Damn, these are beautiful. Gotta love league.

Best entry so far.

Thanks :)

Aside from the heads, the bodies are all the same. It would be very hard to distinguish characters in game like that. I know colors would do the trick, but it isn't exactly eye candy like that. I'd suggest doing some variations of their bodies and legs to make it more visually appealing. 

Good work so far.

Great job! The only thing I don't like is the readability of the shield. At first glance I thought it was a bow until I looked a little harder.

Read my below comment to Jalonso, I've already said I will try things differently from now on. No point in arguing further.

Just making sure. It wouldn't be the first time the community had "attacked" me for this type of pixelart. 

Perhaps it is a lack of understanding. I haven't been pixeling for very long (in total hours of time spent), but I am always open to criticism, so I do appreciate your input. If it truly does improve the artwork, I will revise my style and work on the conservation of colors for other pieces, however I will let this one stand.

It is never a waste of time to strive for quality, I didn't say that. I merely stated that if it does not change the quality of the artwork, then and only then it is a waste of time.

To sum it up, I'll take your points into consideration and work on my artwork for the next challenge.

After all, practice makes perfect.

@Friend/jalonso -  Fair enough. But even if this piece had been pixelled with just twelve colors and lost no detail, what then? Does it change the artwork? No. There was no loss of detail. So why the obsession with a restricted number of colors? Personally I think its just a hassle, and a waste of time. Sure, its more "impressive" when an artist uses a low number of colors to achieve a detailed look, but to what end? They may have wasted hours on end just to get the exact same result. 

I know color restriction is probably derived from the years where pixel art HAD to be restricted by color because of the small file types and compression, but we are long past those times. 

The definition of pixel art as provided by Google: "Pixel is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level."

Have I placed each pixel digitally by hand? Yes. Therefore it fits the definition of pixel art. I see no reason to deny a piece because of restriction of color.

I mean no offence to either of you of course, I just stand by my principles around pixel art.

http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/29677.htm

I'd also like to refer you to this piece. Upon further inspection, the color count was over 80. Yet it recieved top pixel art of February 2008.

There is no restricted color palette.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8540/molderingtutpillowshadigg8.gif

Pillow shading is the shading from light to dark that clearly invokes no light source. This image should clarify the basics to a certain degree.

If it's too "soft," its because I purposly put a lot of AA into it. I enjoy the "smooth" style much more than the "rough" style. Personal preference really. Thanks for the C&C anyhow.

Uh, pillow shading? Where?

Freaking love this thing. Thanks for the avatar.

Headbutt to win.

If this is for the weekly challenge, it doesn't meet the requirements. There are clearly buildings, stars, and a moon here.

Very messed up. But then again, thats why kids enjoyed it.

You got it :)

Odd. Done.

Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated.

Daruda - I don't see a black outline... :p

Gotcha. Fixed up a few things, still seems to be missing something.

You may be right. I have a 4k monitor for video editing purposes, and they seem just fine to me. However, on the monitor I use at work, you're right. The color contrast in the clouds are very low. I'll fix it when I return home. Which surfaces did I miss?

I think it may be the dithering on the left side of the axe. Looks kind of out of place.

 Yeaaaaah, the university work piled up, and I got pre-occupied. Oops.

 The way he is holding the book in his right hand looks a little off. Other than that, fantastic job!

 A damn nice job. I can only imagine how long it took