brilliant !

The body looks too red & too dark compared to the rest, and the straight lines are distracting, but it's a good job...

I see what you are saying CMKY but I do like the lines and i am rather happy with the shadowing.

The feathers on the body have an amazing texture! I love it. Instant favorite.

Thanks very much downofthedragon

I love this composition,very very nice work....high marks author and good luck....

agrees about the lines.

Fantastic Creativity......G/L Author.

nice work, love the background- after I saw the step by step it made me wish you hadn't stretched the bird quite so much

Not bad, but flip the flag part...

Thanks for the comments. I did try to flip the flag, but it just looked off somehow. I tried a few different "stretches" of the bird. The less elongated ones didn't really give a Phoenix feel...just a big bird on a building. I'll keep at it though.

This is a wicked cool but you warped the original source I can barely tell how you used it. But this is still wicked cool nonetheless

Thanks jawshoewhah. Actually, the source image is the only part I didn't warp. I even masked out the bird face in the final step so that you could see the source. It's been changed into a "firey brightness" (hopefully), but in the Hi-Res you should be able to clearly see the source image. But I agree. It's wicked cool. Didn't think I was going to be able to get it to turn out the way I envisioned, but it did.

creative use of source. fantastic outcome

Thanks you scratzilla1 for the wonderful comment.

Love the color and detail. Creative use of source, author!!

cool

This is fantastic but it is very grainy: unless that is intentional you may want to consider blurring the grainy parts a bit.

Thanks visba. You are right. It is grainy. I added it to remove artifacts due to "massive warps"...hey good band name "Massive Warps". Thanks again. Nice job on your entry I might add. Keep it up.

great image.

Wonderful

The colours are great and the wings look fantastic! Good luck!

I really like the process of how you got to this.

cool

Love the colors

Nice....like this one

cool result!

Great end result!! I'd love to see maybe a mgical background or something, to really give this image the winning edge. The phoenix itself looks great though!!

it looks very nice

awesmome

very nice

Would be a great image without the sparkly stuff...(which doesn't look very sparkly).
EDIT: Much better image now!

i like ur idea but imo the fire doesnt look connected to the body, and maybe u can fix the sparkle to be a bit more sparkling (maybe make it lighter and add another layer that is so blurred).

Thanks for the comments, i made the sprkly stuff brighter and added a halo effect by blurring a layer below it. Thanks CMYK and Lost.

lose the yellow spiral thing ant it will be much better. imo. oh and "fire" link doesn't work (for me atleast).

Good idea..... the blending on the body could do with a little tweaking tho......

good work author. i agree with the other posters. all the best with your entry. i will hold vote until you finalise your changes.

Thank you to everyone's suggestions, i've removed the sprakly stuff from the image and darkened up the sides of the gull's body. Thanks

i like the idea somehow i think you shoud make the transmission between the flame wings and the bird body more smooth The wings it self look really nice

Thank you

much better now.

Thanks

interesting effect

Thank you

very creative

phoenix runt.. you used a seagull!!! why not something more phoenix like, like a peacock, or a parrot or something. mask in the proper beak and that should do it.

very nice

very nice!