Embroidered portraits

This is a picture of my son. I loaded it onto Picnic and made a few adjustments: And then it looked like this:
I then transferred it onto some cotton and embroidered it. Then it looked like this:

It looked OK but I wasn't quite happy with the way the eyes and mouth turned out. It also looked a bit boring on the plain background, so I made a new portrait with a few changes . I chose green because it is his favourite colour. Now it looks like this:

Please let me know what you think. Should I colour only the face? Or maybe make a solid green backgroud? Or use different shades of green to fit with the shadows? I shy away from the last option a bit because then it becomes an applique and not an embroidery piece.

I would love some fresh input, so please send me your comments.