I really like your work. Awesome art direction, awesome execution.
Thanks. I saw that Behind Nowhere website and I was really impressed btw. Great job on that so far.
I've been working on facial studies (graphite and pastels) for more than a year now, I'm glad to hear that the hard work there pays off in my pixel art too. Execution has never been a problem for me, but art direction has. So yeah, kids, if you've got problems with pixels, go back to traditional for a while, it pays off

Also, excuse my weird fascination with symmetry and frontal faces. I've got binders full of people staring straight at the camera. I like that for some reason. At first I wanted to change that, but then I decided that's my style and I'm desperately looking for a unique style, so I'm trying to go with it.
Looking really great! Some small nitpicks, I'd probably put weaker contours and have less contrast near his mouth, since it's standing out a lot more than his more noticeable features (his eyes and nose, imo), and maybe go with a bit less contrast near the mouth and nose area, since it looks like it indents/is too flat around that area.
Absolutely valid critique. This seems better, right?
Old -> New

->
