Amazing piece!!! Perfection in every detail!!

Fantastic work, great color choices and blending.

Me, too! Congrats on first with a beautiful entry. And thank you, too, for showing budding artists out there how an art grid works. I know that your ability is way beyond an art grid and taking the time to do it this way was very generous of you. (Now go make a tutorial, "How to Use an Art Grid".)

LOL@ author, i know it was not in the marriage finger i was just trying to make joke, yet why not saying he is killing his wife and using the shovel to bury her for marrying another man, many countries around the world allow women to marry more than one husband

Terrific quality!! Fine workmanship and originality with a unique style!

wow this is amazing!

This is WONDERFUL!
My only nitpick is the light reflections of the shovel shaped object. It doesn't correspond with the light source on the left hand side, because the shovel shows illumination from the top (note the hand holding it shows different lighting), and the large white shape on the right side dominates the image too much in comparison to the rest of the colors and values. It's distracting from an otherwise truly fabulous entry.

great work

Oh yeaaaaah! instant fav!!
very good work!!..awesome author.

I just adore his leg warmers, hehehe.. great work!

love the originality, well executed, it's serious but the funny part of it that he has got a wedding ring, is he battling against his wife?

Fantastic piece of work...Great color choice and fabulous details...His face expression is super cool...Well done author and instant fav from me...

FAVORITE =)

This is just fantastic! How long did you work on this? Must have taken you ages. You were right about the shoes. Nobody goes into battle with open toed shoes.

Wow.... great work...your SBS are informative too.

Great image & SBS!
Just a small nitpick: I'd like to see better shadows from the horns. GL author.

This is awesome! good luck

Did you paint it?

Congrats Glockman, wonderful work

Congrats!!

this is just amazing, congratulations, well deserved

Congratulations too for the first place!

Congrats on your win

Let's not get argumentative here, in all fairness to langstrum his entry you mentioned is an original composition and not a copy of any one particular source. Your entry while acceptable is very close to the original image and composition and dependent on that and not a composition you originated. The decision of acceptability required some deliberation as it is very close to the source and you should accept the fact that some may not agree with that, as is their right.

This is close to the reference image and yes it was removed in it's original form but the author made enough alterations to be acceptable. It's not unusual for an artist to be inspired by an image whether it's painted from life or based on a lovely photo as this was. The workmanship is excellent in my opinion and I do agree with IDt8r who we all know is a talented artist as well. Perhaps others would have had a different take on the image but I see this as a fine study of an elegant subject and respect how the author interpreted the subject matter.
@Langstrum... I do appreciate your point of view and I can definitely state this was not traced, using the grid system will give you a very close approximation of the image used and I can tell the difference I promise you. As I said we all have our own ideas in what we create they wouldn't necessarily be right or wrong...just different.

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

For me, this kind of entry is equivalent to setting up an easel and painting in a realistic way. Like Slushy said, using an art grid is just another tool to accomplish the goal of realism. I think this is a beautiful example of using an art grid to paint what you see.
Having said that, I like the addition of the boats, but (and this is just a personal preference) I think I would try making the sky and water a bit darker to help make the lights pop. This is a wonderful entry.

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...

oh my god....it's so....purrrrfect. You made miracle

I think this is a lovely picture, showing beautiful interpretation of the source, without being a hyper-realistic copy. I particularly enjoy the boats along the bottom. Very well done!

jubjubee the drawing grid has been around for centuries.. it's one of the oldest forms of teaching in existence when it comes to visual art (In fact, in many communities it was the norm) wonderful job author.. good luck

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/252/draughtsmanbc0.jpg/

Combining the old with the new is NOT a negative, if anything, it is a joy to see the old mixed with the new

why do and exact replica of a photo ? No creativity , That is why I do not like the use of close replication in digital art. If you use a source photo it should not end up looking like the source with a few little added bits . Your work is good but what did you really achive ?

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

Congrats Glockman for third...

congrats on 3rd... my comments are honest Glockman

omg I was never told about this! How cool is that? Very nice work my friend I'm flattered! You improved my looks! hehehe

Ohhh wow!!!!!!!

I love the detail you've put into this, those footprints look fantastic...nice touch. I too am a supporter of NASA.

fantastic detail. TEACH ME HOW!

wonderful entry author off to the favs.

Where's my Mossberg? Nice shot

I see 3, thanksgiving dinner?

4?

nice image.. love the usage of flowers,,, like that you made some changes.. looks better

As a (former) flute player, this definitely has the feel of an instrument. Would love to see the mouthpiece and bell of the clarinet.

Congrats! I loved all top 3 pics...close call.

Congratulations for 3rd place, fantastic work

new one is much better because you lowered the amount of the flowers,
though it still bothers me that they are all facing the same direction.

Cool concept, but I have to agree about the flowers. Good use of the varying sizes though.

Yeah too much flowers..Any way good work..

You can also use Skew, Warp, and Liquify to vary the blossoms a bit.
The ones in the distance are all too uniform in size, and just look like dots.