Surrealism is a good approach for this theme. I'm not sure what tale the fish is telling, however. IMO eliminating the distracting wallpaper so the windows and baseboard are just suspended in space would be more surrealistic and would give a lot more attention to your dramatic background photo (which has erroneous lightning reflections in the water but those should not be visible here). I think the fish that is supposed to be the focus would then stand out a lot more. Even if the window pair were centered, I would consider deleting the right one and moving the left one so it's centered on the Rule of Thirds' left vertical line. The table and chair have different perspectives than the floor. The scale of the chair is odd given that it's in front (not way behind) the table. Nothing seems to be casting shadows. [Surrealistic does not mean totally unrealistic.]

I agree with DanLundberg on the wallpaper. The color/pattern of the wallpaper is taking the focus away from the fish. Its completely up to you if you wanna keep it as it is.

This is much better IMO. I like how the cool green/blue/neutral palette of all the background elements makes the warm orange/yellow fish stand out more. I also think the title revision with the new exterior view that's under water creates a more coherent story (or tale, if you will ).

Sweet, but the child doesm't look like a fish (as it has a distinct skull oriented 90 degrees from the neck) and what's with her headgear? The orange flame-like thing in the background distracts by being the same color as the central characters.

Funny....by the way, Dan --- that orange "flame-like thing" is the goldfish's tail and this photo would look strange if she didn't have one!

Sweet, author!

I love the pretty tail !!!! good luck author

Superb drawing skills & nice tail .GL

It's most obviously a tail to me. I like her little hat, she must be a newborn - got a pic of my neighbors' new baby girl with a similar hat. Sweet image and fine painting, author!

overall a nice image. A couple of nitpicks would be for some of the edges to be a bit sharper and for the catchlights in the eyes to be a bit brighter. Good Luck Author!

Gorgeous! I love the glazed look on the grandparent's face opposed to the perky wide-awake expression on the little one. The tail looks really good and balances the picture perfectly.

Thanks photogirl723, Drivenslush, samanway,pearlie

amazing work author, i love the colouring of this image and my 6 year old just asked where fish get books from lmao

Congrats for making it to the next round

Congrats.

congrats, good luck in the next round...

wow... The fish looks great. wonderful drawing/combining.

Thank you

Very nice painting, author. Where did the characters come from?

The fish are not very noticable on the grey hair. Im also not sure if the grey hair is meant to be a sharp cut or if all hair was meant to be grey?

like the idea.

Masking of the fish needs some work as there are bit and pieces of the background showing (I assume you are not using the eraser to to cut out the fish) And the makeup around the eyes look a bit stuck on. Try a different blending mode for the layer with the makeup and maybe a bit more work could go into drawing the layer a well as they do not really match

if you take your smudge tool, drop the strength to 30 and have a soft edge brush...it would blend the blue makeup nicely. I like the cahanges you have made, much softer.

Very intriguing in its flatness and its juxtaposition of the terrestrial with the aquatic, but I don't think this meets the theme requirement that fish be the focal point. Moving the middle fish to the right over her face more and amping up the saturation of all three fish might shift her to the background (which shift could be accentuated by blurring her some). A young woman looking into her aquarium would seem to fit your title.

I like it very much!! there is a nice contrast between the model (with orange tones) and the fish (with cold tones), nice artwork!

It would be cool to put your changes you have made since submitting in your sbs so we can see your wonderful progress.

liked it more when the hairs were blue. But still beautyfull

is the source the elephant or the fish as the fish looks very similar to an entry in that contest?

Awesome work, nice details

excellent work with the pic

Congrats! Nicely chopped.

Congrats!!