may be my pic has controversy here.. sorry, 
i'll back with my very first pixel.. ^^
thanks for all commentators, that will always be good income for me..
*sorry if my english wasnt really good.. 
I agree with out, but i thought it might be worth mentioning that Cure's painting was his own, that is, still an original artwork by himself. This is a photo.
why don't you add an orginal background or some new detail? just saying...
Wait a minute, folks (aka greenraven).
Our very own Cure very recently posted a piece by doing something very similar:
www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/78167.htm
He was upfront about his process (that he scanned his painting in and reduced colors then cleaned it up) and we all voted it in and rated it super high and it sat in the weekly showcase for all to see. Yay Cure, you're awesome.
Yes, this is from a scanned image. But the pixelwork here is obvious - mainly in the dithering, which he explained was the purpose behind the entry. Madlukman has limited his colors and zoomed in to make sure it all blends together nicely (he even used some AA). It may not be "high art" - and granted a photograph is not as impresive as an awesomely expressive, original painting - but far worser shit has been voted into the gallery.
Sorry, that isn't allowed here. You have to make everything from scratch. 
Hm, I think you should have done it without tracing to maximise the amount of things learned.
yap, that was a photo 
, than i resize n reduce it's colors, then clean it and adding dither..
Amazing.
Could be a photo. Not a single pixel out of place.
P.S. That is awfully disappointing 
here is, my first pixel, quite bad.. :(
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/78445.htm