Well done on the lips but it's a little bit blurry on the left, try to fix that ! However nice job on the skin color. Good luck author.

i dont think the plumping of the lips was necessary, it doesn't look as natural, good job on the color though

The eyes are a bit too bright and unnatural looking, and the nostril fold is a bit too thin, but I agree that the skin tones are very nice.

Doesn't look as natural compared to what? The original Caucasian? I looked at several pictures of pure black African women (not mixed race blacks) to determine the differences between Caucasian and Negroid features before making the changes I did. A criticism of the jaw angle would be appropriate - I don't feel I have that quite right; it doesn't protrude enough.

Mossy, I thought of you as I dealt with the eyes! I actually toned them down and "grayed" the whites from the original, believe it or not. They are not brightened in any way. Just darkening the skin made the eyes pop. I'll try to over compensate some more.

Very beautiful! Truly lovely work! I love this color a lot on her!

Nice job here, the color of skin and hair is very convincing,The eyes look fine to me...best part next to the lips, good job on those BTW.

Great job, author, especially on her lips.

Very cool! Good source find, good idea, good manip!!!

BRILLIANT!

I am speechless ... what a stunning, incredible image ... into my favs and top points! You just blow me away!

nice one

Ditto CMYK46! The color of the monster works well with the yellow grass, but the man and the sky are too similar, which reduces the focus on the main character. I though that you make the warrior all from the contest source, but still the blending is very well. Just a minor change in the hand of the statue but it's brilliant! I don't know if others have the same though as mine or not, but the hilt of his sword seems too big to be handled IMHO (I know that you keep the right hand, the statue is holding something like a sword, but I think it's not the sword because every sword is fitted to the owner's hand ). Best of luck to you, author.

Thanks for the comments! Thanks langstrum I did notice the sword handle was too big but forgot to adjust it, I've thinned the handle and closed the hand over it. I also adjusted the sky color and value to better separate but the color similarity is intentional.
Yes CMYK46 it took an hour to find the statue, the sky was used by Rick LaMesa in the unusual storms contest last year and is from flickr.

well done!

Good job.., nice work on the monster and mountain...

Excellent work author.. but err ummm... he's BLUE.. not ebony... almost Navy.. actually is Navy (Your title sucks) hehehehehehe

Absolutely BRILLIANT... FANTASTIC WORK instant fav

EDIT: JUST TEASING.. oooo.. though now you got me thinking how neat he would look if he was MARBLE BLACK or JET ONYX.. yowza!! ( this is great of course

True Slushie he's actually metallic as I mentioned, Ebony is a black wood found in Africa. I have several Ebony sculptures and an interesting property is how light alters the surface tonality, warm light gives a yellow cast, cool light shifts the tone toward blue. This guy just reflects the blue/black sky tone but he is very dark. "Ebony" Warrior sounds better than "Blue/black" Metal Guy.

Nice work.

Superb! What else can I say?

Excellent idea/story, composition and blending.

Nice entry, and a good job. Good luck author.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiish! GL!

Great job author...with your piece of work this contest become way more interesting...best of luck

Congrats!

Congrats on 2nd . . . .

Congratulations and bravo ... such an incredible image and story ... I want more!

Congrats on your second place and very well achieved work....!!!

WOO HOO..congrats

congrats

Congrats!! great work!

Congrats man, excellent work as always

Thank you all for the kind comments and votes, greatly appreciated as always!

congrats!!