I don't know if you could have but I think it's safe to assume that if you had invested the same amount of time in learning to pixel straight then in the two days you could have made something that not only is as pleasing to look at (because it is pleasing to look at, of course) but would also have about it the air of control and intentionality that pushed-the-single-pixels work carries.
Well certainly there are better pixelers then me, but I am not exactly a poor pixeler either, nor a slow one.
If it takes you 3 hours to do that portrait though you are a competent artist otherwise, there must be a problem in your tool chain or your methodology as a pixel artist and that is what Pixelation is here to help you with.
Well everyone exaggerates their working speed I think. I find that coming up with something totally from scratch and working with it until it looks the way you want always takes longer then planned.
The Low Spec Art section is not here for things that counter the ethos that Pixelation stands for: intentionality, control, working around limitations smartly. It's not here so people can post cgi-color-reduced stuff that look like pixel art and then say I saved this amount of time not doing my pixel art properly.
Well maybe its my mistake for not saying so, but that was just the background for my game battlescreen. The rest of it will include a pixeled menu with various options.