Cool. I like the depth of field, although the lower chain off the near elbow might deserve some greater contrast/crispness. I think the eye rays should be focusing on a single point, so I would angle the upper ray down so that its eye appears to be looking at the same thing as the other eye.

To me, this would be more dramatic if the two were face-to-face (both pure profile) rather than having the lion being off to the side while she looks past it. Darkening the background would make the foreground figures stand out more.

Interesting. I'm not fond of the planet being right up against the top edge of the image, however.

Very fun and creative steampunk approach to this contest.

I don't get the mixture of taut cables (clearly supporting the gondola hanging from the balloons) and flaccid cables between the balloons and the gondola. And the small balloon's connection point to the gondola is very odd.

The horizon line of the balloon bottoms is down (albeit different horizon lines for each balloon) while that of the gondola is up.

Notwithstanding the title on source 4, I find the ship more wreck than steampunk.

Appealing tones, but the balloon could stand out a bit more. A Rule-of-Thirds composition might have more impact (perhaps a brighter balloon moved to the left to contrast with the dark blue in the upper right). The opening at the bottom of the balloon does not match the perspective of the gondola or the owl. BTW what is attaching the gondola to the balloon?

Very creative use of the most challenging portion of the contest image excellently colorized as MossyB noted. Great type fonts and layout. The 'Thyme Magazine' blurb is inspired.

Fun image. I actually like the texture. The text revisions are great as is the addition of the stars. It is odd that not all of the stars nor any of the white in "JETS" show texture, however.

VERY cool, but it's beyond WPAP to me (which is not a bad thing but exceeds the boundaries of this contest). I observe that the hairline shadows make the hair look like a wig.

Very cool! It never hurts to have a great start image, but your reconstruction is awesome. The red collar and cuff to match the red tie while the body of the shirt is gray is an interesting fashion choice.

I would consider making the 'white' of his right eye lighter.

The white on the ear is too distractingly bright for me personally. And the day-glo-green left cheek seems overly intense.

The pale-green shape on the neck also seems out of place. I would rotate it clockwise a bit and and have the bottom edge end at the red collar. Part of the problem may be that its lightness (relative to its immediate surroundings) is too 'foreground' or 'highlight' when one would expect that area to be background/shadow.

Creative idea to have the gondola relate amusingly to the hot-air balloon.

MossyB has highlighted how the balloon and gondola don't properly relate visually as a consistent whole, so I'll just focus on the balloon itself.

The balloon should be opaque so background clouds don't shine through. 'Giant pelican roosting on a traditional, boring-brown hot-air balloon' doesn't quite seem consistent with the theme objective. Maybe the traditional-hot-air-balloon portion could be replaced with a hot-air-balloon pelican's nest.

Cool, but this is not on theme which is not merely seeking a "graphic on the envelope of your balloon," to quote lchappell whom I assume is being ironic.

I think I might be willing to accept a human passenger as the moral equivalent of a gondola. But lighting consistency is indeed an issue, as is lack of rope shadows for ropes that could benefit from more-refined edges This is very creative and has a lot of dramatic potential.

Cute title let down by the image whch is less cheery than expected with two fruits (green and yellow) I don't immedialety recognize. The gondolas are very oddly tilted way upwards. The balloons are also very well lit for such a stormy environment. More duck shadow would also be warranted.

The marquetry feel is very cool. The sunset brightness is a creative cheat (among many others). And the (apparent) use of wood grain to convey waves (as JustinRSA noted) and clouds is truly inspired. The land outcrop seems to be floating above the water (and not very 'woody' BTW), however (move it down just slightly below the horizon line).

The mannequin is ironic (wooden figure finds itself in a wooden environment), but I don't see this image as irony. I would delete the mannequin and crop the image so the horizon line conforms to the Rule of Thirds to focus on beauty over some sort of vague message.

Very fun and a great T-shirt! The side arm on her sunglasses is much too low on the front frame, however, IMO, and its angle should probably match that of the hat more.

The double space between 'World' and 'Wide' is distractring, made more so when they should really be a hyphenated adjective. The double PXL logos on the sides come across as secondary when a single big logo in the center could be compelling.

