Painter girl (Need some advise)

[sfried]

Here's a version of her without the paintbrush and pallet:


Originally thought about it if she were better suited wearing a cardigan. Here's how I originally wanted to approach her pleated skirt:


A few areas I could use some help:
1) I'm not sure if the final skirt shading that I have above is better than the preliminary design (lower right). Shading the pleats was a pain especially with this kind of lighting, and the above works if her skirt is billowy, which was not what I had in mind originally. Any tips on how to shade pleated skirts (or any skirt for that matter), or just how to make the preliminary skirt shading work would be greatly appreciated.

2) Finding appropriate color schemes for the character was also a pain. I had originally envisioned her in pink but it looked too saturated. Anyone have any good ideas for color combinations? She looks rather darb right now.

[Chis]

If you're not looking for a billowing skirt, I think the previous design worked better. And pink cardigan > tan. And I love her shoes.
The highlight on her shirt is too strong - from the shadows it looks like it should be darker than her skirt, but from her highlights they seem to be almost of the same brightness. I also think the shade of brown you used around the edges is too dark. I can't see it as shadow, I just see it as brown.
Is she holding the brush in her cupped hand? Cause that's not how most artists roll

What about yellow/green/pink/blue + brown/grey?

[sfried]

If you're not looking for a billowing skirt, I think the previous design worked better. And pink cardigan > tan. And I love her shoes.
The highlight on her shirt is too strong - from the shadows it looks like it should be darker than her skirt, but from her highlights they seem to be almost of the same brightness. I also think the shade of brown you used around the edges is too dark. I can't see it as shadow, I just see it as brown.

Thanks for the tips. I'll adjust the highlights as you said. The shade of brown is an aftermath after swapping pallets and changing the shades of pink to beige. The shoes, in particular, were the hardest parts to get right, and I think it consists of the colour pallet of the vest, so changing the vest colour would affect the shoe colour as well.

Is she holding the brush in her cupped hand? Cause that's not how most artists roll

Are you talking about the pose?

What about yellow/green/pink/blue + brown/grey?

I'm working with a 4bit (16 colour) here, so I'll see how much I could pull off. I'll try the pink cardigan/skirt + brown vest. Yellow vest/skirt seems to be a nice option, too.

[Chrispy]

Either her upper half is too small or her bottom half is too large.
That pose is very unnatural. She looks like a deer before it gets hit by a car.
Also since she's a painter, make her wear colors that show that she is artistic and creative. Maybe purple or green. Or both.
I suggest more than 2 shades per color, also adding somewhat of an outline.

[sfried]

I did some modification based on the feedback (the highlights on the shirt), and tried to work in the protoskirt shading. Most of the trouble I was having as with trying to replace the shade of brown around the edges: The trouble was that they were also the same colour as the shoes. I used her hair colour for her footwear instead since you could get away by just claiming they're moccasins Once I sorted that out, the rest was easy.

I took your advise Chis and went with the pink cardigan and replaced the skirt/beret with white. Odd thing about it was while doing the colour changes, she ended up looking like she was wearing a sailor uniform instead. I figured why the hell not.

Pink or green?