it has a cute face

This is good advice for the next time, thanks for that! I take it to heart.

The sand is a neat idea, but it feels rather noisy and overwhelms your careful, lovely pixelling on the turtle. I think using a lower-contrast colour for the sand would look better, still sandy without looking as noisy and without overwhelming the turtle's features. Lower contrast would also make the grains look smaller.

Sand in the shadows should probably also be darker than sand in the lit areas. Having it all the same colour flattens the forms that are otherwise quite 3D thanks to your shading.

Here's a quick edit to show you what I mean.

Thanks for feedback, I was afraid it would be bad with this sand

its really cute that he has sand on him! gives it something unique ;^^