Totoro

[TheThickestNobleman]

Hi! This is my first time ever posting, so please bear with me. I've been on here for a while though, stealing all your awesome patterns. I know it's not exactly video games, but I'd like to do a Totoro bus stop picture. Plus, I've done so many video game ones that I feel like I'll scream if I see another Mario! I've studied hard and done it in KG stitch, but my problems are the little girl's face looks weird, and the leaf on Totoro's head is too dark. Plus, it looks kind of blurry, but would it look a lot better on the completed project? I set the width to 360 pixels, so that is about the size I want. I just finished a HUGE project that took 7 months to do, so now I'm itching to start another! Please, I'd really appreciate if someone could help.
Oh, also, is it worth it to do backstitching all around the characters to get clean lines? I don't mind doing all that after everything's done, I just have no idea how to start! Thanks!

[TheThickestNobleman]

Ooh, one other thing. If possible, I'd like to have the Japanese characters from this image added in. I wanted to use the gif because it was clearer, but the jpeg has the characters. Not the most important though, I could figure out how to do it after. Thanks!