Yummy. Very clean and easy to read.

BTW, what is the cross-tube thingie in the above the jar? Looks like a kind of blowpipe?

  What TheoVision said. ^_^  

The secondary lightsource is a nice touch.

Not so, if the edges are dark that implies light is coming *only* from the front (if it were coming from the side or from behind, the edges wouldn't be dark, because the light would be hitting them). With ambient light, you'd have more variety in your light sources, but ambient light doesn't mean darker edges. ;)

That said, apart from the pillow shading, this is a very interesting piece. The stylized textures are particularly nice. :)

 The general concept, palettes and setup are all pretty good IMO, but in some areas the piece looks very much like a rough WIP rather than a finished product. The lack of AA and some rough edges/shapes are the culprits there.

That said, this is definitely a solid piece. I just think it could stand a bit more finessing. ;)

Dynamics are awesome! I do think a bit more contrast would work well here, but at the same time I'd argue that it wouldn't be strictly necessary, since in this case it'd be more a stylistic difference than a technical flaw.

Nice work!

 Urgh, this one was a hard vote. Some very nice entries for this challenge... too many to make it an obvious choice.

 Simply marvelous. You've acchieved really nice dynamics for such an impossible canvas size.

Very professional work!

Nice animation! Very smooth and organic. You sure this is your first time doing subpixel anims? ;)

For whatever it's worth, IMHO a tiny bit of movement in the legs (to compensate for the weight shift as he leans back slightly) would make this piece even better, since I can't shake the feeling that his lower body is noticeably too static compared to the motion happening in the upper body and wings. Perhaps have him squat a tiny bit as he breathes in, or have his left (our right) leg move back a pixel or two instead?

IMHO the old one was actually cleaner, the black lines and missing AA in the new version just make it look more cluttered and blocky. Also some of the shading in the new version seems dangerously close to pillow-shading.

 I think out of the artists listed, Jinn has the most distinct style. Unfortunately, that style also seems to be the most difficult for yours truely. :P

 Oh man, this is gonna be a hard one. :D

Echoing Nevercreature's palette question.

 "...hey, I remember those things! Archeologists occasionally find them fossilized and... Oh. Nevermind."

Seriously though, loving the dithering job on the disk.

 Although I have to point out that there was only one "creator" of Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austin. If you're referring to one of the movies, then perhaps "From the director(s) of Pride and Prejudice" or something similar might work better.

 This is awesome to a very high degree of awesomeness!  The wrinkles in the clothing... pretty much flawless IMO.

Perhaps defining the jawline a bit more would help her look younger (right now she has a rounder face), although that might mess up the character concept you're creating, so I dunno.

Thanks. :) You have a point about the shield, I might want to size that up a bit

The pink is a specified palette of strict RGB values that will be automatically recolored in-game to match the color of the team the unit is on (so it the pink would become red, blue, green, etc. depending on which team the unit is on).

Those rock formations in the background are epic! 

I'm not a big fan of the dithering on the stones on the left side, it just adds unnecessary texture.

You've got some significant banding happening on the log.

The green plant palette is a little too straightforward for me, and the sudden transition from green to a blue-grey color doesn't really work that well, IMO. I'd go for gradually making the green palette contain more blue as you go from the brightest shades to the darker ones. Perhaps a bit more yellow to the brighter shades would also help liven the palette up a bit. :)

For only four frames, that's a pretty smooth animation.

The purple shadows make the sprites look... 'muddy'. I'd suggest using a bit less blue and more red for the darker shades. Something in between purple and red. That way you'll still have the blue hue change happening in the shadows without having the sprite become muddy looking.

Also, if you're going for a male baseframe, I'd suggest widening the waist a bit. Right now the waist is pretty slender, which coupled with the broader hips makes the sprite seem more female than male.

Wow, nice nice nice.  Especially the knife blade, that is my favorite part. If I had to crit anything, the ears are rather hard to read, and the cord that the ears are strung on seems a bit thick for the purpose.

 Thanks for posting this. You worded it very well: short, sweet, and to the point. Now even you "It's-too-much-to-read" people don't have any excuse for not knowing about this very serious issue.

 @Drazelic: Stalking you? Yes.

But I think you forgot something: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?p=507200#p507200 If that isn't the exact palette above, it's at least a close cousin. ;)

 I thought I recognized the palette. And be it old or whatever, the design rocks.

Wish I had one of these to replace my cigarette lighter. :)

(Oh, and for the record: no, I don't smoke. But you can do all sorts of useful things with lighters.)

 What DawnBringer said: This is an obvious reduction. I have nothing against using reductions as _references_ for lighting or shapes, but doing a quick reduction and calling it 'pixel art' is completely unacceptable and does not in any way qualify as creating pixel art.

 Your color choices here are excellent. Nice amount of contrast, too; it makes the graphics look really crisp without becoming overwhelming.

I love these things. <3  The design is really interesting, I've spent the last five minutes just following the symmetrical patterns of pixels...

Some AA would make this piece even more awesome, I think. Okay, I know how much of a pain in the butt that would be, and the lack of AA really isn't noticeable unless you zoom in. :P

Nice dithering on those, it works well without overwhelming the piece. The palettes remind me a bit of Jinn's work. :)