[WIP] freshness

[chimico]

this is my first topic, then i should kindly introduce myself: i'm chimico (read like 'kìmiko') and this is my first authentic pixel art. i've done some isometric pieces of furniture some time ago (and that's all my experience), but i used thousands of colors at the time, and they were way too unsaturated to turn out interesting, so i may post them but i should first apply some changes.
here it is, it's a gift for a friend of mine.

i used no ref - well, i first made a drawing of a male face on paper which i've been watching while working, but this anyway turned out completely different. my goal was to make something extra-detailed trying some dithering. i engaged myself much and spent really a lot of time on it.
the palette is composed of 14 colors by now (without background) and i'm planning to delete the lightest skin tone.
main faults i see:
- the shirt looks horrible, boring and poorly detailed;
- the guy's left hand seems to be lightened from the right, while the light source is  more or less on the top left corner, in front of him.
... and maybe his expression is a bit too stupid. any advice? i'd really enjoy some! and crits!

anyone remember the commercial? when this is satisfying enough to me, i'll add the typical white text on the red bar.
hope to make this better.

[popkiltr]

Thoughts:

1) The floating mento has very little shading or depth, it almost comes across as a white hole in your image.
2) The Outline on the thumb of the right hand is a bit dark, and grabs my attention too much.
3) Maybe the shirt could be dithered less, and stick to some more solid tones.
4) The dimensions of the left arm are stange, I'm try to picture where the elbow would be

The hair is great by the way, and your use of 14 colors of only brown and blue is interesting to me.
I could image that you have experience drawing, and that really comes through in your work.

[kitty]

The hair is very good because it has form.  Everything else is flat. :[
Dithering is evil!
If you do the shirt how you did the hair and face it will be interesting and detailed.

[chimico]

thanks a lot for your suggestions!
here's the current version:

i think the shirt improved a bit. i changed the shadows on the left hand and tried to fix the arm thing (it was so evident, don't know how couldn't i notice it).
i'm coloring the shirt with an unsaturated blue and trying to reach 16 colors in the palette (they're 13 + 6 temporary tones of grey for the shirt, at the moment)

do you think it improved? i'd really like some advice before the final touches!

Dithering is evil!

you're quite right, but i just wanted to try it... if i used and not misused it, would dithering fit nicely on the shirt? (i'll never know...)

[Dusty]

Dithering is not evil.

Anyways, I seriously suggest straitening out that foreground mentos package, unless you plan to smoothen it out a lot... which would be wasted effort when you can just make it straight.