Creative use of source. The perfectly head-on perspectives of the saucers do not match (as currently positioned) the perspective [vanishing point] of the tunnel. While GK is correct that tentacled creatures show up pretty regularly in CBR entries on this site, I would also note that tentacles show up a lot in sci-fi films as well.

Awesome guy and background. I think the horizontal abdominal grooves should slant down a bit to be more consistent with the slanting bottom edge of the chest plate and the slanting hips. The eye slit, on the other hand, should be a bit more horizontal (match the implied eyes of the face) and should curve more to be consistent with the visor's lower edge.

Simpy dramatic. I would shrink the baby penguin so its head silhouette is visible against the water rather than getting lost against the mountain.

Very nice, at least as regards the far end. But objects along the pool's sides would also be reflected. The wall along the right in particular needs to be mirrored. (The reflecting pool at the Lodhi Hotel in New Delhi would be an example.)

Beautiful. Love the metallic feel and the sophisticated color palette. Among its many charms is the fact that it's not a simplistic, perfectly symmetrical/mirror image entry.

The chair (bench) does not look particularly evil. I would find this more intriguing if the title were "Hall Monitor." Each of the elements is interesting (but where is source 3 used?) but they each have different perspectives, resulting in an inconsistent whole. The bench and guy seem too small; one would expect the top of the bench to be at least as high as the chair rail.

Convincing, except for the writing on the uniforms which is backward as a result of flipping that source. The O's in the logo are cool.

Amusing. If all four are supposed to be the same 'guy,' then they should all have the same legs. Also, the reflections are inconsistent as well.

The bottle text must be distorted as the O's on the bottle are nearly perfect circles while the O's in the headline are ovals -- so I would stretch out the headline to match the bottle.

Crisp and clean. The image portrays the abstract notion of 'light,' but then your text introduces the concrete notion of a table that is nowhere to be seen. A simpler message along the lines of "Kabooza, the truly light wine" might work better. [An aside: Why is a 'light' wine a good thing? Is it especially appropriate for particular occasions or with particular foods?] The label is classy and sophisticated, but while its border matches the curve of the bottle exterior, the illuminated-K logo and text do not.

Elegant look, but drinking vodka out of a wine glass is dubious sophistication. I think using the same font for the "Kabooza" in the headline as used for the one on the bottle would be stronger branding.

Fun title and cool picture frame. The interior edge where it meets the framed picture needs a softening shadow, however. I don't get why the title needs to be repeated on the wall in the image or what the dark bar across the bottom represents. The subject of the picture inside the frame looks neither particularly big nor fat -- and the picture really blends in with everything else for obvious reasons [it's the source!]. Some distortion of the picture coupled with a hue adjustment might be helpful.

Creative idea, but the letters need a lot more shadows on their under [ground-facing] sides. I would also consider moving the young adults to the left edge (with probably a horizontal flip and maybe having the kids in front slightly overlapping so the people form a single element) for a more-diagonal composition instead of having all the elements on the right-hand side.

Like the concept and the mood. The lighting on the menhirs and dog don't match the light source (the moon [make it brighter?]) or their shadows, however. The foreground should be largely a silhouette.

This is so much better. The skateboarding kid is consistent with the whimsical logo and cartoon Mango Man, plus being able to see the kid's face is much more involving for us viewers.

Doing a suitcase was a creative idea. And your personal scowling-guy pic is great, enhanced by the nice depth-of-field. I personally wouldn't have re-used his beat-up suitcase, but that's an artistic choice. Walking on hands that are holding sneakers (as opposed to walking on feet wearing sneakers) is perhaps slightly odd personification. This might be more compelling if his luggage were going in the same direction he is.

Mango Man is kind of cute. Distorting the source bottle was a nice idea, but the end result is a misshapened, asymmetric container with an ill-fitting label [label's horizon line has wrong curvature]. I don't get why the woman is chest-bumping the bottle while her less-energetic clone looks on in shocked amazement or what the guy in back is looking at/jumping over. All the different type fonts and styles makes for a very busy feel.

Quite cool with great color matching of parts. Beard tentacles need to cast some shadows, however. Horn shadows and water-edge shadows are also needed.

Lovely with an appropriately refreshing feel. However, UPC bar codes aren't very attractive unless you're a computer, and this one isn't even centered above or (better IMO) as wide as the text under it. I would just delete it. Also, the label seems a tad too flat to be on the outside of the curved bottle.

