Never seen anything like that in Pxleyes. Very gorgeous and dynamic in both the pose and color. Even though the character looks painterly, still works quite well with the background. Lighting effect can be better, tho, if you work a bit more on the character like casting more highlight and shadow on the face (the face and hair are the two most flat parts) and costume. The hair can be more real if you combine brushes with different brightnesses. Very high mark from me!

excellent and beautiful.. as langstrum saidthe body parts ( hands, face and hair.) need more shading and highlighting... (it's all in your reference image). the else is FANTASTIC...... Highest marks and favorite from me ...

Fabulous work ! I must admit that its rather difficult to merge a cartoon with a normal background realistically but this one absolutely goes on very well. High marks from me !

Tried suggestions. Added highlights to hair and shading to face and hands, plus some more on the Kimono.

The hair was hard; it seems when I add highlights it starts to look like she was going gray! But I tried.

The face was a different problem. It is suppose to look like a mild version of Geisha (or Kabuki) make-up. That style of make-up is very flat as the whole face is painted white with cheeks and eyes quite red. It was a struggle with this one, how far to go with the Geisha look and still have her look natural. I did try to give it more depth but could not go too far without killing what little of that look she has.

Lamantine, I am not sure what you mean about the cartoon as the original image of the Geisha is a photo and I did not really do much painting ... mostly warped the fabric of her kimono ... but I sort of see what you mean???

Hope you like the changes! Thanks for the help!

woooo hoooooooo, this is sooo beautiful

I understand your problem with the face, but we can make the shadow even with the white object. You can achieve that by using a layer with multiply blending setting, then pick the color on her face and select the dark color on the color palette by go down to the right (on the curve from top left to the bottom right). You can draw the shadow on her face by soft, low opacity brush on that layer, it won't disturb anything.
Do you notice the light on the grasses, the sunlight is quite yellow, so you can do the same thing to the kimono and the face. If I were you, I will use a layer with Color blending mode and use the bright yellow color to paint the highlight on the parts which mostly expose to the sun light, so the character will pop out more from the scene.
About the hair, just the brighter brushes on the front side of the hair are needed, the hair can be dark behind her.
Great to see the quick update and the image now is much improved.

Nevermind, this work is just FANTASTIC

This is an amazing piece of art...great colors...great chopping....great SBS.....and of-course my favorite......Good luck Author!!

Just a fabulous work!! I really like that it looks 'painterly' - woulld make a gorgeous piece to frame and enjoy in a special room of one's home. I agree - IMO - don't change a thing!

Wow, really, I'm not even gonna enter now, this is simply amazing!!!!

this one becomes a very specially manipulated pic,...it has a master touch on it,.....yes just like langstrum said "never seen anything like that in Pxleyes,.......very very perfectly done,.....and I learned much from this pic,......
> langstrum ( so far I am still wonder why is it that your account name is langstrum hehehe), nice contributions I learned from what you informed on this entry......

Sublime !

WOW, fantastic work. I LOVE it beautifully done.

Jaw-drop...eye pop...SWEET !!

oooooow! love it beautiful work

Really fantastic work, great job

It's funny because I can feel that wind blowing on my face just looking at the image...
Very beautiful compo, moody and magical.

This is great Author leave it as is please.
Welcome to pxl,

2 words: HOLY COW!

I'm not sure what some of the complaints are here. This is just flat-out AMAZING stuff.
(ok those were extra words but I couldn't help myself)

Beautiful work! Love the colors and serenity of the image.

Thank you all for you wonderful comments!

Silver, I really loved the support and in particular those extra words!!!

I did want to say that I did not mind the complaints; I took more as critiques and suggestions. More constructive than negative. It never hurts to see things through other peoples eyes

That is one reason why I like these competition. It gives me feedback that I can't get anywhere else and (hopefully) will make me a better artist!

Not complaining about your comment, it was great. They have all been great!

I didn't have any complain here, the image itself got the high score from me, and more "wow" and compliments are not needed because many people will do that. However, no one's perfect and I just gave my opinion about what can be done better. I'm glad that author received my comments very positively, and if author is the good chopper, he/she will know which part of my comment is reasonable and helpful.
@Dekwid: langstrum came from Pippi Langstrumpf or Pippi Longstocking, a character from the Swedish children's book of Astrid Lindgren. She is very famous with her personality, in many countries. I just like her name when I listened to the song "Hey Pippi Langstrumpf" when I was a child (didn't even know that's girl's name) and I simplified Langstrumpf to Langstrum. I read the book later and in love with this character too, so I keep it as my nickname until now. Thank you for asking

WOW! It is a very beautiful work. Goes to my fav.

