quick bump with a new portrait, this time i tried the live action cat in the hat

Thanks Cyangmou, unfortunately I came to the same conclusion that my reference pick was a poor one, but a little too late. The second one I posted was me trying to deviate from it a little.

I agree that this would be theoretically easier to do at a higher resolution, but for me (for now) I prefer working smaller because it feels to me as though rather than having full control I can hide some of my incompetence in the sprite size.

The best I can compare it to is guessing on a multiple choice question, if there's only 4 choices you have a 25% change of putting the pixel in the right spot, but with 8 choices I have more freedom than I know how to work with.

I personally prefer the second skull, though that's coming from less experience than you. One of the biggest changes I made were the teeth, as I'm mostly doing this to practice that "cluster" concept and wanted to find a way to forego the isolated pixels.

I think this all looks top-tier.

I think her torso and legs look great. Unfortunately the previous posters are correct regarding the size of her noggin'.

Her arms, as well. They make her seem masculine. Trying positioning her slightly differently so as to not exaggerate her biceps.

It's a neat design, and another user has already  offered an edit toning down the detail some, but I'll go ahead and be another voice and say that I do believe that may be what holds back this sprite the most. Perhaps try a less-is-more approach in order to help the readability.