if you'd ditch the sun, I think it would improve the image!
I'll agree that when i posted that was a while ago, and i didn't appreciate the beauty of this piece, but maybe I'm just being stubborn (I do that a lot), after all, it is very professional.
You think so? I really appreciate the techniques used in this. The lighting, the colours, the sense of depth, the very well readable, fun characters, the composition and just the entire thing looks gorgeous to me. And to top it of, a great style :). But if you don't agree with me, that's fine too!
No no, it's not that. In fact i love the style but... I've seen so many pieces that are better than this, and if you look at the Hall Of Fame you'll see many things that seem more... Worthy, so to speak.
It just seems to me that the time and work put into this isn't as much time and work as some of his other pieces.
Just seems to me that this doesn't deserve first place, maybe second.
I think it has a lot to do with style. There are plenty of pieces I think have great technique, but just don't do it for me cause the style isn't my thing. Think it's the same for you. A lot of people, including myself, love Junkboy's style. You just happen to be one of the few who doesn't.
This is amazing, but somehow i don't see how this is #1. it deserves it but i just think there were better ones, although this is amazingly done, and the placement and all, it's great.
One of my alltime favorites, your work is always inspiring. I Love the album as well.
Love the colors and the cheery atmosphere. The sprites are masterfully realized. It looks a bit crowded around the grandpa, the background there is busy enough that it's difficult to read that sprite on first glance. Maybe removing some detail from the bg building would help. Moving the building to the left would also ease the focal clutter.
Great job!
You guys rock, seriously! Thanks!
I did play around a lot with the contrast and rayleigh scattering of the BG elements, but in the end I didn't like how washed out it made my little pixel houses and boats look, so I opted for this "happy pixel hunting!"-solution.
I do like TheManuz idea for animations though, maybe a little flash-loop... :)
Oh, man this is so cute, and it feels so alive!
And the colors!
I'd really like to see some little movements of the water, the little bait floating up and down...
Awesome. This just *had* to be made by a Swedish person. Of course.
Incredible by miles. I'd think to see this in the Hall of Fame.
for me the characters are easy to distingish from the background, and the difference of saturation in the background and the minimal color count is only possible by a master, fav and I need to learn from this ;)
Awesome! So cute and, I love those colors, they make me feel relaxed
Beautiful.
I find the characters a little hard to distinguish from the background (especially the fox). I do love the setting!
Fantastic! I love the way you guys make such simple designs, by which I mean large stretches of single flat colours, work so well. I've never been able to master that "less is more" and negative space approach to art. It's used so beautifully executed here though.
What I particularly like is the way you've used those empty areas to make the main points of interest clearly visible, like the fish over the sky and the girl over the sun. The grandfather and the fox are less clear, but still easily enough recognisable.
My one gripe would be that I found it a little difficult to instantly separate the boat and the building behind. It's a minor thing though. Otherwise I really do love this piece. Fav'd!
Lovely and romantic! :D
I think the bg competes a bit with the foreground, could use more air perspective, imo.
Very beautiful piece, very atmospheric!
Just two suggestions though: I think that by outlining the entire pier with black lines (just like you did with the characters) brings more depth into the piece. Furthermore I think that a little dithering in the sky (the sun's glow) would be an added value as well.
Top 10 stuff! 7/7!
I love it in every way man, excellent work. The palette is so colorful, the background buldings are amazing and the 2D atmosphere just adds the cherry on to this picture! Oh and that gloqing morning sun is just great man!
6/6, Nuff said.
Wow!! Everything looks good in this but the sun just makes this so interesting.
hehe, is very good these places are many great Japanese PA 
This is another reason why you're my favourite pixel artist.
Awesome! I think the fish might not have been the best thing for the preview, but regardless, this looks great.
Good stuff.
Wouldn't it be terribly small in print, though? Even if you print in 72 dpi instead of 300 dpi normally used for print.
Unless you print it in lower dot per inch resolution. I'm really not nitpicking, it's a genuine interest of how you're going to circumvent those problems come printing time. Also, is there a reverse side to the cover?
Wow~! That is amazing. The perview doesn't do it justice.
wonderful cover art!