“Adversity is like a strong wind…it doesn’t just hold us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward, we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be."
Memoirs of a Geisha

Good Luck author.. great job

Driven - incredible quote, it gave me goose bumps! Not only that but I listened to the music from the movie while creating her. It was a huge part of the inspiration! Thank you for the comment and the beautiful quote. Hug

excellent and beautiful ,good luck

Very classy photomanipulation.

wonderful entry ........ this will go to the top 50 pxl entrys ...........

Simply perfect. Could say a lot more about it but i guess that's how I should simplify it.

Agree with all (positive) comments
GL (not that you really need it or so haha )

Oh my what a stunning peice of art
Amazing talent author, thanks for sharing this beautiful image with us

Mind blowing entry, perfect!!!

the onlything i can say
"WOW"
ure winner

Few days i am thinking what to say about these entry author...Because words like, "these is nice,good work,and similar" are to minimal for work like these...This work author is one of the best that i see in my PXLeyes existing time...I adore all segments of the creation...how u distort the sky,what u did with the kimono,painting her face,hair,color on the grass...Simply amazing...i could go on and on on these for hours...I want to say only one thing...Keep going with creating fabulous entry's like these...

beautiful work, author, love the sweeping lines and colors.

Congrants....beautiful entry

Congratulations!

Congrats Arca this is so beautiful, I'd like framed and hanging in my house

Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats,Congrats, i cannot describe how much i like these entry

Congratulations on your first place. very well deserved!

CONGRATS!! Well deserved

Lovely!! Congrats!!

Congratulations for a well deserved 1st place, really quite fantastic. Keep it up.

Nice work! Congrats.

Congrats... a master piece.. with a good score....

wow! spendid!

simply wao........... amazing....

I redflagged my entry as not more than 10 sources are allowed to upload together with the ready image. I used 20 sources and all them were given together with links and high res in the sbs guide.

beautiful job author...,

SKRA KADA BOOM!!! ( sound of a Null Field being cracked!) AWESOMIEST AWESOMENESS

Incredible ... I am on my netbook right now so can not give hi-res full justice as screen is too small to encompass the full impact of the piece ... but I can tell just from a small look that it is amazing! I can hardly wait until I get to my big monitor tomorrow! Bravo!

Wow, gret, wonderful, increadible entry!

lots of work in this one just awesome

Very good work.

wow...simply magical................

i love it ,good luck

Only a great mind like yours could create a wonderful piece of art full of power like this one!

Very very good work...GL

Yikes, that's a lot of externals! But worth it, beautiful image is the result, very creative.

Many thanks to all for the nice comments and favs!

Well done......a hell of alot of work....much more than mine...hahahaha

Congrats Cornelia...

Congratulations Cornelia. this is lovely

Congrats!! Beautiful Entry

congrats Cornelia

CONGRATS

Congrats!! Nicely done!

You never cease to amaze. Congratulations.

congrats... very beautiful.. well deserved victory...

Great Bender!!!! but there should be beer!!! (just kidding) good luck!!!

Maybe the beer is in the hand off screen XD

Bender was one of my favs as well, lol, love this.

good one, this should ahve been in the living cartoon comp!

like the color! good luck!

Love the use of primary colours and he is priceless ... but can it be a bottle of wine instead of beer? Flowers and beer just doesn't have the same ring!

Cool! Just one (small) thing: I think that the foot stepping on the stair is a little flat on the base, needs a bit of roundness like the other foot.

Thanks Erikuri,,,,,,,,,,,,,i rounded the foot on the step and added a bit of shadow

love this one....

Nice to see this image once more.

Superb work...good luck

Congratulations!

Congrats...

This took me back a bit, great to see it again! Congrats!!

Thanks guys and gals

he is very cute... congrats

thats well done combined the sources well and it looks great i like it

Very nice construction and quite convincing. I suggest to make the upper part of the "fan" (I don't know how to call it properly in English) brighter then the lower part, because the light reflections on the aircraft is quite strong on other part. Also, blurring the background a bit more will work better for the DOF. One remaining problem is now I know you and for some reason I'm sure it's your work, but you still need the SBS to prove your authority and follow the specific requirement of this contest. Good luck

EDIT: Very nice SBS (even though it should be called the construction guideline ). Hope you'll get a top 3 place with this work

Thank you very much langstrum for the feedback
I know that you know me, i know you and your work very well too
I will do the SBS and what you have suggested tonight , thanks again and keep the good feedback coming!

