Thanks, this is definitely constructive for me. I totally agree about the shading. I kept thinking to myself that it was hardly visible, but I thought the alternative of using flat colors was worse.

And yeah... the hair. That's definitely something I'll need to work on. I've never created pixel art before, so I know there's some methods I'll need to learn or refine.

Thanks a lot for the critiques.

Not bad at all but in future works when you view your own work at 1X if you don't really see a shade in your palette or a shade does not add/help then its not needed at all. Here you have many unimportant shades and perhaps way more pixelling in the hair than is really needed.

Also, perhaps using a med brown from the hair on the right-hand side eye would better illustrate the somewhat odd looking eye pixel area/cluster.

Welcome to PJ

 That looks great for first attempt :)