that means a lot Amorph, thank you so much !

@everyone else, thank you so much for the positive feedback and the support. hope everyone has a wonderful new year

I am always very nervous to go first, hopefully we can randomize it some years! :D glad you enjoyed it once again however!

Thank you vemigvan! I really worked hard on creating a flowing composition here so I'm glad that resonated with you

reposting my comment from last year 

I'm in!

Likes: Fantasy, dark fantasy (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Game of Thrones, etc.), knights, castles, vast landscapes, mountains, Romanticism, Baroque, owls, naturalism / realism, academic drawing, anatomy / figure drawing, sci-fi, dragons, etc etc

Dislikes: the more years I do this the less I really care about dislikes, lol... tbh I'm happy with whatever someone has the time to make. If I had to pick, maybe cutesy / cartoony stuff / super saturated bright colors

I'm in!

Likes: Fantasy, dark fantasy (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Game of Thrones, etc.), knights, castles, vast landscapes, mountains, Romanticism, Baroque, owls, naturalism / realism, academic drawing, anatomy / figure drawing, sci-fi, dragons, etc etc

Dislikes: the more years I do this the less I really care about dislikes, lol... tbh I'm happy with whatever someone has the time to make. If I had to pick, maybe cutesy / cartoony stuff / super saturated bright colors

I'm in 

Likes: mythology, fantasy, baroque, romanticism, landscapes, knights, adventure, frazetta, bouguereau, owls, castles 

Dislikes: cartoons, overtly saturated stuff, abstract art 

but honestly anything is fine as long as you enjoy making it ! 

Hahah no worries! I love it! Thank you so much. Hope you have a wonderful holiday! 

great improvement in the pixeling! similarly to Finlal I'd like to see the new one with the old one's palette for comparison's sake

Aside from the banding on Wario's hat, these clusters are absolutely lovely. 

Love the outside area, really cool stuff. 

Troll, orc, similar beasts I'd say. 

Were these your personal favorites? Love the orc especially.

Lovely coloring and pixeling all around! Some areas are stronger than others but that's always the way with tiles it seems. We still gotta work on that collab man! 

I really like the texture of the leaves, they have good weight and they aren't over-detailed or anything. The rest of the piece seems very flat, however-- the texturing of the trees follows no structure or cylindrical shape, so it comes off as texture upon a flat surface. The same goes for the lower leaves and rocks.

The preview does not do this piece justice. Really good work here. 

excellent as always, man! 

Beautiful colors and I adore the pixeling on the drapery. Good clusters as well. Aside from a few oddities in anatomy, this is ace. 

Thank you all so very much! I am just overwhelmed at the amount of praise this has received here, on reddit, dA, Twitter, etc.-- it's crazy. I will try to address specific comments individually, but overall, thank you all for the compliments and the critique, I appreciate it all! 

@| | | |, you are definitely right-- some of the areas seem really warm individually. This is okay for me, though, as I was trying to imply a really, really early snow-- one where perhaps winter has not even officially begun. 

@ParkerBabyDiaperCompany, I looked at references for pigeons and matched as closely as I could, but at such a small size I am bound to have obscured some things. I will try and fix those in an update! 

@ADrawingMan, yeah, I know what you mean-- like I told | | | |, I was going for more of a really early snow feeling, so the river isn't supposed to feel really icy, but it certainly could give that impression for a better overall feeling. 

@CELS, haha, yes! I know exactly what you mean. I noticed that while working on it, as I tried making a larger version, and I was like ehh, it works better with the border... maybe an artistic decision overall? 

@Delicious, thank you man! We still have a collaboration we need to do! 

Definitely has come a long way since the first one! Not to say that one wasn't great, though. 

The third incarnation suffered a bit from the "default sexy female" pose, wherein the breasts and the ass are shown at two separate angles that are mostly impossible to achieve normally, so I am glad you went with this pose instead. Much better, and more toned down in terms of sexuality. Looking forward to more-- are you redoing Gregory as well? 

The parallax version is sweet-- I agree with the comments about the static version looking fuzzy and dithered. The clouds especially seem to be much too solid. 

Despite that, very good stuff. 

I love parts of this-- the rocks, the colors, the tree texture, that gorgeously smooth sand-- but it still feels unfinished I think. The lack of aa in places makes some parts really harsh, and the contrast of the trees makes them feel like they're all on the same plane, flattening the piece. The clouds also look super bubbly as they get darker; you nailed the white, highlighted areas but the texture as the shadows increase feels a bit too solid. 

Overall though, great stuff, and I love the composition and the feeling the piece gives off. We still need to do that collab, btw! 

Long time no see, vedsten! Looks excellent, I love the leafwork and the texturing. 

Siikikala let me know that there's an app on the Google Play store using my 'serenity' piece as game art assets without my permission. In case anyone else's graphics or work has been ripped in this game, I thought I'd let everyone else know too. 

They didn't even do a good job of using my art, either. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.nitobiapp.game.dragonadventure

great pixeling and excellent colors here, good stuff!