King Bill Sprite Help

[Squishy Rex]

Yeah, I'm coming close to a desired outcome for this sprite, however, I feel I cannot get the shading right. Below are the four versions I have made:
Top Left: The original released King Bill. The shading is as bad as it gets.
Bottom Left: I began to rework it by removing some of the top splodging. Now it looks flat -_-
Bottom Right: This I think looks good, however, I feel it is still lacking.
Top Right: This one is the most recent. I like it, however, again the shading just doesn't look right.

King Bill

Spoiler: show

So what do you think, which is better and could anyone improve the shading further? I am nearly at wits end with this thing so any help/feedback would be appreciated.

[bossedit8]

I think the bottom right is for me the best graphic to use in SMBX and the the top right but the bottom right hits my favourite. No idea where to fix something by that though because it looks very nice.

[Squishy Rex]

Okay thanks bossedit8, I would choose one of the right ones as well, it just feels to me that the bottom one doesn't quite have enough, yet the top one has a little too much. If I could find a nice meeting point between the two I would be definitely satisfied. Though maybe it's just an issue when it comes to shading while basing it off of HD GFX. Thanks again.

[zioy]

Could you send me the top right one? I may be able to help a bit.

[Squishy Rex]

Just right click and save the image I posted. I haven't made it into a functioning NPC yet, or at least I won't until the finish it to the point it looks perfect for me.