Weren't you drooling all over your wacom while drawing this? :P

In case it's not obvious, author is Poltergeist,... the whole series.

Hypnotic eyes.

Awesome expression !!! ...and teeth!

It has great colors, too.

It looks beautiful.

Well, Josh, that was a nice compliment to the author's son, making him a stud.

In her tutorial, madalina had some compositional tricks that she did not explain:

- those branches, create some sort of dynamic frame;
-the moon covered by the wing is the first checkpoint- it's not random that you find it in the lower 3rd of the image.
-pigeon has orange, to make a chromatic contrast, etc,etc.

The right half of your image is unatractive- compositionaly speaking, therefor i think that if you would crop it in half and keep only the left side, i would look so much cool.
Rotate that lightning strike 45 degrees.
You could also add a bit of orange on the pigeon.

Try it, and if it doesn't look better, never listen to me again

Well it's not entirely your fault, cause the author of the tutorial had some problems with the perspective. That entrace should follow the horizontal lines between the bricks, instead the entire opening in the original is ambiguous, in reality it would make no sense.
However you should be more carefull at step 6, the second part, where it said that the gaps should match., and the stairs should be from wall to wall.

If you have probs. with proportions, use the final result of the tut., and draw some guide lines over it. Use them to build your entry on top.

Beautiful shot.

A nice blend, texture is well used.

Reflections of this kind are a pain, we tend to avoid them so I won't judge you for trying. However you should at least mask the reflection on the window's frames ( those black lines).

It does look way better than the original.

People are not hate-commenting on your entries, they see your potential and want you to show them more, because it seems you have the skills to do it.

This is the reason why some "ridiculous entries" don't get criticized, cause the commenters don't know what to expect or ask from the author, and explaining him how to improve & grasp. fundamentals, might take too long.

People here also vote on creativity, imagination wow-effect, and by force of habit they expect more complex work.

Your entry looks gorgeous, as i said .If, for example, you would make it a portrait in a hands of a girl you would find as stock, voters could also appreciate your blending skills, your composition, your patience to search & find the right source & stuff like that.

I'm Not trying to tell you what to do, or make you modify anything, I'm just explaining how things work around, in my opinion.

You've done a great work man. Congrats for your win.

Awesome work marina, well done.

You could make a more complex UFO out of that lamp and disperse them, so that they won't stay grouped. You can also tilt some of them to make them look like they are coming from all directions.This would mprove the mood of the composition.

Maybe you can take another photo of the bus, this time with a neutral background, cause right now you would have to clone out all that writing.

Great shot! I think you're alowed to use perspective crop to straighten it in the right side.

A. Doesn't matter who influenced you, because anyone was influenced at some point by something/someone; and it's not like someone is God or Nature itself and all the others just copy.
B. The problems with your entry:
1. No need for 2 animals: your selling point is the rhino and his head - that should stand up more, make the mushroom bigger- CROP the image, etc.
2. You already have 2 humans of different sizes and at the same distance from the eye - I believe you scaled one of them wrong.
Remove the one on top , keep only the one on the bottom, she will give you scale and interest point..
3. For realism sake the river should fall from the animals back, and be seen falling on the sand.

Who's a bumple???

Lol, a beautiful (shot, turned into a) disaster
That tree branch in low-left bumped in you pic first.

If this is trully your diary cover, it's damn nice.

Scary!

Unique!

Good shot.

I like this one, made only with blue & B/W.

This looks good, but i have no idea what it is.

Beautiful colors & comp. It fits well.

Driven is right this is some good work.

Great cloning skills !

A decent entry.

Great idea, fan-like money would have made a nice composition too.

LOL

Awesome work, i love it.

LMAO! CMYK was right Nice shot anyways.

Very well done, looks like pottery.

Great pic!

Wow! Someone robbed the toy-store.

Awesome shot.

In my country we call it: " Don't be mad, brother"

Really good.

Nice mood.

Kyricom's right- sadness would go away imediatly!

This is it! Totally on theme.

It is a good work.

This is pretty cool, but it could be better. For ex. you don't need the dustbin in this context.

I think you meant "Fragrance" .

A beautiful shot.

I like it - floating wheel. Where do you live ?

Wow, really impressive story, if you have more pics with the jelly, maybe you could suggest it as source. I don't know, it just looks amazing . If the company ever manages to produce again and make it popular, they could be the new Faberge eggs.

Funny & hot entry author. Well executed.
@ Driven : sécheresse cutanée!! LOL
On va prier pour qu'il mouille, alors :P