Feudal Japan: characters

So I started this contest with about 2 weeks to go, with the understanding that the contest was based on a historical concept. It wasn't until later that the announcement that we could go in different directions but with my time limited I stayed the course. I normally paint directly to color so in an attempt to learn a new method I tried to paint using ambient occlusion. I felt the method left something to be desired, but it was an interesting technique,

So with a start on research I wanted to create an balance of female and males. So I found that in Feudal Japan during this era males really were the dominant geisha. It wasn't until near the end of the period that females started to work in that position. I also learned that even though female emperors and samurai were rare they did exist. So with that knowledge I made made the empress, samurai, and peasant female. With all the research I noticed that the colors were saturated and vivid so I kept the colors similar. I tried to in