I'm afraid I might've made the shield too detailed
oh yes, I like it lots.
the shield looks good! actually I think it might need some more detail...shading on the bottom, perhaps? just a bit to fit in with the shading style of the rest of the sprite. otherwise I'm fine with it.
his right (our left) arm looks weird imo, kinda like he's got it in an L shape. o_O looks good other than that, though.
Is this enough shading?
and his right hand will be holding a sword
Ah, now there's an item in tow, it looks really cool and much more complete. Keep going!
yeah, looks good now. I really like the style for this, btw. it's some weird mix of badass and cute.