If a piece is rejected it forever stands as one of my life's failures, I could not willingly expose myself to that shame again by revisiting the piece.
The problem with the complete pixel and the reason it was sent back was only because far too much of the scene was uncontrolled and the lines quite messy. You only need to clean up and polish the piece a little bit. I thought I had mentioned to take it to the forum for help and feedback so it could be added to your gallery.
thinking about it, this was just really a 30 seccond preview image for my golem friend squad pic, I just thought it was a nice little bird and it'd be a waste not to display it.
The border is nice. But the image needs refining. Try adding shades. And if you change up your outlines a bit and have your colors define the bird instead, you'll have more room on the bird. Same with the branch.
You are entirely wrong there. It is not to be seen as a failure but understanding that what failed was only due to ignorance of technique and execution. Its part of the learning process and without re-exposing yourself you stump yourself and that's the shame.