what did you use for this picture?
and how many colors does it have?

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I drew this entirely on MS paint and in terms of colours...ah, the skin is about 6 the hair about 5, the shirt about 7, the eyes about 10 and...I just went crazy with the background. There's probably over 40 colours here the least.

heheh sorry I couldn't answer your question right...[link]
Nervous

Okay, I looked at my colour choices (I always like to make these small circles of colours around my work in progress)

There are over 100 colours, no way am I going to count that!

May I give you a humble advise?

Your image has actually 147 Colors. wich such an extensive-and abused- palette the use of dithering is almost unnecesary. dithering is commonly used when specific color restrictions limit your palette, so you use dithering to mix these colors and give the ilusion of a wider amount of them. that, or when you want to give a rough texture to your image. if you notice none of these situations match your current image, therefore making the use of dithering, in one word, unnecesary. its a common misconception that using dithering is part of the pixel art process, but that's not true. indeed it is a technique, but is not a must.

if you're planning to take this to a more serious level, i can gladly help you as much as you need. if you are not, then ignore my comment.

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Metaru, thank you for taking the time to actually count the colours.

Yes, I do know the purpose of dithering, and I know it's not a must. Although you see I find pixel art very therapeutic. The more stressed I am, the more I do, just to get busier at something I like to do.

At times of madness and frustration I like to go crazy and just have fun.

Yes, I am willing to take pixel art to a more serious level, and help is often appreciated ^_^.

There will be times when I do pixel art for work and do it seriously (ie. Making games). But there will be instances where I'll just do a ton of unnecessary things, so I can avoid going to the doctor.

Besides, everyone has their own style, saying that I am not taking my art 'seriously' is...kind of mean, I have to say.

Thank you for the advise, I'll take it into account when making games.

with seriuosly i don't necesary mean for commercial purposes, like me.

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Okay, now I don't understand.

By 'seriously', I thought you meant 'assion/concentration for every art piece that I make'.

Besides, my games are 'download for free'...

So tell me, other than not obsessively using the dithering technique; how else can I improve my art?

Any other pixel-art skills that I might not know of?

I couldn't finish my comment.
By seriuously I mean not only art for commercial/functional purposes, but also for one's Joy of pixel art. indeed, your're rigth with the passion/concentration for every art piece that you make(in fact, I do encouarge you to be) but also I must advice you that in an art form such as Pixel Art, technique is one of the most important factors along with the process of creation and final product. by technique I mean issues such as being aware of the use of your palette -amount of colors, tones/values used, proper shading,etc.-, light sources, a clean linework, proportions, details, etc.

I would like to recomend you to read some interesting and useful tutorials about the general process and basic elements of pixel art. this one in particular [link] is great for people interested in both the basics and advanced concepts.

and, if there's something you don't know, here a handy Glossary [link]

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_{Pixel Art Gallery}