Congrats Stowsk, long time no see

Congrats anoosh!

I'm sorry that I deleted my comment (and also your reply) by accident. Pxleyes has changed since the last time I was still active.
I totally understand that making a perfect entry is the matter of time also. I hope that you didn't misunderstand my previous comment, I just wanted to help ^^.
This entry is definitely the winner IMO.
PS: I always agree that trainings in drawing helps a lot in manipulating images.

The horns and tail look quite distorted, maybe pen tool and clone tool can help you improve these. Otherwise your creature is good looking and mighty!
Good luck to you, author.

I'm not a fan of the leaves (they look quite flat) but the relic was created beautifully and the 3D effect is really good, especially the horns are the most believable ones.
If there are something to be improved, I can suggest some fixes in the 3D perspective and shadow. The relic is placed like it turns mostly into the left side, we don't see much of its left side. So, the size ratio of the left horn to the right one should be less than the current one. Also, the shadow on the teeth may be better if it's a bit lighter and sharper.
This work is very potential, I hope you'll get a good score. Good luck.

The only thing I can complain is the length of the boy's body should be only 4/5 of the current one, which can be guessed on the form of the blanket. Considering his head, you can estimate his body.
Also I wish that I can see more details and sharpness in your image. But it's just the minor thing.

Almost like an illustration and also a good one. I like the color tones of the whole piece and how you created the 'tumor' without shape constrained, it looks horrifying.
The minus point is some mismatched shadows. The light bulb is likely to be above the center of the bed, so the light should comes out from that point. The monster is partly on the bed, so you can't see it's shadow outside the bed like the one on the left of the image. Also, there shouldn't be the highlight on the right side of the bed since the light comes from the other side.
Good luck to you.

Overall, it's a nice image. The good point is you spent time on details and used your personal stock images. The colors from different sources were well adjusted to fit to each other.
However, there are some things to be improved:
1. Lighting: there are some mistakes regarding the light direction, and also the shadows. Take the center of the image as the center of a clock, the light is supposed to go from 9-10 hour to 3-4 hour on the right, based on the light on the left hand and in the corner of the room. If so, you can see only the shadow of the clown on the wall (his shadow should be long, stretched toward the bottom of the image) and you should see the shadow of the closet on the right part of the clown. The shadow of the baby is not supposed to be visible (even if it's there, the shadow of baby's hands is not similar to the hands' gesture).
Based on the shadow, the height of the baby and the clown are the same, so the clown is extremely short, and also the head of the baby should be visible if the shadow is correct. Think about this image from other angle you can find out the perspective needs more works.
It's a nice effort and I hope you'll get a good score with this contest.

That's what I planned to mention, the "so strange" elements, but didn't have enough space for that. From that aspect, everything is fine lol. I understand that it's close to the voting period so normally we don't have enough time do make any change. Best of luck to you, author

On the scale of 10 I would rate 9 on your idea and 8 on execution. Actually you made this kind of image before and it inspired me to make one of my work. However, I have some critiques that might help you to improve that image if you're willing to (1) The perspective or the angle of the sand is different from the gray ground, so viewers can feel the inner image (inside the frame) is actually closer and higher than the outer image; (2) the pattern of the sand and the gray ground are very different, so even though you used a high feather radius, they are not blended well

Congrats my friend, you really deserve the first place, even with higher mark!

Congrats George!

Congrats IDt8r!

Congrats Orientallad for your place
That's not fair to my two girls to fight against a two powerful warriors LOL. Next time my warrior will come in, hope that I can see you in the battle again

Congrats Glockman, this is the best warrior created in Pxleyes IMO, you're well deserve the first place

Congrats Emik, your cat won over other 49 pets, that's something to be proud of , so lovely shot :x :x :x. I just wonder that's a female or male?

Fantastic creation! Beside hard working things, I really like how you played with light. Even though the candle lights aren't located in a really good composition (which you can improve more), a nice touch on the saturation level still made them great. This image looks like a 3D artwork. Definitely one of your best works!

Wow, wow, you're back, I was surprised to see your name again. Seems like Warrior themes are attractive to you . The details you put into this work is really awesome but still unique as your style. I don't see the brown shades clearly, so this work is almost a lineart IMO. Congrats on your win, really well deserved!

Congrats Marina

Congrats on your win

Congrats on your second place

Congrats Laura on your first place

If by adding the boats, your reference is no longer considered as a close reference, then I feel happy for you. As I understand, the rule just mentions the use of close reference, so I'm not sure that your entry is safe now or not. Close reference is prohibited because there is no proof to say that an author didn't do tracing (I know you didn't). But I hope that you won't get any more problem. Good luck, author

I'm not against the use of close reference but still appreciate more an alternative interpretation of the reference. Indeed, your skill is really good, the result is fantastic and I don't think your work looks like a photo. The only question is why did you choose this approach if your work will be removed for sure...

