Nice one.

Perfect for this source, and you know I love anything to do with Amelia!

This is a very interesting concept, but the composition really leaves something to be desired...
The oversized lumpy thing in the upper LH corner is dominating the image, with the fire and the wagon wheel helping to almost totally visually negate the gypsy, who is lost in darkness with the glowing orb casting almost no light on her.

You need to better establish your light source(s), and make them more consistent, especially the wagon wheel area, and the too dark area between it and the fire. The wagon simply should not be that bright, nor that unevenly illuminated...

The star "sparkle" brushes add nothing but additional confusion to this scene, as they do not emphasize your focal point, and just seem to be randomly tacked on.

In my opinion, it would be better composed if you just chopped off about 1/3 from the top and the LH side, and then adjusted your lighting.

LOL The oversized lumpy thing is the girl running away from her bad news fortune. If the scene does not succeed in doing what I intended - and apparently it does not - then it needs more work. However, the sparkle is not merely tacked on. "Bad News Travels" is the name of the piece, remember.

Thank you very much for the tips - they are valuable and I will work on it!

**UPDATED** The image was simplified. That's a misnomer - I worked a long time to paint the lights and shadows - 54 layers. Unbelievable. Thanks again, MossyB.

Great work!!!

I didn't see it before, but it looks good now, your lighting work makes for a good atmosphere.

GOT MY VOTE....

Excellent idea and execution! This idea could definitely take a big chunk out of our national debt, if the politicians would spend the tax revenue exclusively toward this expense. Love your chop.

Curly, I agree with Larry & Moe...this is a great entry!

I agree with all! Count me in too!! Fantastic job on a taboo subject.

Superb approach and fantastic final product...well done author

Nice spin! GL Author!

Oh and lets not forget we can make paper out of hemp and save lots of trees. Great work here.

4.20 LOL

Congrats, I really liked your take on the contest!

Nice job pearlie!

Congrats!!

congrats!!!!

congrats

Thank you, all. Hope you celebrated, too!

Congrats Pearlie.... good work.....!!!!!

Bummers can be funny. I like the idea. The sign does not look right, no dimension to it.

Fantastic idea author...super cool thinking...IMHO u should work a bit more on a sign to give more realism there...everything else is well made...best of luck

The sign is being problematic for me...I tried adding some shadows, and it looked even more "fake" (like the rest of the image is SOooo realistic!)...

Any suggestions on how to improve the sign would be most welcome!

hmmmm...maybe instead of white frame u could use some a bit rusty metal texture and create frame with that....if u do that u have to create shadow in frame too...also would be cool to create some detaching parts on the surfer poster to achieve casual look...this is just and idea author...GL

You can try duplicating the sign author and just distorting it so it look 3d... wish I could help, but its not something ive done yet. Otherwise try adding some noise and a bit of an off white colour to the poles... Better yet the chances of it having some rust on it from being close to salt water

Other than that, its funny

Your main problem IMO is that the frame is all one color, the main surfer has an orange sunset glow on his back so that same light will cast a slight burned shadow at the back of the sign (on the sand) and an orange to black gradient overlay at very low opacity on the sign will give it more realism. Hope that helps.

Nice one

nice news....and ya... its a breaking one tooo

excellent entry! really well made... high marks from me!

Oh, that was on my birthday! But they didn't stop in Germany to bring some presents Very good work, especially with building the UFO and that pixelated zoom. Good luck!

its awesomme...specialy the ufo..good luck

nice entry i love the way you created the ufo

I'm almost believing that UFOs exist!

nice work on the UFO

Very nice work! The UFO is a tad bit darker than it should be on the right side but overall quite convincing.

Nice work...gl

Right on theme, and good work!

right on.

Nice UFO! Looks very classic-hoax-like. Just an idea--I wonder how it would look if you cut out the banner of a real news channel...oh, but that would be copyright, I suppose. I guess the banner just looks kind of simple for a news channel, but the image is very good.

neat work.. perfectly on theme... good job author..

Hahah! Love the news banner!

fun idea, but if you're trying to simulate a tv news program, you might consider having the picture aspected like a tv screen (4:3)

nice work gl

looks nice, but the smaller one should be even smaller. the way it is now, there is not much point for the zoomed version. good luck though.

I got to say this is one of the most on theme entries out of all of them. GL author. You should at least place if not win. GL!

Went to modify my comment to RIGHT ON THEME.. instead of RIGHTO OUT OF THEME.. and hit the dern delete button instead LOL.. great job author good luck!!!

Congratulations Oana..