I have the feeling it was pixeled, but he/she saved it as .gif. When you save pixelart, either use, .bmp, .png, or if you have a program that can save as .gif, then thast ok. I use a program that converts .bmps to .gifs. It is called GIFFY. You will have to search google for it because I do not have the link.
Good luck.
I don't believe that this is pixeled. It has 128 colours and far too many of them are similar. It also looks like a dodge/burn tool has been used on the hair and face. It looks a lot more like a colour reduced cg painting.
Please prove me wrong