Great job! The lighting is so awesome!

THANKS

Excellent work! As usual!

wow!!

Thanks!!! I appreciate the "as usual" and a "wow!!" is always a good thing to hear...well read.

Nicely done , great use of layers and the opacity levels

how cute!!!

good work author...and very nice style also....GL

awesome work...............

A bit too dark, but a great drawing!

Perhaps its your monitor? or maybe mine is to bright, but it looks fine here

The light looks perfect on this end. I'm sure you monitor is just fine too. GL!

excellent

Fantastic job here, and thanks for taking so much time with your SBS. Very clean and helpful naration. And I LOVE this little guys background story...VERY creative...GL.......JB

hang around, I would like to see more of your work

Oh don't worry I plan to

You can't use an outside source in a digital drawing contest, except for reference only.

hahah it is claimed as drawing

I painted the image. Please view sbs...

If you overlay my image with the reference image you will see that they are not the same. Or zoom in to view the brush strokes. And the face was the easiest part since it took up a small area.

I just added the missing step. PSD file is seeing in the last step of my guide.

nice SBS I wish you would put up a real big High Res so we could all enjoy this one.

EDIT: High Res is looking good

I added more steps.

I'm sorry author. I looked at the sbs, and I downloaded the images as I was dubious after comments and compared at high res. This was painted. It's more than obvious. Sorry you're having such a hard time! The great, is you did a beautiful reproduction of the photo, the downside is that as a piece of artwork on it's own, you did too good of a job reproducing a blurry photo, so as a stand alone art piece it kind of... isn't as great. Do you know what I mean?

WOw ! This was painted ?

Thanks for the comments Uploaded higher-res image

Yes, you did the reproduction very well, but if it's too much similar to the reference, it's just the copy of the photo, and in this case, the computer can do better than you. As far as the reference is considered, you just painted the out-of-focus part, which is not the most important part of the image, and people will ask what this player is doing.

@langstrum: the player is taking a ball on his face.. lol...
@author: nice job.. couldn't believe it to be a digital drawing..

how did you create the noise without using the noise filter..? using brush settings?

Thanks for the comment. I fixed that step.

INCREDIBLE!!! Ya know what? I'm not saying you did, but heck....even if you did put the picture as a layer and paint over it, it would be amazing work!!!!
I would have to say this is the best photoshop I have seen on here since I've been a member! I thought this was a real picture--even in that huge high resolution it looks like a real picture!

Looks ok! Just one problem, it's like he has 6 fingers :P

Sorry, But not convinced that this is a painting from scratch, looks like a paint over to me.

high vote from me, after an hour of comparing the two and looking at the sbs, i truely believe this WAS painted, you can surely see the differences!!! great job author!

Thanks guys. I have done similar work before.

@Ressiv I think the original image also has six fingers!
@Glam0urGirl2007 Thanks

great work author............. its a magical work ........ all the best ...............

Thanks swordfish

hmmmm... I don't know if I'm with you on this. when I look at it, it looks way to much like the photo. but in high res i can kinda see you brush strokes. Because it looks so much to the real photo, I think you could have just used the smudge tool and did some overlaying and stuff. The only reason that I can see it as painted is that you messed up the hand.

Thanks for the comment. Smudge tool would make it look very blurry. You wouldn't be able to know where the shirt ends and shorts starts, that is why its called smudge. If you look closely you can see the stripes on the side of his shorts for example is painted. If you just overlay my image with the reference you will see that they are not the same. I mean look at his shoes, you can obviously tell something doesn't look right.

When viewed
It similar to the true image
Great work, I do not think that winning will be to one else because your painting ^^ ........GL

Thank you alwani

IMO, you basically did a digital trace.

Nope, try again. Tracing is not allowed in a digital contest jawshoewhah.

And also check out the 2nd place entry(and his reference) in this contest: http://www.pxleyes.com/drawing-contest/14496/music-flow.html

I did the same thing as this guy did except I used guides. And there is nothing wrong with either of our entries. Traditional artists also use guides sometimes.

Author: I think you did a wonderful job with your drawing. I followed your SBS and found out the way you put your drawing together. You have the ability to create something that we would like to do. I am into digital drawing. The rules for this contest are kind of hard. Some recognize your work, some not, but even if you used an overlapped image over a new layer, and painted it. You, again, did a wonderful, realistic work. They tell you, that two or three SBS and the source image will be enough to give us the idea of what you did, well, I think you wrote a tutorial for us already. I have not seen a Digital drawing entry, with so many, detailed SBS. Even if you do not win this contest, be happy with your work. Thumbs up for you, and good luck!

Thanks George

It's a fantastic drawing, and demonstrates a lot of skill.. I voted on this entry quite a while ago, but after looking at your original sbs i was convinced that this was a real drawing. Great job.

this is an absolute amazing drawing!!! I am sooo impressed. I though hope that there will be more entries for you to compete against - but you have a good chance to win either way! And it´s a privelige for us to experience this talented artwork.

OK I came back for another look see, lot more sbs images and a lot more believable now. You certainly do have some skills with the tools. I would have to say that you very well did paint it now but still feel that you should have changed some colors and made the tone a bit different, rather then the same as the photo. Good work and good luck !!

you know just out of curiosity.. what part in this entry is somehow related to this years championship..? did anyone notice that..? I mean is the player playing this year..? even it is mentioned in the comments by mod.. I don't see the 'well debated Jabulani' ball either.. atleast that would have given us the idea that its related to this years championship.. I suggest author to change the ball atleast..

Thanks for the comments. This player plays for South Africa.

Don't mind my comment but.... I see this as a manipulation.... Cutting image parts putting them into new psd file and bluring "new" parts and painting over them... No details... Just "finished manipulated" parts.... I say it's not from scratch painting... :\ But i am just 1 more mortal soul who has it's opinion.... Anywayz, nice try faking pro painting

@justin8787 I still take that as a compliment for my photorealistic skills. If you believe that I cheated. I guess its a good sign that I am improving.

Congrats ........

Congratulations!

congrats !!