Spot-on perspective! I originally thought the helmet 'glare' was from the sun, but 'glare' on the shady side seemed a bit odd. And his right shoulder has some 'glare' as well.

The curb's shadow is a bit wider than the height of the curb, so the angle to the sun is not quite 45 degrees. The foreground orb's shadow should be moved to the right; I would expect to see the orb's left edge's shadow near the left edge of the image with the rest of the orb's shadow continuing all the way to the right and off the edge of the image. Orb shadow should match intensity of pylon shadow. Rear orb shadow must have come from an orb we can't see. Stronger shading on the front orb might be appropriate given the sun's intensity.

Good idea. I think this might be more amusing if the setting were a parking lot/car park, however. The light source for the VW seems to be from the upper left so I would expect its shadow to be more to the right. The shadow's shape also seems off and shows a lot more windshield than I would expect.

Spear gets lost against column (shrink background and crop). Color hues of Artemis and owl seem inconsistent with background which makes it all look fake. Edge blending issues with her hairdo. Not clear why Artemis is posing in front of ruins instead of college professors, an army, or scrapbookers. While owls are cool, I admit I equate them more with Harry Potter than Greek mythology.

I think the uniform brightnes of all the elements and her odd (non-Artemis-like) pose reduce the impact of this image.

I have to agree that this looks like a statue of Zeus, not the god himself which is the requirement of the theme for this contest.

Creepy, but in a good way. Uniformity of eyes works for me as that's what I'm used to, albeit in such a quantity. I have to agree that he does not look like a giant. I would intensify the shadow on his butt crack and soften the shadow under his left clavicle while increasing that for his left armpit (so it doesn't look like his left arm is growing out of his neck). A slightly stronger shadow along the back edge of his right arm wouldn't hurt, either.

Good idea. Slightly better in hi-res (spherical nature of the earth more obvious). Lighting a problem: where is the illumination of the earth coming from?

Good idea, but I think greater adherence to the window concept and then equalizing the impact of the three images would conform to the them better.

Interesting idea, but image is not understandable without the theme and your description. I don't get what about the middle segment conveys the present beyond the reflected sky. The future window seems incredibly classical to me with the side columns and pediment. (A future level that looked like a blueprint might help convey the notion of prospectiveness better.)

Awesome indeed! There can be no confusion about what this image is: a mime pretending to fiddle.

I could really see this as a frozen shot of a professional mime performing faux bicycle tricks. Since I would expect the spotlight to be coming from above, the shadow should really be smaller than the the mime.

Amusing mime make-up, but what is the cat miming? [See contest description.] A clever answer conveyed in the title could make this a winner. (Consider background and cropping as well.)

This is subtle. Perhaps you could also show the tacky tourists he's photographing. Unfortunately, from this angle, it's hard to tell whether this guy is a mime or just someone with an odd fashion sense. Maybe a hard edge between the make-up and his real face would make that clearer.

Amusing execution of the theme. However, the mime face is indiscernable; the face looks like it's just overlit. Also, the boots don't to seem to be as shiny as the leather jacket.

Some great cloning for an on-theme entry. There does need to be some cleaning up under his right (our left) wrist, however. The leg is iffy; I would try to find somebody else's leg to put in its place. The hat is a whimsical throw-away (add something Christmasy to the background?). I wish the guy's expression were a bit more animated.

Nice image, but I don't get how this fits the theme ("give the the effect as if they were mimicking the action they are doing in the image of them". Digital make-up is not mimicking. The tear does not look real (which is good because that would be counter to the theme) nor does it look like part of the make-up IMO (but if it did it would be make-up, not miming).

Don't get the 'finger' part of the title. I admit that pink, perfect symmetry, and odd radiation don't work for me.

Feet much smaller than hands doesn't even work for adults. An elongated baby doesn't work, either. And why aren't the shadows on the feet replicated anywhere else?

Too much stuff in front of Mom IMO. She's the focal point. I appreciate that a little overlap adds depth, but I would emphasize 'little.' Her glow is creepy. [BTW I hope English is not your first language.]

Perhaps the subtitle should be "and the cluelessness of anyone who doesn't get it (despite the inherent awesomeness of the image itself)" in order to deflect any uninformed criticism.

Interesting, although piano keys make me think of music rather than art (visual media).

Kudos for recognizing that the source image apparently was not of an old-fashioned analog piano. The white piano key you claim to have removed seems narrower than the opening left behind. The shadows on the edges of that white key are not uniform and contribute to its fake feeling.

I like the road idea but not the light gray between the keys (should be darker) or the fact the white keys have no front edge (right side of image) and they wrap around the back edge (left side of image) of the black keys. The background (i.e., everything but the Old Ivory Road) is distracting and adds no insight into what the Old Ivory Road is about.

