This is terrific! And the SBS is wonderful. Not keen on the moon either, but I like the clouds.

Edit: Moon is much better - great job!

Details are great here!

Congratulations, SkinMonkey!

Congratulations on your well-earned first place!!!!!!!! I have never so loved such a horrifying image.

It looks AWESOME. I'm not particularly fond of the noise around the moon and in the sky - I think stars can be rendered more effectively another way. Arca's suggestions and your improvements make this top-notch. SBS?

Update: Sky looks so much nicer without the noise.

Love it, LOL

Delighted to see my favorite back! It's different - darker background I think - but it's masterful. Good luck!!

There's a lot more work here than is visible. That's really a huge loss to us as viewers. The front lamp is well done on its own, but the artistry of the background is lost to the darkness, even in high-resolution. Perhaps if the back lights - so "far away" - could cast more illumination on the area around them, we could see the magic of your background. Good luck!

Reaction: Horrifying. Critique: written above.

The "distortion" of the specimens and the illusion that they are in the glasses is very good. I do, however, see the edges of back glasses coming through front glasses, as if the liquid is transparent. If it is, then the transparency is not consistent. Specimens from back glasses would also show through front glasses, yes?

Very good - if macabre - idea.

The work is original and funny! But I have to agree with the earlier comment (removed) - I find "her" glass rather flat, too. It would also be nice to have had a clearer old man hand to match the sharpness of the glasses and "her" hand.

As for my own comments coming during voting, I apologize (sort of) but I don't have enough time to review, comment and keep checking back during the week, and then come back to vote on the weekends. Which is why I may comment, but rarely vote in contests I've entered. This is not just about winning - it's about learning and improving, isn't it?

LOL - love the title! Nicely done.

VERY nice blend of the background through the glass! It looks a bit flat and the background should appear a little distorted, but that transparency effect is nicely done. Good luck!

Author, your idea is original! Your edges, however, need refining. The cut borders are too sharp. Selecting the elements, inverting the selection, expanding the edge by 1 pixel (or 2, depending on the resolution of the original), then modifying again using Feather set to 0.5 pixel, and THEN deleting/trimming the excess helps fix that problem. After final placement in the scene, running the blur tool set as a small, round, soft, low opacity along the edges will soften any ragged edges and blend into the scene even more. Good luck!

Beautiful! I will say that gravity and the behavior of water would mean the lines and contents of the beautifully made bottle would be angled, not perfectly vertical as they appear. It may just be a trick of the eye, but it's something that stood out to me as not "natural" in the real world. Love your color choice for the liquid!

I can't believe this piece only received one comment so far. This is ingenious. The stretch of the elements is compensated by tight, clean borders - beautiful. The wide angle perspective of the wall / corner is odd, considering the placement of the machinery, but the mood, colors, and concept are off the charts. Good luck!

Interesting explanation, author. I'm glad to have it, since my initial answer to your description ("The image tells it all" was "Ummm... no, it doesn't." Maybe it's because I do my own nails. Good luck. MossyB makes a good point about the masking. Expanding your selection by 1 or 2 more pixels would remedy that next time.

**CORRECTION: CONTRACTING your selection (make the selection smaller than the outside edge of the object you want to keep) by 1 or 2 pixels. Sorry! Another way to smooth the edge is to feather it by 0.5 pixels before the chop.

Oh dear God! This should have been entered in Scary Face contest, LOL.

I love Dido's CD - the music. Nice job here.

I like this a lot! Healthy or not - it's sweet!

This is why an SBS is so important - it's a pain to remember to grab a screen capture when in the throes of creating and tweaking, but only a detailed SBS reveals the intricacy of techniques used (and some great tricks!) This is strikingly beautiful in its subtlety.

As for some comments... last I knew, a tribute was a nod to a style, an interpretation, not an imitation.

I think what we're finding distracting is the "ending" line of the right cheek should be more horizontal than vertical. It would softly underline the cheek, completing its roundness. As positioned, it does appear the front / right leg is tucked between two cheeks instead of attached to one of them. What a nice idea, though.

Outstanding!

Congratulations, Drivenslush!