Very creative and convincing! I would observe that while the logo starts in front of the bottle, it then goes behind the ninja bunny ear, so terminating behind the tag line makes sense. I would delete the border around the 11 o'clock sun ray to make it match all the other rays, however.

Dramatic. Maybe too much so as I had a hard time discerning right away that these were bottles. Part of that may be my monitor, but I do notice that your source bottle has more white outlines and larger white base. Since "Schnapps" seems to be centered over the vertical "Kabooza," I think the flavor text should also be centered. I like the inclusion of all the fine print for completeness.

Creative idea to depict 'energy' with the 'drink.' "Kabooza" does not match the curve and perspective of the can. The bulb's perspective doesn't match the can's either, alhough that discrepancy is less noticeable. If the arcs are an allusion to atomic energy, I think brighter arcs with more plausible orbital paths circling the body of the can would be more compelling. I think the headline is a bit misleading as there is neither a baby nor fire in the image. Dropping the headline would yield a dramatic, understated (epitomized by the all-lower-case "energy drink", and effective (IMO) message.

Simple and appealing with a little word play -- nice! The 'Kabooza' on the bottle does not seem as curved as I would expect the bottle's surface to be, however. There are a lot of shadows from different light sources going on. Just a base shadow on the bottle (as gopankarichal proposed) and no shadow for the big 'Kabooza' might yield a compelling less-is-more spareness.

Fun, but the spherizing threw the perspective off. I think limiting the spherizing to just the dust pin itself would work better. I wouldn't distort the ring with the handle, but instead keep it attached to the post and just color it green. As for the lid, I would retain its bottom edge, round the top, and resize to fit atop the spherized dust bin.

Convincing advert. I like how the leaf graphics and the stoner dude (not fashion model) make it clear what sets this beer apart. I think a shadow is needed on the bottle neck between his forefinger and middle finger [see your Caveman Dan source]. The crashing surf suggests to me that "Indeed, this is refreshment" might be a more appropriate tag line.

Interesting and attractive idea, but embossed deerskin is probably a more contemporary concept than the Wild West. Is the text original to you? It starts with double close quotes which I assume are supposed to be double open quotes, but then there should be double close quotes at the end of the quotation.

Nice idea with appropriately somber mood. I like how you incorporated both walkers and riders. However, I do feel the left-side tree diminishes the impact by hiding the leading edge of the Indians forced to leave their homelands. (The right-side branch, on the other hand, creates a nice feeling of depth.) I would eliminate the left-side tree and move the sun to the left edge for a stronger walking-into-the-sunset (i.e., the West) implication.

Very cute with a charming non-CBR element. I confess I find SBS Step 10 so much more compelling [with the big globe in front of the far end of the road, of course]. In this final version, the ground seems flat notwithstanding the perspective of the rainbow road atop it and has a color that seems to clash more than enhance.

Very amusing. I'm curious: what are Curlie's fingers too busy doing that he can't scratch his own chin?

Fun idea. Text on top of the image seems anachronistic, plus it makes a key part of the message hard to read. Stencil font for the 'WANTED' also seems out of place. (That must be one bad dude to warrant such a huge reward back when a dollar was actually worth something!)

When it comes to colorizing, it's obviously up to the colorer as to what gets colored. Nevertheless, I think it should all make some sort of sense. So I don't get why the umbrella shaft wasn't colored, especially when the umbrella's finial was. Also, the focus of the coloring seems to be the cocktail, so why not color the glass holding the cocktail?

More explanation: I think the disk in the center of the fountain gets lost within the large leaf form. In your fountain source, the bottom of the disk gets light from the underwater lights around the fountain's outside edge. Now that you have blocked those lights by placing huge leaves into the water, the overhead lighting above the disk has a greater effect. Therefore, I think having the center disk cast a stronger shadow onto the huge leaves makes sense and would make that disk stand out a bit more.

Also: The leaf form on top of the disk might benefit from casting a mini shadow onto the disk.

Simply converting the fancy bulbs into a fancy lamp is a bold approach in the face of likely CBR excess -- for which I commend you. I also like the crispness. The base seems very flat, however -- which captures the overall impression of just stacked elements with no interrelationship (such as cast shadows onto) with each other. Furthermore, I think lamps are more dramatic when they're turned on.

