oops. didn't even notice I had a comment here.  Thanks Sapei, I do really like this style myself - and am working on another larger pieces with a similar style. It doesn't work all that effectively on small pieces where there isn't enough room to waste pixels in this fashion. =)

Damn, just perfect that way, great piece...

I Like ur style :D

Yeah fabric sucks! I can't fathom it!

 I think clothes just needed more improvement

Just better entries. =)

Thanks for the ah... appreciation... no that's not the word... Thanks. =D

Thanks again for all your help.

 I cant see why it didnt won

yes, version 4 is best so far

Do you mean the dark pink/red as I never changed the purple darkest colour. Possibly it was made more prominent by the pallet change. It's hard to get the pallet to blend well add increase the contrast simultaneously. This is really increasing my knowledge on pallets. I see why a pallet to many is the most important part of a piece. I kept the toned down marking since that seems to be liked by all.

Version 4:

http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp16/TheUnknownArtistJak/FrikaanMonkv2-2.png

I feel it's an improvement in balancing theme/blend and contrast yet still not perfect. Colour picking is tricky. =S

a little more contrast might be nice, I think the edits have the darks getting too dark, and also veer toward an overused yellow/purple contrast (the reds in the halo-gradient clash between the greys and purples. anyway, a little more contrast or saturation might help, but you lose the nice creamy color of the shirt (and I like the dark brown better than the purple personally). the toned-down face marking was a nice alteration though.

Ok I'll keep the smoothed out line for version 4. =)

Thanks, currently tweaking to have the same contrast and pop but similar hues to the origional as a few people have pointed out to me it's losses it's african feel with the new pallet. Thanks though, I know I'm on the right track ;)

Thanks mate. =)

 I like the smoothed out line in version 3. 

 Version 2 is alot stronger 

Many different ditherings makes an interesting piccy.

Version 2:

http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp16/TheUnknownArtistJak/FrikaanMonkv2.png

Version 3:

http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp16/TheUnknownArtistJak/FrikaanMonkv2-1.png

Either better?

Well my style choice was inspired by this african painting http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GTIq9LU-Oko/SnlgPP5sS4I/AAAAAAAAICg/-Fa9GJC2SRg/s400/African+Art-2.jpg which is a bit on the flatside as well. In fact a lot of the african art I looked at before doing this is a bit on the flat side. I'll try tweaking the colours see if that changes anything.

Thanks very much, by the way mate. All these comments help me to improve.

 I love the patterns on the head in the shading, but the whole image looks a bit too flat. Given that that's due in part to this style, but i still think it's missing something to give it  bit more depth.

Thanks mate.

Curious do you mean the cheek ridge mark? I thought it added a tribal personality to the guy but if I'm wrong I shall have to remove at some point..

 The style is quite unique for pixelart and I like it! To me the black line next to the eye stands out a bit too much.