@ Bengoshia
While I do like that you managed to totally kill the outlines, the overall pop and definition seems to have suffered a bit in the transition. (the eye in particular is really obscured, and the focus on the head is lost a bit.) On the other hand, the arms look vastly better in the edit than what I was doing, especially the hands (I really shouldn't have tried to add finger definition the way I did. nobody's gonna really notice looking at it now.)
As for gender, it's female. it's not terribly important, but I guess it does explain the cute factor that it has.
@ CrazyMLC
I'm really awful at color schemes in general. I can definitely get a palette going if I can get some basic colors that compliment each other, but usually I just end up grey-scaling until I finally get something that fits. if you have something in mind, I'd like to see.