Regarding readability, I needed whole minute to see what's the on the image. I thought it's some mariachi with cape trying to toss small blond girl of his shoulder.
Sword is bad defined, especially the tip (I thought it was a girls hand), and because of the shadow on the lower part of the arm that position of the joint looks impossible (try it yourself).
Shield and his left arm don't read well mostly because left shoulder is in impossible position (if right one is down left shoulder should go up) so it doesn't look like arm is connected to the body.
Legs also don't provide any stability and they look shorter than they should be.
I think that you shouldn't think too much about colors at this stage but more about defining your base better. There are a lot of references you can find online that can help you, including this website :
http://www.posemaniacs.com/I'm sure that someone here will provide much better edit but maybe this will be helpful.
