I think you should keep it how it is. I like the simple pipe smoke.
heh, I don't mind at all, I really appreciate the extra tips and critiques. I was planning on changing up the smoke one last time later tonight since its the only thing I really want to continue to change up. Thanks again!
I know the challenge is nearly over but have you considered spicing up the smoke theme a bit?
I hope you don't mind another edit (I really like the character, it's fun to work with), but here is something rushed again with a quick idea:
Great touch-up, now this has a good chance to win the challenge.
wasn't there like a smoke bubble before? I thought that was pretty funny. The edit looks really good though :)
Ooh, very cool, that does look much better. I'll get to it. Thank you
Nice old school wizard design. As Adam mentioned, not a lot of smoke involved in this at the moment. Also the colors are exactly the same as Fool's rider piece.
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/21064.htm
Might be decent to at least mention in the description if you use another artists palette and art as reference.
Nice design, though I think the actual challenge theme - the smoke - is in a need of refinement (and smoke on a transparent background will be very tricky).
The colors remind me of Fools Rider piece, but the dithering is rather intense (i think you could lose all of it with that many colors), and the whole piece could benefit from a unified and stronger contrast level. Do not be afraid of intermixing objects in the shadow area - even if you lose the outlines.
There is some banding, especially on the beard, with some more careful clusters this could easily be overcome.
Here's a real quick edit to show what I had in mind, I barely touched the outlines, just some shading:
cool
nice edits btw