Congratulations! This is such a beautiful piece!

Reflection is beautiful.

I could have done without the green snot, but this is very well done.

Love the way you warped without distorting the design! But I'm scratching my head over the role of the dark blue curve in the background; are the hands really supposed to be that disembodied? There doesn't seem to be enough room for the hands to be working. Maybe I'm missing the surreal part of this, lol.

Author, sorry I am only getting around to all of these entries now, but here are a few tips for the future:
1. As the shape of the bowls are rounded, so the yellow stripe should bend. Try a radial gradient instead of a linear gradient.
2. With the light from above, the bowls would appear darker color at the bottom near the table. That's because the top half of the bowl (to its widest part) will block the light and cast some shadow on the bottom half.
3. You created a very nice illusion of depth with the edges of the table and the pots - wider / larger close to the viewer (bottom) and narrower / smaller farther away (toward center). To complete the illusion, the plaid pattern should also appear smaller and narrower at the end of the table farthest away. You can accomplish this by applying the pattern to a rectangle first, flatten, then apply Perspective - it will change both the shape and the pattern.

Hope this helps!

Beautiful work and great colors! But my sense of balance is leaning uncomfortably left.

A lot of work, creativity, and well done. Not fond of the way the plate came out in the final with the dip in the center and two tiers, considering your SBS showed nice even ellipticals. Love the donuts!

Sweet!!

By the way, I love the highly "polished" look of the model - great job with the glamor.

Question: Since the red rims of the glasses share the same light source (light reflections in same position), how come the lenses reflect light sources and create shadows from two different directions (like one is a flip of the other, instead of a duplication)?

You're welcome! So glad you liked my tip. I find that matching and/or creating shadows and light are probably the most common challenge when adding outside elements to scenes.

The easiest way to solve your shadow and light problem, author, is to flip the "marble" horizontally. I see you are trying to change the light and dark with other manipulations - that is much harder and usually doesn't work too well. If you still have your original image in separate layers (a good thing to do until contests are over, by the way), just flip the marble and you will see a huge difference, and the light and shadows will match. Good luck!

I really like how you fit the snake. High resolution would have been good.

I would like to have seen more of a motion or blur to the dice to imply movement from the toss. Good luck.

Very eerie cargo there, Author! Fantastic job on the chest. The perspective is precise and very believable.

Nice use of another source image. In addition to the green horn, there are also extra artifacts from the "collar" as it goes across the skeleton head. I have same question as Drivenslush - is it deliberate? If so, sorry I don't find it too impressive. Otherwise, clever idea.

Knife reflection is a great effect! Nice masking, too. Clean.

Basketweave effect is fabulous. (You have much more patience than I!) Great job!

Like the safer update. The original was creepier, but a photo of someone made up LIKE The Joker but not the "real" Joker HAS to be allowed. Yipee! GL, author!

I like the surreal nature of the piece just as it is. The piece needs an SBS, doesn't it?

Nice idea. Good masking on the treasures. To my eyes, the perspective of the box is not right. To see so much of that side, the front should either be angled, or the entire box moved far left within the setting.

Very nice masking work. Beautiful job.

WOW!! Love this! My greatest fear is that the original "Joker" image is copyrighted by WB, even if the source you used was not. I've been away a while - has PXLeyes resolved a potential conflict like this? I sure hope I'm wrong, author. This is wonderful in so many ways. It would be awful to have it fall victim to... the BAN HAMMER bwaaahahahaha!!

Thanks, it's nice to be back, LOL. And, yes, I thought giving one deserved getting one. Nice update, BTW.

Thanks, it's nice to be back, LOL. And, yes, I thought giving one deserved getting one. Nice update, BTW.

Wow, I've been away for a while but I see some artists have gotten nastier in defense of their work, instead of appreciating comments and questions. One thing I learned and appreciate about THIS site in particular: HOW you achieved your effects is almost as important as WHAT effects you achieved. Only a good SBS proves what you did. Smarmy remarks by artists against the importance of SBS may work on other sites, but not this one.

Now, for your entry. This nice effect on this beautiful woman's face would benefit from more vibrant eyes, as seen in many of Dragan's works.