Character Design

Its great piece of work, I think adding a few highlights would make the design pop a bit more. I think because the values are so dark your missing an opportunity to add some nice detailing in the sword and get a better read on the materials maybe.

Other than that its a great design! look forward to seeing it finished!

If your using photoshop go to image>adjustments>Black and white so you can easily check values.
Another thing you can do is make the top half of the character lighter and the bottom half darker.
I did a quick Paintover(not really) just showing of the affect of making the top half lighter. This can help the face pop a lot more. Overall nice design. Don't be afraid to make your lighting brighter in some areas.

Values seem right, but in my opinion you should try to avoid mixing black in your shadows and go for ambient-mixed shadows. Try to think of an ambiant light tinting all your blacks a bit more to the blues. Pure black tends to give a noisy and dirty feeling to a piece