The egg and Taj should both have some back lighting around the edges to match the clouds.

Beautiful lighting!

Too dark in the LH corner.

Really cute, but the drop shadow on the lizard (especially on the LH side by the arm) does not match the background or the shadows of the people, which takes away from the believability of the image.

Nice work. The girl's fingers on the boy's back should be in shadow, and her hair shouldn't be so dark where it faces the light, but otherwise, you've done a good job with the lighting.

The highlights on the grapes are not correspondant to the lighting on the grape leaves, but overall, this is lovely to look at.

The mountains are a bit crudely painted, and do not correspond very well with th photographic elements.

Author, those photos have a "Some Licensed Reserved" notice, and you must license them through Getty Images.
If you have licensing permission, you must include it, otherwise, the at-at photos cannot be used.

Well done!

Great concept. There is a white outline edge on the umbrella, and the top of the dog shows lighting that is inconsistent with the image (perhaps Image>Adjustments>Selective Color>whites would help adjust that), but otherwise is it a good chop.

The lighting on the figure does not correspond to the background image at all, and the added "light beam" makes no visual sense in addition to not illuminating the figure correctly.

An umbrella when it's raining doesn't connote "death" to my mind, which makes the title seem a little silly, but the painting itself is very nicely done.

Beautiful work, excellent job of consistent lighting, very creative!

Great work!

There are other artists whose work is easily identifiable, and at far lesser quality than this. As with any artist's style, some will like it, some won't. Just as those with poor quality who are easily identified by their style are identified, it will all "come out in the wash," and the voting will decide.

It's NOT the author's problem, it is his style. If you disagree, flag it, let the mods tell the author he can't create in his own style because it is identifiable.

I far prefer this to simple repetitive patterns trying to pass themselves off as droste effects...

The reflection does not work, you should not be able to see the underside of the pill stack, they look like they are floating...

Blatant Copyright Infringement, and not even enough decency to credit the artist she stole the concept from...Shame!

No, you have merely repeated the bottle. Look at the Droste Cocoa image in the Wikipedia link, and you will see how it is a Droste image, because the entire image is within the image, not just the woman repeated and getting smaller.

I am not incorrect in this situation, YOU are, and the original Droste Cocoa image shows you why...

Nice pattern, but it's not really a Droste Effect.
A drost effect is when you have an image of an image with itself which then repeats, not just taking an image and repeating it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droste_effect

Nice mood. Well done.

Weird swelling under his left eye, but otherwise very nice!

The hair looks very flat, with no depth of the numerous strands. It just kind of looks like blocks of color with some surface brushwork to give an illusion of strands...
This is one of the better tutorials to explain how to paint hair:
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3174

The reflection is off, it looks as though it is tilted forward...

Really well done. My only suggestion would be to remove the redness around her eyes (make a selection around the eyes, and use Image>Adustments>Hue and Saturation, Reds to reduce the saturation and lighten it a bit)...

Is the front roller off-kilter on purpose?
Also, is he doing a wheelie spin? Because the back wheel is moving, but the off-kilter front wheel is stationary...Somewhat confusing, visually...

Really well done, very nice!

The reflection is off. It looks like it's floating...

A little too blurry on the membrane. Too heavy with the smudge tool. But good color coordination with the background.

The underside edge of the back of the slice should be shaded.

His pectoral chest muscles are a bit odd. The breast on the RH side is somewhat larger and misshapen when compared to the one on the LH side.

No problem at all! Best of luck to you.

It's an obvious technical flaw, and I pointed it out.
Comments are just that. I commented on what I observed, which is incorrect light reflections on your bubble. Whether or not you choose to agree, or get hurt feelings is YOUR response, which I have no control over.
This is a competition site, and while we all come here to have fun, it's not a day care, and part of submitting your work for public comment means having a thick enough skin to not whinge when your technical mistakes are pointed out. If you cannot endure any criticism, you can always not elect to allow public comments.
I do not need to "be careful" in stating what I see. Perhaps you need to be more careful in what you render.

Really nice work. Good compositional angle.

Hips turned are one thing. You have his right hip square to the viewer, with the left leg misplaced. Also, turning the hips would move the lower abdominal muscles as well as the right leg, but with the right leg "face forward" as you have it, the lower abdomen would not be off to the right...
Anatomy is a bit difficult, but really not that complicated if you remember that it's all connected. If you move something, it still needs to remain connected to the rest, otherwise, you end up with a leg attached to the crotch...lol!

Changes are up to you. But in a competition, little things like wonky anatomy might cost you points...

The light reflection "spot" is misplaced and makes no sense. It should be a reflection of the sun shining on the planet, not an odd, squarish light spot.
There is also no light reflection/refraction from the flame, which is so bright that it would be MUCH lighter along the bubble "edge," not a dull orange that barely shows on the bubble at all.

"Uncle Joe's" raised leg is too far to the center, giving him a hip joint where his crotch would be. His "6-pack" is also off center, as the base of those muscles would remain centered, with the upper muscles rotated, not all of them over to one side...

All's fair in art...giggle snort...
Nice color selection.

Here are a few bubble photos - Notice the light reflection on BOTH sides of the bubble:
http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=2560150
http://morguefile.com/archive/display/126802
http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=1641885
The interior bubble surface is actually reflective, like a spherical mirror. For 2d rendering, it is usually sufficient to just have a light edge along the opposite side of your light source, or occasionally a smaller "reflection" of it, when it is a square-ish shape like a "window" shining on it, or in this case, a round-ish "sun," 180 degrees opposite.

The exception to this is when a bubble is in liquid, like water, or champagne. Then, the light diffraction of the liquid creates a dark edge on the opposite side of the light source:
http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=661570

Hope this helps!

Since your bubbles are transparent, there should be a light reflection on the inside back of them, not just on the surface.

Great caricature, yet very effective expression. Good work!

Beautiful concept, but the support beam on the left doesn't look like it goes all the way down to the bottom, much less down into it...
Also, the shoreline on the left has a very dark line of demarcation where it meets the water. Needs a bit of tweaking, but it's still some good work!

Quite fitting, giggle snort...Woo Hoo! Great work!

Some sharp angles on around the edges of the face, with a couple of noticeable points, but very imaginative!

I think "Painted" in a Photoshop contest could well include overlays, otherwise this would be a "digital drawing." If nothing else, you could paint the fur...

It was better with the fur. B&W photos are generally more "ho-hum" in a chop contest.

How profound.

The fur's direction going sideways on the face looks odd...It doesn't looks "painted," so much as cut and pasted overlay.
Perhaps reposition the fur so that it runs from top to bottom...

Delightful and creative. Very fun. giggle snort woo hoo!

Your lighting is all over the place, with misplaced shadows and highlights.
Continuity is important, even in fantasy images, and especially in competitions...

The light should not be shining behind the man since he is casting a shadow...especially since it is NOT shining behind the woman next to him.

What is "Fod Wax?"

The light from the top is even emphasized with brushes, yet there is no light shining on the top of the cats...