I see what you mean about the background.  I need a lot more practice with backgrounds still.  Thanks for letting me know!

I think I must have been subconsiously inspired by Stubb's work.  I think his paintings are lovely.  The original idea wasn't much like this though, so I guess it got away on me a bit.

Did you realize that this challenge had a specific palette as well?  It doesn't look like you used any of the colours from the required palette.

I see that you've fixed the problems which is great!  It still looks very nice (and the legs look a lot better), and obviously you didn't need the gradients 

The only reason I suspected a template is because the hair was because of the amount of colours in the hair, which didn't match the rest of the picture, you've fixed it though, so it's not a big deal.

I forgot about this rule too:  You're supposed to have either a transparent background or if you have a background it should have some purpose (such as you had a palate limitation or you drew a scene in behind). 

Did you use someone else's template for this?  The face and hair look nice, but the hair contains roughly 200 colours, which is unrealistic for someone to do by hand.  It's unlikely that this will be approved (as it is against the rules to use things like gradient tools) at least until that part is fixed.

The other areas have potential, but there are some issues with shading (mostly on the red ribbons) and anatomy (for instance the orange shoed foot seems to be dislocated at the hip).  It's a good start though.

Keep working at it and don't be afraid to ask for advice on the forums.

Actually, it's her right eye that's hidden by her hair.

I have to agree, this is really nice, but the perspective on the face is a little off.  To me it seems that the eye on her left, or to the right on the picture is too far to the right.  I think if just that eye (the one not hidden by hair) was fixed, this would be pretty much perfect.

This is amazing.  I think it would be better without the bright pink background though (which I assume was an accident?).

Amusingly, this is not pillow shading at all.

Pillow shading is shading that is brightest in the center so it looks like the light source is directly at the same point as the viewer.

You probably don't really have time to fix this now, but that road to a mine (I assume that is what it's supposed to be) really looks a lot like a bird's head.

The problem that I have with this is it took me a while to figure out what this picture was supposed to be of.  Maybe I'm just dense, but I think there's just too much in a small space here without clear shaping for most of it.

I actually like the preview better, but the preview is a completely different picture.

This is quite adorable.

Wow, I almost missed the animation.  I think the only thing that could make this better is if the animation in the tail involved more of the tail (it looks a little strange in my opinion).  Otherwise, great job.

Hey fellow beginner!  The first one is the biggest hurdle I think.

I like the design of the pink globes (I'm not sure what they're supposed to be) and the eyes.  You should be careful with center shading, but I think it's okay for the globes here.

The purple shading is a bit of a problem though.  It's difficult to tell what the shape of the alien is.  For example, it's hard to tell whether the pink globes are raised above the surface of the alien or below, since the center shading makes them looked raised, but they don't seem to cast a shadow.  The shading seems a little too abrupt as well, maybe try making the dark purple a little less dark?

These are absolutely lovely.  I'm especially impressed by the elf and the viking.

You should be able to log into the forums using the same login as you do for this site (at least at the Pixel joint forums).

As for the entry, try making the character more exciting.  A purple blob that is cell shaded and saying "meh" does not make people interested in this piece.  It looks really quickly done, without a lot of thought.

This is cute, but the constant blinking is a little distracting, and having the shine on the "coffee" towards the light source makes it look more like pudding.

Like any fluid, coffee tends to dip down in the middle, so the the edge of the cup should shield the closest part from the light (unless the coffee is almost overflowing).

There's still way to many colours in this for the contest by my count (111).

The colour limitation is just a way to challenge yourself to make the best picture possible with as little as possible.  My advice would be to look at the art of other people who don't use a lot of colours and see how they do it (usually by combining colours in small amounts so that the eye can't easily tell the difference).

Even if that wasn't an issue though, the shading makes the body parts look unrelated, and there doesn't seem to be a clear light source.  The body looks nice, but it doesn't match the rest of the picture at all.

I think this would be fantastic if the hair (and other things) was shaded to refect the light source at the top left rather than in the center.

I like the shading of the blue background, it would just be nicer if the light source matched on everything.

For the sky colour, if I remember correctly the sky would turn a light brown when it started to get later in the day, or at "Twilight"    I probably could have made the sky a bit darker to make it more obvious though.

It probably would have helped if it was larger.  It would have been a bit easier to shade anyway.

I actually really like this piece, and I think it looks good.  I assume that you are trying to make it look like you are looking through a peep hole in a door?

I think the biggest problem that I see with it is the legs, which look to long when the body is shortening that quickly and seems to be coming to a point (except for the legs).  Rorshach is not very tall in any case.

Nit-picking a bit, the legs seem slightly out of line with the rest of the body (they line up more with the fold-over of the coat, not with the middle of the body) and the shading on the right side of the coat seems a bit flat in comparison to the left side, but I'm not really sure how you'd fix it.  Hopefully someone else will have some ideas.

I don't know how realistic this is, but it's really adorable.

Never mind, the shading just confuses me a bit, and the perspective seems a little strange to me.

I like the shading in the background though, and the wind streams off the side of the hang glider are a really neat touch.

Very good!  I love the hair effect on the cyclops.

As always, your work is amazing.  I love the details like the change in dimension and shading of the face and armor as the character walks.

This is amazing.  I only hope that I can do something as good as this someday.

Well done.  The worm is quite funny.