@Artificer: appreciated, means a lot!
yes, I enjoy playing with palette, but here only clouds are painted using my "paintery' style colors to make contrast with rather generic desert scheme.
great piece, the dull palette and emptiness really sell the idea of a desert!
The large zigzag in clusters describe the texture of the sand really nicely without having to go into too much detail. Provides that proper vast and empty atmosphere while still generating interest with the contrast of the rocky outcrops and multiple layers of clouds. Getting a lot of value out of those subtle color shifts in these Jok!
Thank you CELS, :) - it's quite raw, sketchy here, probably could be better with some dithering, but serving as the last layer (mostly covered) the impression was more important than details.
Pixelling the desert realistically is so hard to do with few colors, at least for me. This is fantastic! 
Beautiful palette for this piece.