Haha, there is a bit of history there. In the beginning of last year I got my first contract job as an pixelart character animator, for the game Toxic Crusaders by Retroware. Now despite my basic animation skills being very solid, I still had very little experience doing these kind of characters and styles, and had to learn and adapt pretty much on the fly. So during a whole year (and still ongoing) of work, I've really started to enjoy this particular way of style and animation. Though I'm still very much learning. But being able to cough something like this up in such a short amount of time is something I could not have done a year before, and love to develop further. Thank you very much for the compliments gawrone! Very sweet to hear ;D

Warning! Music nerd analogy!

There are many guitar shredders (like Steve Vai), who do not only play guitar, but also other instruments. Usually they are very efficient at them, enough to record whole tracks for themselves to play guitar solos over, but they remain virtuosos at the guitar only, as their main instrument. But there is also Tony MacAlpine, who is criminally underrated, and who is equally top level virtuoso at guitar and piano.

Most of pixel artists, including me, are admiring you for your animations. Your skills at pixel animation are so great, that it is easy to overlook what a great pixel art designer and painter you are. Just look at those character designs, and their emotion expressions! Brilliant! And it is important to notice, that this is a last minute art, made in case the challenge would not close, yet the quality is astounding. You Weerdmeester are a virtuoso of more than just one thing. You are the Tony MacAlpine of pixel art.

Speechless at this art

This looks excellent! Great style =)