I did plenty of pixel manipulation to get the outline of everything looking right.    

A. It was derrived from a photo,  but hevily manipulated by HAND.

B. It was a joke and it's annoying having everyt last piece taken off due to these minor little rules.

I'm not sure how strict you're going to take point A,  but just about everything is 'derrived' from some other picture.

photo reduction != pixel art.

try drawing the image yourself.