Creative concept. I confess I don't get the floating distorted rectangle with the googly eyes and "The Baby Dreamer" text -- is this image maybe supposed to be an advertising piece for the product? I think the 'goggles' should cast more of a shadow onto the baby's head. The image in the 'goggles' isn't very interesting, at least to me, and while I admit baby dreams could very well not be very interesting, I think more compelling or more humorous would help in this contest.

Edit this image by replacing it with your new and improved version. BTW I think the mutant giant blue peacock head and breast distract from/add unnecessary confusion to the peacock tree. A real-sized peacock in the foreground would be better IMO and would be a way to indicate the scale of the peacock tree while adding a greater feeling of depth to the image. Also, if the tree's beak sticks out from the tree, it would cast a shadow down onto the tree.

I think the shadow is much better now, although Akassa might have a point about its edges. Now that Alan mentions it, the hat does seem more Australian outback than American west., but I'm willing to overlook that.

Very cool! The perfect right angle of the flame edge below the middle Martian's left armpit is odd, made more so by not being how that area of the image appears in the 'Final result' of the SBS. I think this would be more dramatic if the middle Martian weren't the only one shooting some sort of ray; they all should be doing that. The white edges on parts of the legs and some head elements seem like poor blending.

EDIT: Armpit issue has been resolved. Added ray is spot on.

Creative idea. The hub's shadow could maybe be a little stronger since the big leaves block any up light..

Nice concept and mood. I like how the front two Indians are interacting with each other, but the apparently manufactured face on the right Indian is weird.

Creative viewpoint for a gunfight scene. Innovative idea to fashion the far guy using snowboard dude as the base. Shadows are an issue, however. Far guy's shadow is totally unrealistic; for example, his feet can't cast a shadow in every direction like they're surrounded by some sort of black glow. The near guy appears to be lit by a fairly strong light from the left. Far guy's shadow and highlighting should conform to that. Ditto for other elements in the scene.

There's always space for a shadow; look at any object where it touches the ground (and including that often-miniscule shadow is what helps to make Photoshopping look real). But angle of view could hide a shadow. Although I'm not all that sure that's the case here given the shading on the guy, if you tried a shadow and it didn't look right, I'll defer to your judgment.

This raises the question as to what the distinction is between vampirism and walking dead. The simplistic answer is that since there was a separate vampirism contest just a few weeks ago, there must be a difference. Ergo, left woman must be a vampire while right woman is walking dead. Vampire woman is very well done although the eyes could maybe be even more intense. Walking-dead woman, however, may be blind but her skin is awfully flawless and healthy-looking.

Why the need to remove the pink sleeves? If you thought they were too cheery for the walking dead, you could select them and change their hue to something more somber. But I think the contrast between frilly and dead would actually enhance the creepiness.

Interesting idea as Nator noted. I think the guy should be casting some shadow onto the lemon slice, however. And the lighting on the lemon slice doesn't seem to match the lighting on the woman.

Very creative use of source! I do feel the microphone edge by her cheek should be more visible/less shadowed. Actually, having the microphone ever so slightly overlap her face would increase the feeling of depth and be more interesting IMO.

It's hard to deny the author's observation that "I've seen a LOT worse!" Nevertheless, this still seems rather slight. Making the text a lot more prominent, and perhaps more of an advertising message instead of just a label, might help.

Your Wikipedia link does not provide much insight into what the Cauldron-Born might look like, but it does reveal that you left out the hyphen. The graphic black-and-white-with-red-accents image is quite dramatic. The odd earing thing would be more compelling as blood oozing from his ear canal, however. And the cheek drip has an inexplicable aspect as well.

There may be something here, but the top half of the ghost is is indiscernable, its reflection is off (as CMYK46 noted), and its relevance to the background is inscrutable.

Has potential, but it looks more like someone wearing a mask to me because the body doesn't match the face. Hair and shoulder edges lack the crispness of the 'mask' which emphasizes the maskiness of the face.

Nice idea to use the slender pendent branches of the the willow tree as a fashion model's hair. Some 'hair' shadows on the face would make it seem more like she's actually wearing the willow wig. The black left-side cheek edge is disconcerting because the 'hair' behind it isn't appropriately shaded [see your Pretty Girl source image]. I admit I don't get the point of the reflection other than as a manifestation of a (not unreasonable) concern that mere branches-as-hair might be insufficient content for a high-scoring entry.