Thought I would post this one as it's my latest entry for a competition over at DeviantArt, and it would be nice to know what folk think of it.
It took about three weeks to complete and I had no real idea of how it would turn out when I started it.
There's a bigger version of it available to view at this DeviantArt link http://fav.me/d5ubtzf

what is the connection to the car ?

I have no idea what this is about, but I really like the devil cloud and the shadow on the tarmac.
It's all very creepy.

Very strange & surreal, I don't think it needs any explanation.

The way this worked in my mind was that the shadow on the road belongs to the driver of the car. The car was stopped by the collection of floating mirrors stretched across the road and the driver got out to have a look.
As to why it happened or what will happen next I've no idea. It all got rather strange the further I got into the creation of the picture.

Thanks for the comments guys.

interesting, its a bit surreal, like something from Dali

maybe melt the frames ?

and the shadow could have a bit of blur, imo

Very surreal. I like it, Caz.

Thanks for the comment, Hatter.



I knew I missed a trick there, never thought about blurring the shadows. Thanks for the tip.
I did want to add an effect to the frames but it was more of a motion blur to the space below them, something that would suggest the frames were slowing rotating, never could find a way to do it though.

Some points I think could need enhancement:
- Maybe the smudg-ish horn looks too smudgy
- Lighting of the car seems out of place, not corresponding to the cloudy weather I think
- Some aerial perspective to enforce the depth perhaps
- Overall, I think the lightsourcing is unclear

i realized just now there is a devil's face in the clouds

Thanks for the comments, anarkhay, some useful ideas there.

I know what you mean about the horns, I was playing around with my new Bamboo tablet and I think any problems with the way the horns look is down to my lack of practice.

The thing with the car is... at first I thought it was too brightly lit but as I added the shadow to the car and to the person standing off screen I figured that the sky in the foreground - unseen - would have to be bright and sunny to cause the shadows in the first place. With this in mind I decided to leave the car so that it appeared to be bathed in sunlight, and also added a trace of a blue sky to the reflection in the car's hub cap.
I couldn't figure out a way to show the blue sky and the clouds as an approaching storm so just went with what I had and hoped for the best.

Not sure how to go about creating an aerial perspective so any tips on that gratefully received.

It's more striking when you full-view it actually

@Caz:
Looking twice, I think I know where are precisely some issues, let's take a look at your landscape, I see now (thanks to one small pillar object's shadow) that the sun comes from the right, so it cancels your actual car lighting and shadow (right now lit from center top) as well as your ornaments decorating the portraits (also lit from center top), with this in mind clouds look also problematic.

For aerial perspective (and any landscape compo) I think this quick tut' is an invaluable resource:
http://vandervals.deviantart.com/art/De ... -210262749

@ anarkhya.

I see what you mean about the sunlight coming from the right, I never noticed the shadow on the pillar before, well spotted. I might be able to get round that one by shifting the car and driver's shadows over so that they angle from right to left and not straight back. It should also be possible to alter the light on the frames so that the sunlight has more of a bias to the left side.
As to the sky, not much I can do about that. It's a stock image and I'm no where near good enough at painting to alter it much or create my own one from scratch. I'll need to be more careful and observant in future when picking stock images.

Thank you for the comments, they really are helpful, and for the link. I had a quick look and the advice there looks invaluable. I'll be spending more time there I have no doubt, and I also plan to try out the atmosphere generator which looks well cool.

Cheers.

Yes indeed, comparing the lighting of different stocks right from the beginning saves you a lot of time and energy, altering the values in your image is quite a task in itself but changing the directional lighting and all consequent shadows could be impossible unless you repaint the whole things).

I could say I've been there but it would be a lie as I'm still in there, just like you, so what I told you also acts as a constant reminder for me (:

Wish you good luck with your gimping.