I think you're the... sixth or so friend of mine to tell me that. Yes, I recall his username being Danny Hollow or some such thing, only he uses the entirety of the artwork.
Source of my avatar here.
No, I don't know Danny Hollow.
Portraits as avatars work the best in my humble opinion. A vector or large scale image in which you cannot see what the hell you're looking at are not very memorable or visually appealing. Especially pony creator avatars. Oh well, people work with what they have, cannot blame them for trying.