Major revision:
Basically I started over from near scratch. The originals were an amalgam of various reference images, but they weren't built on a solid foundation. I restarted by sketching on paper the main viewing angles so that I had something I could rotate and reposition easily, then translating those:
I also changed the hair. Instead of trying to draw straight lines that sometimes merge at oblique angles, now there are fluffy curls that don't need every last pixel in place to look like fluffy curls. This had the added advantage of fitting into the theme that she assumed early on of sun, clouds, and sky. As a bonus, "cloudy" hair lets me use the HAIR to help express, as negative emotions can use darker clouds to look "stormy." And to give credit where it's due, this hair is a lot more along the lines drawn out by my friend.
She also hews more closely to the geometry of the cartoon characters, with some compromises for pixels sakes.
From here, it was easy to conceptualize different expressions. I was still dead set on yellow as a base color, and on "silver" hair, which don't contrast well, but I added shading to the hair to put darkness against the yellow's light.
Beyond that, the color scheme was tightened to improve contrast, with the primaries used for distinct elements. Reds, mouth - yellows, face - blues, eyes - greys, hair.
I still need to shade the faces, particularly crying. Beyond that, I can't see much else to be done here except add to add more expressions.
Edit: Wow, she looks like a Rabite (from secret of mana). Unintentional!
