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Weekly Challenge: Gates of Heaven/Hell
Panda also made an excellent cloud piece which won top 10 a few months ago, I've used it as ref a few good times.
Colossal Katamari, by Snake has some excellent swirly clouds/fog, too.
With the dithering, you should simply use it less. You have the three dither points, 25% 50% and 75% and on this picture you've for the most part only used 50% and then placed down a bunch of random dots to make it look like a smooth transition. I suggest you take a look into 25% and 75% dithering. It'll make your shades blend into each other smoother. Don't be afraid to use huge single blocks of colours on low colour pieces and then use the three dither stages to quickly blend between them. IlKke is a great pixel art to study for this as he does a lot of 4 colour pieces.
As for your clouds, well it helps to draw an outlined shape of the clouds, as say a black line. To then make it less of a solid mass and more "cloudy" you start erasing out a lot of that black outline so that you end up with just bits of it in key areas. You can then use your shades accordingly to make the clouds stand out. Big Brother is a pixel artist who does clouds very nicely so check out his. Also check out Dex, who's not quite as good, but he does clouds very well and with few colours.
Glad to see you're interested in learning. 
I actually like the dithering. As a whole it makes it seem aged, beaten, distraut, and all the other "crazed scene of hell" words that can be associated. Love it!
I'm glad you like it!
Sorry for not answering earlier, been away the whole weekend. Because of that I had to hasten up my work on this scene. A lot of things can still be improved, and I will try to fix as much as possible now before the competition ends.
TheInquisitor:
No need to apologize. How should I improve if no one tells me what needs improvement? But I do have a question. Why is it bad to "dither" much? I believe it's necessary when making pictures with as few colors as this, but then again, I don't know any other method of blending colors.
About the sky, I am VERY happy about how it turned out. I have never made clouds before, and I feel I can't do it better than it is now. At least not with my current skill-level. I do see that it can be improved a lot, but not by me.
I have edited the picture a little. How do I upload the new version? Do I have to delete this one, or can I simply "overwrite" it? The picture doesn't change even when I click "Edit Details" and upload the new picture.
WOW, my picture wont win against yours, actually I think my picture is crap compared to all the pictures in this challenge
I'm concerned that a lot of the feedback here isn't being very genuine or helpful. You've got a serious case of over dithering on this pieces, GW. Dithering should be used sparingly. There is also a specific craft to it that gives you the best results. You'll learn this with time. There are a lot of flatness and perspective issues (take note of the openning door which I mentioned to you before) on this pieces. You haven't really got the hang of how lighting and shadows completely work when trying to make a 2D image portray three dimensional objects, take your door handles for example.
Another big problem this piece has can be best exampled by the swirling sky cloud. I know it's supposed to be clouds swirly, but you really haven't identified any form for the cloud, you've just dithered in some swirly pattern. You should really take the time and care to draw the clouds and make them appear as if they are clouds. This is possible with the amount of colours you've used.
Sorry to completely slaughter your entry there, but I was very concerned by the amount of unjustified praise being handed out by a lot of the other guys. What I will say positively for the piece is that your colour pallette is pretty solid. It's nice to see a rookie who doesn't fall into the trap of having a weak amount of contrast on their work. :)
i agree with cocefi, very imposing, and very well done, i like how the spiralling coulds foucs on the gates, it just adds to the overall awesomeness
Wow, really love the angle for this! :)
The little torch in front might look better without the darker outline (similar to the one on the side)
HOLY COW! GOt my vote for the hell entry, this is amazing
i love how you did the door and the frame in this one. how did you draw the sky, especially the clouds? they look more like hand-drawn stuff than most i see on this site, and in pixel art in general... or is that how you did it?
I love the perspective as well, I would just have not over dithered on it.
nice scene
Like a prison...
...that must be what hell is.
There it worked. The reason I couldn't upload was because the image was a .bmp file.
The preview only shows the sky. I felt that it would make people more curious to see what this is than if I was showing a small piece of the door.
Hit 'edit details' up there and upload the full size art on the secong slot.
I don't know but judging by the preview there may be a problem with your submission not showing a 'gate'. See cocefi's (this week's challenger) comment on the forum thread.
the shading is amazing!! I like the colors too