That's a fair point. I'm not sure what the applications of using more colors really is, but regardless it wasn't a judgment point, just curiosity.

As for position, that's fine if that's something you weren't worrying about.

Focusing just on the looks, the dark crease immediately behind the eye is pretty heavy on the contrast and distracts from the eye, it might look more smooth if softened a bit. In general though the look is good, so as long as the other stuff was based on intentional decisions then carry on, you're doin' good :)

I already gotten down on how to make efficient pieces with fewer colors on big pieces, practiced it extensively and got satisfying results! That's why I'm practicing the reverse. Using more colors on smaller pieces, as such, this surfaced.

Another reason is that I'm working on a game with a friend where he gave a 20-color palette (monochromatic, if you will.) and make each and every sprite with all the available colors, it can't have 19 or 21, just the exact 20 he gave me.

Why he requested that, I do not know.

Also, I didn't really aim for realism here, I didn't focus too much on the anatomy and focused extensively on the looks of it, so, yeah, the colors and positioning of the facial features present in the face are slightly unrealistic.

Apart from that, thanks for the crits! Will definitely take note of them.

Out of curiosity, why practice that? What value do you think you get out of the extra colors that isn't gotten from careful use of fewer colors?

Any crits I would give mostly dovetail out of the excess of colors, specifically how breaking down all the regions into smaller clusters makes it noisier and invites banding more readily.

A crit that departs from the high-color thing would be that some of the creases you have in the skin, especially around the bottom left where you're pixelling the folds of skin under the eye, are too dark. They're too harsh for skin, which even when folded stays fairly soft in its transitions. The top eyelid has a much more appropriate sort of fold.

Also the eyebrow is too close to the eye itself - it's practically right on top of the eyelid. At this zoom level we wouldn't see it at all.

In general though the piece shows a decent understanding of how all the mechanics of the piece work, it's just hard to judge things through the wealth of colors. Still, looks good!