Lovely work, can hardly wait for the SBS as I am very curious as to how you did it, it looks like quite a puzzle you combined but I can't tell what parts are original and what you added ... which is a very good thing!!! Bravo!

awesome.., the details looks perfect in high resolution.., Good luck to you..

This is indeed awesome!

WOW these is so cool...well done author

man.. I love it when an author takes a song and manipulates it into something like this (the hair is over the top)... just wonderful author.. keep up the great inspiring work... (and there isn't enough BEN GAY in the universe to calm those back muscles.. awesome visual )

WOO HOO!!!!

I truly love the positive aspect of this piece. It is a sad image but there is hope portrayed as well; not easy to get both in one image. Well thought out and lovely statement on a devastating illness. Well done author!

Stunning

Great idea and job. Especially very good work with making her skinny, looks very convincing. Her facial expression is also very good and I really like the colour scheme and that you adapted the colour from her strand of hair to the butterflies and the poppy field.
There is just one thing, that could be (in my opinion) improved. Where you placed her now is the field already very blurry, but the source from the woman is sharp. I think the blending there could be a bit better. The most drastic thing would be probably to replace the poppy field, but what you could try too is copying some of the flowers and the grass from the foreground (which are sharp) and paste them in front of her dress, so you have more or less the same sharpness. Or you could just put her a bit more in the foreground, where the grass and flowers are still sharp.
And another small thing: the cutout of the grass in front of her dress is good, but could maybe be a bit improved.
What you could try is picking the eraser and erase with the brush that looks like 3 blades of grass (it's a standard brush) and erase with different brush sizes in front of her dress. This way you get the grass structure and it looks more natural. Probably not the most professional way to do it, but that's how I always do it and it works good for me
But like I said, it's really a great entry and works very good with the song
Good luck!

Oh wow! This is gnarly work here! GL!

Ha! I should have known!

*faint*
wow. thank you for your input everyone.
Slushie...thank you for being a huge supporter of my work. and for the fav.
Arca, you see exactly what i was intending on with this piece. i'm so happy!
Geex, thank you. i think that one word means more to me than you could possibly imagine.

Lelaina, i really appreciate your taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and wonderful critique. i will mess around with the flowers a bit and see if i can't get it to look any better than this. I didn't like my results with the 3 blade grass brush that PS comes with, i tried it... it looked too "Uniform" so i tried just using the eraser and making my own grass blades with a bit of smudge to blend them into being "grass"..however, i don't think it helped much. I will definitely give it another go and see if it looks better. You are right though, the MOST drastic thing i can do is to change the poppy field, and after searching through literally thousands of not very good poppy fields, i was way happy to find this one! i'll see if i can't improve it a bit.

I am one of those people who hated that contest theme, because I wouldn't want to see so suffering and I'd know many people would play on it. Actually the human being is not as strong as he thinks he is. He's vulnerable...
But you really did a nice image of incentive, showing that things can be better when you believe. It's urgent to believe in life, in hope, in love, in God (or in a major strenght above us).
Great work and GL!

Okay...i came back and fixed the flower field. i hope i got it right this time. to me it looks lots better, but... :P sometimes you sit and stare at something soooo long you can't see the trees for the forest.

Oh you saw all the trees you could possibly see. This looks SO much better! And I'm happy, that it looks better for you too.
I know that feeling btw, that you search for a specific source forever and when you finally find one, you just want to keep it.
Good luck again!

Nice image with a good iagination..........i would suggest lowering the saturation a touch and adjusting the exposure levels.

Really good to see another Evanescence fan ! They are rare in my country. Great work here, my friend. Great facial expression ! Good luck !

Freejay, thank you for your opinion. I wanted then enhanced saturation levels in this piece so i don't think i'll be changing that. its a personal choice in that matter. the exposure was intended to be a bit dark, because i wanted not only the bright colors, but a bit of dark to bring the mood of the piece to what it is. for this is not meant to be "lovely" and all..its meant to have a dark side, as the concept of this artwork is dark.

Lamantine..i've been a huge evanescence fan for a long time. and the words from this song really put in place the feelings i was trying to portray. Thank you so much for your compliment

Hey....its your decision.....but i do think my advice would only improve the image.
You can still keep the picture dark with the proper exposure levels.

Very nice work,i like what u did with the body...colors are great...GL