I like how this recognizes that it's a T-shirt, but "Photoshop Me!!" might be a more appropriate message. I don't get the dotted line. The PXLEyes URL would be a useful addition.

Oops, you made the same spelling mistake I made in my earlier comment (please slap some sense into me!): no apostrophe in possessive pronouns [his, hers, its, yours, ours, theirs].

This seems too detailed for a T-shirt plus I think more than one PXL logo is too many. The map is cool but the right edge needs cropping to match the other three sides. A simple billboard (no workmen) atop a much more tilted map could be compelling. "Less is more."

On closer scrutiny, why doesn't the claw 'thumb' cast a shadow on the squirrel tail? And the truck driver could cast some shadow on the truck.

I like the stronger shadows but the texture is still distracting 'noise' to me. I think the texture needs to be just barely noticeable so the surface doesn't seem to be quite perfectly flat. I would also like the different blue bands in the sky shine through. (More contrast could add more punch overall.)

Bland. The double space between 'is' and 'traveling' is disconcerting. The "For Graphic Artists" constraint is disturbing.

Fun concept but I don't get this as a T-shirt. It's mixture of cartoon and photo with blurry PXLEyes-Web-site screen shot (which should be the real focus) just doesn't work IMO.

It seems to me that the PXL logo should be clearly the biggest element and the "for addicts" is restrictive and possibly derogatory to those who regularly participate on this site. The background map seems redundant given the globe and distracting overall—I would delete it.

Perhaps a much bigger PXL logo so your text is more clearly background (e.g., starts below the top of the logo)? It does appear that you did adjust the kerning of the font to add drama-- very nice.

Dramatic and evocative. You've turned the Black Pearl (source 2) into the Gray Pearl which is a bit bland. I think greater contrast on the hull and whiter sails would be more compelling.

The chain works as a concept. I think it needs a lot more links, however, so the link at the hull is appropriately small. The stretched near links not to mention the circular link near the hull are odd. Furthermore, I would expect a towing chain to be perpendicular to the masts (when towing through the air) and in line with the bow-to-stern center line of the ship (unless a turn is being made).

I think I would just eliminate the chain and brighten (and bring forward a tad [thinking Rule of Thirds]?) the upper-right corner so it is clearly the focus of the image. Because we can't see what is pulling the chain, it doesn't add a whole lot of explanation for the air ship.

And the big, square window on the house creates a distracting, fairy-tale feel (to expand on MossyB's original observation).

Very cute. I find the newspaper ads distracting. I'm not so keen about the paper texture either, especially when it makes it appear that the tree, grass, road, truck, skyline, and sky are the same piece of paper and not different layers after all. I prefer Step 8 (with maybe slightly stronger shadows).

Dramatic. The shadows are a bit odd, however. Each element seems to have its own light source (and sometimes more than one).

Very good potential for a white T-shirt. I do feel more contrast (shadows?) between "PXL ON TOUR" and the background would be more striking when printed on the T-shirt.

The logos on the compass points seem repetitious and boring. Would it be too trite to dress them in parkas, sombreros, grass skirts, kimonos, etc. to add some variety? Or perhaps they could be deleted altogether for a simple, less-is-more approach.

Appealing concept.

In hi-res, the four mini banners on the left side of the big banner are sharper than the rest of that banner. But it's hard to imagine that those mini banners would be legible printed on a T-shirt, let alone why they're flying in a different breeze than the big banner when I would assume those mini banners are actually printed on the big banner. Bottom line: I would delete the mini banners and sharpen the remaining part of the big banner.

The earth is realistic, the logo is drawn but clearly a logo, while the plane with banner is in-between. I think the plane and banner should be an obvious illustration on top of everything else so it stands out as the true foreground element that expresses the primary message of the image. Making the plane and banner bigger so there is greater overlap with the PXL logo would emphasize that point.

Pretty cool! Your SBS doesn't explain, but I assume you hand-drew this. The top four lines of the background ['Serbia' spelled with a V?] are like rows of brickwork aside from the falling 'USA,' but the rest of the rows seem to be crumbling and possibly incomplete at the bottom. The mandatory PXL logo actually seems out of place. Maybe a mini version in a bottom corner would be better.