Clever idea, but I wish this barcode were on a box (or maybe the back of a spinet piano). And perhaps the partial black key on the right could be the result of the cropped right-hand edge of your image.

Interesting idea, except is just looks like news anchors/readers in mime makeup. Different expressions and poses showing them acting out the day's news would be more compelling. (This is clearly a difficult theme to execute.)

I don't think there's anything wrong with having an outside inspiration. The real issue is how well that inspiration was implemented here. I don't understand why the background has become blurry or why the lifted-up pavement seems fairly transparent. Also, the perspective of the grass the guy is standing on doesn't match the perspective of the background.

Dramatic. I personally think a bigger, rugged rock would be a better contrast to the smooth curves of 'The Sender.' I also think she looks like she's wearing sneakers/trainers.

Nice Tinkerbell feel. Wings are weird (as BlueSparkle noted): Too parallel to shoulder blades and there's no bottom to them; too narrow or needs second set of wings. Stars appearing through the shadowed part of the moon is physically impossible (but that may be a quibble since Tinkerbell herself is fantasy). I don't get the white streak just below her knees.

Very cool. DigitalDreamer identified an area where a tad more subtlety would notch up the awesomeness.

Very cute and well done.

Grim. String loop should be reasonably taut as gravity pulls down the (admittedly rather light) tag. I agree with GolemAura that I would expect the tag to be handwritten (but I have no experience in this area). If I wasn't aware of the source pic, I would not recognize these as baby feet. Something that made that clearer (e.g., bigger, adult-size tag overwhelming the baby feet with additional data on the tag of sex and age) would make this more dramatic.

Great matching of perspectives. I think the edge between her feet and the pavement needs to be stronger, however. And if her shadow is towards us, why is her back lit? Nevertheless, while this may be a cultural contrast, I'm not sure this fits the 'reborn' theme as she could be contemporary despite the source's description of 'primitive.'

I confess I don't understand how this fits the theme. Assuming this is indeed "after reborn," the contest is simply "reborn" so we need to see what was before this image.

Interesting idea. Good colorizing of the 'mother' photo. However, the perspective on the bed is different from that on the mother. I also think a home is more than a bed. And someone who now has a home should be cheerier than 'mother' is.

Very creative! I like how the new you seems to have lost the soul patch. Good job on changing the T-shirt message (although it seems to be floating above the shirt because of the drop shadow), but something needs to be done about the hat remnants. The arms and hands should match the head 'skin,' IMO.

Impressive.

There's an interesting idea here, but the random coloring of the piano keys has no relation to music. How many bright-red notes can there be, and how can two notes next to each other both be bright red? A cat playing the piano is very contemporary, however.

Seems more like "Mutant-Baby Toes" to me when each freaky foot has at least nine toes. I also think it's all too pink. A funky-foot frame in a contrasting color for the baby photo (source?) would be more effective IMO.

You're right that it's 'simple.' As for 'creative,' a check of the source reveals otherwise. I personally like her original little-girl foot better than the baby foot you've covered it up with. A new background or additional baby features (including resizing the body to baby proportions) might make this more interesting.

Convincing, but it would be a bit hard to know what this is if one weren't aware of the source. Why not make the foot red and call it Baby Elmo?

Well done.

Very clever. With this lighting, I would expect the bottom half of the knob to be darker portion. The markings look more like they're floating on top of the foot rather than painted on to the foot. The blue and red are colorful but are associated with cold and hot, not loudness. Maybe the circles could grow increasingly bigger as volume grows.

Not clear that a spirit counts as reborn. There's an interesting idea here, but I personally would like something edgier such as Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis looking at the huge statue of Lincoln that is inside his memorial.

I would like to see whole horses with hooves on the payment so the knights look like they're in the picture, not just in front of it.

I don't get how this is on theme.

I have to agree that the bun top needs to cast more of a shadow onto the 50 bill. And more curl in that bill would indeed help. (Or just delete it since it's the only non-U.S. in the pile?) [Pretty large bun relative to the bills BTW.]

Clever idea, although 'thing' is a scary topping. And it could be argued that this allows me to build my burger but has not revealed how you would design your burger (per the contest description).

I think the 'mysterious' concept requires more darkness and the overall image itself needs a stronger dark/light contrast for greater drama. With the strong light coming from the background, the mid- and foregrounds need to be increasingly darker.

Good blue idea, although my eyes see an inappropriate shift towards purple. The black holes with the cigarettes are odd (even though they are in your source). And the mirror images of the cigarettes on each end don't help. I would crop the right side at the edge of the gravestone as a more appropriate ending for your 'story' for those of us who read from left to right.