Ink it's not about defending what you did. It's about the effort put in. If you only want to do 1 hour of effort for a skin, you probably will never get it approved by HTC. It's not any one thing, it's just the nature of the craft. Nascar drivers don't just put 10 minutes into a race. Arwatermelonects don't stop on the first floor of a skyscraper. etc.
So, keep in mind this wasn't personal nor was it meant to be hurtful, but if somebody puts a mustache on the Mona Lisa, are they really creating anything new? (disclaimer: Not saying any of these skins are the same quality as the Mona Lisa, just using an example)
I put a hell of a lot more time into it then an hour... more like ten, trust me I know all about putting time into something to get it right, how many hours do you think I put into that dragon head?
take a guess how many hours I spent on this? its 18by24 with a paint brush.
or this? same 18by24 with a paint brush, incidentally this is my second portrait painting.
what about this
if you were to guess 50+ hours on each one you might be close, but still shy.
my point is you are not talking to some noob who does not know what it takes to make something look good, I created those pieces from scratch, my hand my eye.....skinning is a process and I know that, what you said was not hurt full it was arrogant, at least that's how I took it, but that could be just me and not your intention at all, that's why I changed my reply.
you would have gotten a lot further if you would have said something like, "hey looks decent but it still looks too much like the default", BAMM I would have totally saw your point with out the arrogant attitude, again I am not saying that's what you were doing, but it is how I took it, and of course mention the seafoam green or anything glaringly off.
I went back and looked at the bmp file...lol now all I can see is the damn seafoam green
edit
I had no intention of submitting it yet, not by any means....this to me is definitely something I want to get as perfect as possible...I put it out here to get feed back simple as that, would people like it? is it even worth doing...such like that.
time is an issue...I do have 6 kids with my wife, and I am living on borrowed time, so ya I want to get it done as fast as possible and still yield a great skin.