Nice - but i feel that the hands are letting you down a bit. If they were really feathers and the fingers were bent like that the edges would not be defined, there would be feathers sticking out at all strange angles etc. Hard to fix - maybe look at some reference material of bantam feet or similar to get ideas??

The feathers around her eyes, nose and cheeks look good, it really feels like there's depth and that the feathers follow the shape of her face. I'm a bit less convinced by her under jaw (although that is more or less how the real owl's face looks like), that looks a little bit flat. In case you could use any other part of the feathers, would be nice. The hands look nice, though for some reason they look more like handgloves (maybe because the texture is too small). That doesnt have to be a problem though. Good luck!

Thats pretty cool!!! wouldnt ask her out though... lol! nice job author!!

cool

fantastic

very nice job, lose the feathers that are showing over the bracelet... thats rly the only comment i have for you.. she looks wild :P

Very nice!

Cool.

the brilliantly mixed textures shows a true dedication for realism.. it may be my eyes but I believe I can feel those hands.. and they are soft and warm and powerful.. hehehe.. I just love this

Thank you for all the great comments, everyone! I did a little work today just to clean up a few things..

Animmax, thank you for your suggestion. I did go through about 4 different sources before I ended up using the one I did just because of feather issues. In the end, it seemed like small, close feathers did a much better job of making her hands still look like hands and not just mounds of feathers. The hands took me about 4 times as long to do as the face did!

Waz, I did some work on the jaw and I think that it looks a little better. So, thanks!

Eladine, there weren't any feathers on the bracelets, but I can see how it can look that way since the bracelets are multicolored. I tried to brighten them up some to offset them a bit more from the feathers behind them. Hopefully that helped. Thank you for the keen observation.

Bet she stays real warm. Good luck!

ah i understand now author, that might be reflection on her bracelet fromt he surrounding actualy but its a very nice job

this is really neat

Very nice effects, very nice colours. Overall, great job!

pretty

the colors are nice and the image has a cool overall feel to it! i like the image a lot author

wow. great effect

Ooooooo.... i like this... very mysterious and mystical! good job author!!

step by step please?

A very Indian-feel! My only suggestion is to make the eyes more central? Good luck!

this reminds me of the pond godess... and i liked that one... and i like this one...

very pretty.very fresh and lively

greatastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

g8 work done... infact superbly done.g8 use of the image...just the fire stone bit more in random shape gives u the edge on others entries.....gud luck g8work

Great use of the source!

cool!!!

very well done. the texture of the avocado fits great. GL

very nice entry. why a greenish sky?

Finally you came up with new work very big effort, but the part i loved most you did not include in your SBS, Gerry's making, looking very original and very good working on details

Edit: now SBS is having all steps for parts of the entry, thanks author

Awesome work, I love their expressions

Nice work - as always..

Great work! Bravo!

great!!

Awesome

oh man....another gr8 work.....how we gonna handle this talent........perfect work......

this is just great!

beautiful

brilliant work.....

What can i say except --WOW!!! great piece of art very funny

great job this is one is the best so far .... very good use of the source image and very good sbs too ... GOOD LUCK

very Jurassic Park meets Finding Nemo... good luck author.. wonderful image

Well done!

Haha awesome

GREAT!! one of my fav!! i like it.

Wow! Great job! I love the little claw on the green one, kind of begging the other one to turn around... should have run away himself! Good luck!

great work!!! amazing!!!

HA! great idea! Wish the metor was a little more firey, but otherwise EXCELLENT.

Very good one.

Like I said But let me repeat myself: amazing!

I have to complain, I can't adopt them, my house is to small to hold them =( great job as always

absolutely love the expressions !!! and the entry ofcourse

so many good entries in this contest >_

This is very funny..your entries have always a meaning and more over are awesome...Congrats

Congratulations!

Congrats! Very well done.

Congratulations for 1st

Congrats Waz, absolutely fantastic, love it

Congrats! Nice story as always

Congratulations. you did very well

Congrats, excellent work!

Congrats Waz! another great entry!

congrats! awesome work

Thank you all for the votes and nice comments. Always very much appreciated

congrats

Congrats!

congrats!!

Congrats my friend!!! Great work

Congrats for 1st

Congrats, your style is really great!

Superb job! Well deserved victory!

Congratulations! This is just wonderful!

Congrats!

Author.. add more detail to your SBS (It's excellent) and submit it into the tutorial sections.. this is a very good teaching piece GOOD LUCK

EDIT: ACK!!.. you know that already

I say WOW BABY!!! Nice war paint!

nice natural result

Very nice work.

very nice subtle change

Good job

really good- love the effect you have created!!

very goooood

good work

great

pretty good

Looks like you have done this kind of work many times before. GL

artgirl1935, this is my first face retouch (and I didn't enjoy it at all lol) I followed 3 tutorials by Claudiolky and it was a hard job for me.

nice!!

wow i like it.. maybe some more texture on the skin wouldve been great, and her eyebrows looked better before, but else really pretty!

only one really thing wrong WHERE IS THE HUMOR BAR!?!?!?!?!?! giggle snort.. SAVE THE KITTY!!!!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

(I'm not going to let my cat see this entry.. it will give her ideas)

TOO FUNNY and something my cat (which looks like that one) would do!! My only suggestion would be the back feet. Kinda blurry compared to the fan behind them...Great Image...Good Luck

very good

good humor

cooool

neat

nice work on shadow...gl

remember doing this when i was a kid.

Poor thing ...

gl