Simplicity can be good, and this would look great on a white T-shirt. The URL on the bottom provides a bit of explanation along with advertising (you can't get ahead without marketing!). I might consider making the URL dark blue to separate it from the "ON TOUR," however.

I don't get the product, but that's OK. What bothers me is that the left and right edges of the label are much crisper than the left and right edges of the bottle the label is glued to.

Cool, but I wonder why the labeling on the front of the jar doesn't affect its shadow.

The flat label is great with its elegant layout and 'Pixel' reference, although the non-horizontal goldish stripe things in Step 7 of the SBS are odd. When the label is placed on the bottle, however, the label's curvature is off, especially the bottom edge. Also, the label's saturation is a tad too strong relative to the rest of the image. Additionally, the reflection/refraction in the wine glass seems inconsistent with the background.

More contrast would be punchier. And shouldn't it be "TAN in a Bottle"? For me, the sand is an irritant, not an objective, when I go to the beach; the last thing I want to do is spray sand on myself. (Or is this somehow an exfoliant?)

Very compelling with lots of appealing nuances. I do feel repeating "LION" after "STRONG, PROUD" is an unnecessary redundancy, however. What especially concerns me are the perfectly straight horizontal edges/elements of the labels that are clearly on a curved surface. (Note, for example, the disconnect between the curved bottom of the bottle and the straight bottom of the big label.)

Now that you did this, it's slap-my-forehead, 'why didn't I think of this' time! This is the perfect response to the theme. BTW adding "Tree" to the title would be more accurate IMO plus would create more tension between the title the unexpected mage.

Dramatic, but I don't get it.—what does the title mean? The noose is front-lit while the rest is more back-lit. And what is the noose hanging from?

Very sketchy except for the very dark lines (face outline and shoulders)

Is "delicate" a euphemism for bland? I think a touch more saturation would add impact.

The new her looks very South Asian. [Needs to be viewed in hi-res to evaluate properly, IMO.] Her face seems darker than her body, however—and her left-shoulder highlight seems a tad too strong. Also, I don't get why her pearls and shadow also changed along the way (and what is that rain-drop-shaped blotch in the upper left corner?). I wish the SBS explained what was done at each step

Fun concept. Howeer: Her shadow does not connect her to the car; she looks pasted on top of it. "Mustang" could be lower (too close to the top edge) and it and "Sally" could be brighter to stand out more.

I like the updating of the lame "vintage" [never happened!] Polaroids from the mandated tutorial. For a true Polaroid, the white border should be on the same plane as (be essentially part of) the image so the border shouldn't cast any shadow on the image. Also, Polaroids tended to be a bit washed out, i.e., low saturation, unlike here. I like the smeared handwriting but I don't get the light-leak hot spots, especially their encroachment on the non-photosensitive border.

The drops could just be fish warts. The lack of shadiing on the fish makes it seem overly flat. Also, the top and bottom (dorsal and anti-dorsal?) fins seem behind rather than connected to the fish.

There's more manipulation than enhancement here IMO. The swan pair that are not perfect mirror images of each other is a nicely believable construction. However, I think the vaguely heart-shaped void in the brush could be manipulated into a stronger, more obvious heart shape than shown here. Cropping the image so the swans and heart come closer to the focal points suggested by the Rule of Thirds might be more dramatic. Then you could apply enhancements to the result to magnify its punch.

Creative concept. Her dill-flower braid things don't quite match her bangs, however. And if this is supposedly a book cover, why isn't it on a book?

Cool! I would believe that the starting point for this image was an actual photo, so this seems to be right on theme to me.

Appealing panorama. The foreground element doesn't add anything for me, however. More saturation to the background might make the panorama less blah.

I guess the key is that the apparent starting point for the enhancements must seem to be a "REAL photo"—but Photoshopping could occur anywhere along the way. This image certainly fits the bill.

I agree completely with MossyB. I wish the SBS had explanations of what you did at each step so we could all learn something.

Given that you went to the effort to emphasize the 'floor' starting with Step 12, I wonder if there shouldn't be a little (one or two pixels), intense shadow under her shoes to ground her to that floor.