I feel as though if it's "not representative of my best work," then I don't need to be showing it. I'll probably go back and revise some things and resubmit it later. I'm just incredibly disappointed, is all. 

 ...I agree that there are things that could be better about this, but I had hardly a month to do this. However, I feel that it is leagues better than my piece for SS last year, which is rated much higher than this and got much more attention. This piece got pushed back to the second page in literally two or three hours, and honestly I think that has a lot to do with it. Also, saying "I can do much better" makes me believe you think this is way off par for me, which I don't believe at all, I was very satisfied with the outcome. Despite this, I believe I'll be deleting this piece shortly.

 I've got to say, I'm pretty disappointed about it.. hardly any of the people I consider "friends" here have even noticed this. 

However, for those of you that have, thanks so much, I really appreciate it. 

 I favorited this so hard my mouse shattered into pieces. Awesome work! :D

haha just because I'm no longer at tSR or any other relevant forum doesn't mean I'm not doing art 24/7, sir :) how've you been? 

and thanks so much everyone! 

absolutely insane to share an honor like this with an actual artist from disney. incredibly humbling and inspiring. thank you guys so much! 

great stuff! my only criticism would be the excess dithering in the water-- it does little to help achieve a watery effect. love the shark, though, probably the best pixel rendition of one yet! 

love the dragon. nice stuff, good to see you still around, sir!

woah, how did I miss this? awesome stuff man! I feel like the sky is too cluttered, which takes away from the focus of the dragon, though. favorite part has to be the neck 

I am very disappointed we never finished any of our collabs, sir. we'll have to start another one sometime! 

Thank you all so much for all of your wonderful comments! There's some excellent critique here, all that I agree with, and some that I have addressed just now with an update!

TheoVision: thank you, you were absolutely right. I changed this in this update by completely redoing the branch and its' angle and position, and hopefully it improves that area of the piece! 

st0ven: Means a lot coming from you man, you already know how much I always appreciate your input. I agree about the over-detail at points-- inferring texture would probably be just as effective. It's something I'll definitely work on.

awesome stuff! love the reflection! I would definitely like to see you work a little less with dithering, though-- makes the water look more solid than it should and the flower could use more solid clusters as well. either way, great job! 

excellent animation, sir! love the reflective ice 

love the staff! and those orange hues 

congrats everybody 

 the tree is supposed to be mainly silhouette, and i was going for color conservation, so that's why it's not super detailed. 

great stuff, love the colors!

 thanks everyone! i've updated the biggest moon a bit to hopefully look more like it's supposed to, but i can edit it further if needed, it just might take me a while to get around to it ;P

@big brother: i guess you can use your imagination, but i'd say probably not, since the piece is named silence... you know how much women complain ;) 

also, 1337th post. 

rocking the donkey as usual i see c: 

a lot of those seem to be of varying quality and look like they could have been pixeled by different people. the imgur image could be a collaboration of people spriting gen 3-5 pokemon, and this could be this person's set. just an idea, idk.

if these are yours, blak, they look nice. keep it up 

thank you theo, i really appreciate the compliment! hopefully you'll be seeing some new stuff soon 

been waiting to fav this for weeks 

the clouds make everything else look decent. nice job on everything, lots of fundamental issues but eh what can you do, right? :)

Merry Christmas, man!

all of the stalagmites and stalactites seem to lack any sense of volume and end up falling a bit flat... the texture is nice but things could definitely be cleaned up a bit. my favorite bit is the large rock formation in the background.

congrats, tom! i'm sure people will be awed :) 

it's like you suddenly thought "hey i'm going to win every challenge from here on out"

great stuff (: