When you say that you used this image as a reference, do you mean that you used that specific image or did you reference a resized and colour reduced version? Because as cure suggests, you mixed the palm and ear up, which seems unimaginable if you were using the original as the reference.
the ear is rather long, looks like you misinterpreted what was actually the palm of her hand in the reference.
A photographic reference was used taken from an article in the daily express. I guess I should have credited this, so my apologies. The image is hand pixelled though and not traced in any way. Was very hard to get right and took hours so thanks for the positive feedback.
It's so fantastic using a mouse and a picture only as reference. It's almost like a shrinked and cleaned photo, but I'm sure it's not that kind. Oh, I don't see any mentioned references, so this is made only from memory! Wow!
I referenced this image from a photograph from the express website and blocked out a rough version at the original resolution (a higher resolution) which I then resized and shaded, however I can see the error in the ear area now I look at this and guess this may be down to me using a higher resolution image to start with. I guess I should be more observant of details. I'm still pleased with the result however as I think this is just about one of the best pixel art pieces I have ever done.