Congrats loopy, I knew it

I can't be cruel enough to separate them . This work reminds me some funny scenes from Shrek . Very good job!!!

Congrats Glockman, very well played, and thank you again for your input

Congrats Marina on your second place

That's a great work, especially on using colors. There are somethings that might be helpful to you if you want to improve further: (1) The size of the mask is quite small compared to her face, you can use the distance between her eyes as the standard and enlarge the mask to fit it; (2) The saturation level of the mask is noticeably higher than the rest while the colors of the character are quite muted. If you use the blue filter for the mask, it would fit more to the image; (3) There are many black dots on the image, I don't know your purpose but they are quite distracting. Best work so far!!

Great work my friend, I like the curve on the flag that fits to the moon shape. I can see you spent time for thinking and came up with this approach. The highlight on the hand is so realistic, well done. In my opinion, maybe you don't need to use the shadow for the hand because the whole image is quite conceptual, rather than a real spatial arrangement of objects. Best of luck to you ^^

I really like images like this one, great work, congrats for your deserved place!

Great work as usual my friend

Very poetic scene, I love how you drew the cow jumping high like flying, they're enjoying their happy time. Technically, this picture will be better with more shadow of the cat (since you made the shadow of the dog well) IMO. So lovely entry ^^

I understand your situation, that's totally similar to me. You don't need to do that for the contest because you can win it easily and get high score. My critique is for the case if you want to improve and even commercialize your work. Thank you for your effort, if you didn't do that, we can't have this kind of work in Pxleyes ^^

Okay, since you asked I'll give a scale to judge whether you need more depth or not. Focusing on the faces of the fairies, they're very close to the light source, right? comparing the highlight on their face and the midtones, they're dramatically different, so your light source is strong in the center but becomes weaker considerably as the distance increases. Therefore, the shadow and highlight on the dragon and the tree should be more dramatic also. The green and yellow fairies seem to be on the same plane and the two fighters are on top of them., etc.

I envy your patience and effort on this work, and it should get very high score. Details, brush patterns, composition, and colors are awesome. Maybe there are many artworks out there with greater amount of details but considering this is the new entry for a weekly contest, not much people can do the same as you did. However, still there is a 'however' (please forgive me if I'm too strict on giving that critique), each layer of character is quite flat to me, you can work more on shadows and highlight to give more depth to your work, to reach the perfection. Still, elite work!

Very great work and I like your attitude, author. Glad that you're here with our contests. Your character is originally created, and maybe he reflected your personality, too. I'm with MossyB and Glockman on the highlights. The other thing is I don't see neither 'Alice in Wonderland' nor 'Pirates of the Caribbean', so that will give you a bit less score. Still, you show us one of the best artworks of the site so far. Good luck!!

That's the emotional fighter with big eyes . The gestures of his arms look not convincing to me, they lack of elbow and the left hand which is holding the chain doesn't have palm, so it doesn't look natural. However, making hands are always troublesome to many people so I can understand that. You did a great job on overall, and best of luck to you.
I'm glad that you're back ^^
EDIT: Yes, it's much better!

Congrats Hayato for your winning

I don't think they're couple, they're like father and son. In the future, they will look like Po and his goose father in Kungfu Panda LOL

He's got cough, I guess. Most of the dragon was done very well but somehow the skin on the chest is not fitted to the body. Nice job in overall, and it's interesting to see the battle of dragons in this contest. Best of luck to you

Now that your dragon acts in battle, very great. It's quite strange to me that your dragon has no ... hand, because the rest looks like the common dragon, except that part. The flame is too straight, that' why Anoop said you need to work more on it, I guess. Also, since this flame is strong, you should see the light on the wall and the soldier. The background looks great, too, but if the color is opposite to the dragon (such as orange, red, etc) , you'll get a better effect. Best of luck to you

The flowers that you made in the back scene is much more detail and sharp compared with the main object so it looks like out of focus. Maybe if you use dodge and burn tool more on the bird to increase the level of shadow and highlight, it will look better. Nice job, tho, and thanks to you now I know what kind of bird is cookatoo . Good luck to you.

She looks like an alien, the pattern is a bit too busy but I don't think that's the problem. I was thinking that you used an image of Alanis Morissette. Very well done. Best of luck to you

Very nice imagination as usual, this creature looks realistic. The highlight on the skin from the source is very helpful here. However, I see some problems with anatomy. The head of the snake is not natural, because snake's eyes are above its mouth (you can refer to this link: http://visual.merriam-webster.com/images/animal-kingdom/reptiles/snake/morphology-venomous-snake-head.jpg) and both the two creatures have a part of the neck that is much smaller than the other parts. I don't think they are strong enough to handle the head .
Congrats in advance ^^

This hair looks really great.
Long time no see, wish you the best luck with that contest ^^

Your style works really well here, author ^^

Congrats Hayato, I can predict your win easily, keep it up

Congrats Jaskier!

Congrats Mr. Slush!