, which requires a certain tightness that just painting and resizing really can't accomplish reliably.  Basically, I usually start out by working in straight pixels, and then (sometimes/usually) port to photoshop to adjust the colors, contrast, darken/lighten certain areas, etc., and then clean it up with basic pixel tools.  I'm only going to post a few here because most of what I do is for a not-yet-released project.  Anyway, I really like it because, in some ways, it's like having some of the rigor of pixel art but without limits other than size.
So, a few random things.  A werewolf, a skate (item, not monster/environmental) a bird skull (it's an item, but whether they're in perspective or not varies based on mood and precedent) a couple of shields and a couple of axes.

I agree with politopo that the old shape was really going somewhere (though it needed to be a little less busy), and the new one doesn't really have the same appeal.

I have to say, I agree wholeheartedly with with Helm and Mathias have said.  I feel like Dex's stuff could be really, really awesome if he reigned those things in somewhat.  I think it's the outlines not following the texture the shading suggests which really makes it look odd to me.

Nice bump... though I would definitely love to see how this ended up turning out.