Really nice lighting, and the textures are amazing. Great work!

hard work here author, CONGRATS

Thank you thank you!!! This piece consumed pretty much my entire weekend, but was so worth it!

this is what i call Level 10+, finally some entry that is involved into high technical skills and good artistic sense, good luck author

Wow thanks so much! That means a lot to me, very much appreciated

AMAZING THANK YOU!!!

Excellent work great sbs too

I would swear it was you author and it really is :P Fantastic piece!

haha thanks! I didn't realize I had a recognizable style but I guess its a good thing and thanks Madamemonty, I put a lot of time into the SBS and still it could be way more complicated than I had time to explain.

Very clever, and nice work on the sbs too!!

Thank you JerseyAce! I think thats the first time I've ever gotten "clever"

Absolutely fantastic! Great lighting!

Thank you!

Your dragon has some nice work, but what I really like is how you integrated it into the background sources - nice lighting effects.

Amazing

Thanks you thanks you!! And yes I started messing around with the radial blur set to zoom and got a really nice effect! I also added in more of the streaky shadows Glad you like it!!

Masterpiece..lov it! and fav too.

creative

A creative masterpiece!? why thank you!!

wonderful!!!
and the SBS is great too!

good luck!

Thanks, I actually had some time to put some detail into the SBS

Nice !!!

Good stuff....love it!

Congrats!

Congratulations

Congrats!

Congratulations....beautiful image....!

Congrats, Robert! Wonderful entry!

THanks everyone!!!!! and I really appreciate all the feed back and of course the high votes you guys rock!!

Congrats Robert awesome work

well done .... congratulations

Looks stunning, i think the creature looks rather cute. The lower part seems to lack some detail compared to the mid-top parts. Amazing lighting as usual :P

Love the face..pretty sharp!..and beautiful mood.

my fav too..by the way

brilliant, very artistic, good luck author

Oh, very cute little creature!
Very well done. I love the colour pallet you used.

wonderful work

love it

SO PURDY!

Thanks everyone!!!

aweseome effect : its such a cute creature

Thanks you!!! Funny how you can take pieces of a totally NOT cute animal and make it sorta cute
and
@Akassa, there is definitely more detail towards the top. Partially because that is where I want your eye to go, and partially because it got really late last night and I knew I wouldn't have much more time to work on it, so I called it done

Thanks nator!! Took LOTS of painting to get the light to look like this

That is a great work....love the creature. Great imagination! Good luck author.

Thanks!
@marina08
Thank you as well! I can't take much credit for the color pallet, the source gave me my colors its a GREAT source image!

NICEEEEEE wish make like that, god job ....... thumb up

Beautiful colors!

fantastic.

Gorgeous creature, looks so innocent

Great transformation and painting, love the 'ears' and whiskery things.

CONGRATS

Congratulations....great entry

CONGRATS

Congratulations......beautiful image and cute creature!

congrats

congrats

Robart...great creature. Really great.

Congrats Robert terrific work

Thanks you everyone

littel late ( I was one a road trip) great work I simply love it!

maybe a winner....great

What a cool idea! The heat from the bulb provides the lift! Great image, very fun. I'd love to see the sky full of these!

Oh thanks!!! and Mossy great idea, I might mess around with putting some smaller ones in the background when I have some time

Perfect!...

That would be cool, but I meant I'd love to see the "Real World" sky full of these!
If you add more to your image, just don't "cookie cutter" use the same one, okay? Better to leave it be than detract with clones...

~M

Wonderful work! This just yelled "fav fav" to me!

very steam punk... woo hoo... excellent work!

Stunning work

absolutely awesomme ...

Very fun and creative steampunk approach to this contest.

I don't get the mixture of taut cables (clearly supporting the gondola hanging from the balloons) and flaccid cables between the balloons and the gondola. And the small balloon's connection point to the gondola is very odd.

The horizon line of the balloon bottoms is down (albeit different horizon lines for each balloon) while that of the gondola is up.

Notwithstanding the title on source 4, I find the ship more wreck than steampunk.

Fantastic work author, my fav !

Wonderful work!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments its like getting a little present each time I see I have a new one

amazing work..!!

wow this is great author gl

good work man

Great job,instant fav.Good luck author

great image!

Impressive work, very well done.

Congratulations on a very well deserved win!

Congrats Robert awesome work

Cingrantulations beauitiful work

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Congrats!!

Congrats, great mood!

very nice armor design, top three for sure !

Very cool

Very cool

this is great!

You've made the right decision imho,putting armour on a sea horse is original

very elegant! Good LucK

Thanks everyone!!!! so glad to hear all the positive feedback

great job good score.

Fantastic

Great choice, fantastic outcome!

Always a pleasure to see your work! Wonderful entry!

Fantastic work author ..GL!!

wooo! this is amazing! beautiful.

Congrats!!

Congrats again Robert, absolutely stunning work

congrat

Congratulation again

Congratulations !

Saw this on the front page. Its brilliant! Congratulations!

Why thank you!

first of all congrats!

You may not like what i am going to say...

the contest is to armour creatures, although your creation is great, the seahorse is fully-covered and there is no hint of the original seahorse.

it is a case of re-working based on the shape of the seahorse and not "armouring"

the other two entries are not as perfect as yours, but theirs are closer to the theme.

my hat's off to your art though I don't think I can top that easily...at level 5 only

Very impressive, I wouldn't like to meet this critter

Nice evolution, but the light reflection doesn't work with the sunlight shining from behind the creature... Better to ditch that back entrance, and make an opening above and to the right, so that the lighting is consistent.

Very cool and well crafted work! To be honest I perceive the light as coming from above, right and just in front of the creature, not behind it. So it looks correct to me.

Light spreads, this works for me. Great concept and painting, author!

Light looks fantastic to me..., but I really don't care about the light, I think the manipulation and overall result is just fantastic! Great Job author

Thanks everyone! and I do see what you mean Mossy, but I had the light just coming from the top right. Having the bright white corner just sorta threw of my composition so I put that rock in front of it. The beams of light were coming in front of him for a while, but I just didn't like what that did to the shadows. Also for all we know there is another hole up above to the right that we just cant see! perhaps if I have time I'll do some tweaking thought

Great, great work!!! Impressive!

Why thanks you!!!!

Yeeeees, the Evolution could play very eccentric tricks

Congratulations!!! Great work!!

thanks

thanks

Congrats!!

Super duper congrats!!!

Congrats

congrats for 1st. Really great work.

SUPER DUPER THANKS EVERYONE!!!