Karen this looks much better. Bravo.

I see his eyes very open and nasty at that. Maybe it's cause you're on a laptop, but this guy is looking stariaght at me and means business. I am not hannging around to find out what he wants. I guess this all a compliment to you Karen. I'm learnng along with you, as I copy paste the advice for later use.  

Zubaz moment

I might as well throw one in i've been sitting on for a bit. Sorry... imageshack is not responding. Trying again. For some reason its taking a very long time to upload. The hell with it. Twenty minutes is to damn long. Its the last Halloween wall I made. I was a bit reluctant to upload it because the last couple did rather poorly. That's why I want to put it here. Maybe later.

Karen, will you be offering wide screen? LOL I'm already looking to download it

Yup -- all my walls from this point forward will have wide screen offerings because that's what I'm personally using now.  I treated myself to a new 22 inch monitor (1920x1080 resolution) since they had come down in price and I spend so much time staring at one.  Had I realized how much less crowded I fell working, I would have bought one a long time ago.

Karen, you have a dark line around his head and right shoulder

Thanks, Frankie.  I just not have turned the contrast up enough on the 1280x1024 version, and will need to fix that.  The wide screen version which I'm wearing on my desktop doesn't have that.

Kool

It's so good I'd be afraid to wear it on my laptop. He might jump out and do something. In 3d I bet it would look awesome! I'm trying again to upload the wall.

This one I don't know about. I did it before I.R. put me wise to the correct way to do walls.

The smoke coming out of the building just gets cut off at the top...what's up with that?  You did a great job on the tree and spider webs.  I don't know what the white things are.  They look like angels or fairies or something, and don't really go with the mood of the rest of the piece in my opinion.

Lighting in foreground 'grass' looks cut/paste...doesn't connect/blend with tree area behind.

Don't copy/paste multiple elements repeated....birds...grey 'ghost' thingies.

Smoke is wrong, not just cutoff.

Objects in foreground don't share lighting quality with background...again cut/paste.

another take on it...... more focus on the apparitions than the landscape...

just a thought...

Great stuff! I know exactly hope you feel. I went from my 17" laptop to a 24" 1920x1200. Had I known I would have asked for your resolution, 1920x1080. Enjoy, and BTW it 's a pleasure talking with you.

HI ladies and gents, I really wish this thread had existed when I made my Halloween wallpapers. I made 4 Halloween wallpapers 5 or 6 weeks ago which I submitted and all were sent to PPO. What I am asking is if anyone could go this link http://skyzyk.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=8 and maybe where I went wrong, with the goal of learning from others. I have seen some great advice in this thread. As I've commented on others works I thought it only fair to submit these to the masses. I know it's too late for this year but it's all the same really, Halloween or President's Day, I try to make the best I can. I know that not all my works will be featured and I don't expect any of them to be, I'm more realistic than that, but I am always striving to improve my methods. I've copy pasted some of the advice I've seen here, some great  ideas. OK I'll stop babbling and say Thank you for the opportunity with this thread. (Thanks Barb)  

skyzyk,is right on few points...I,as the 'artist' can explain away the others...snicker.

The joint of the two left mountains does need work but not blurring...what looks un-natural is the smoothness...the left edge has no fine bumps along it like the right side does...so it looks slightly 'shopped'. Easy to fix.

The mountain and clouds are not on the same layer but I see his point about shifting the white clouds to the center to allow a little more gradation from evil to good.

Angel smaller? no way man! too cool just like that!The sword?yeah,its botched...I can explain the fire direction with tons of reasons but the sword itself is way awkward.

The shadows are the biggest thing that will give away bad 'shopping'.And wayyyyyyyyyyyy the hardest thing to incorporate.But in a weird way you do get some leeway in directional realism.This has been proven many times by pro photographers and the Lunar landing hoax dipshits.

Mythbusters did a terrific episode on this very thing.Shadows dont always appear parallel in a photo.This can be lens distortions and especially terrain.Still...yes,the shadows in my image dont work well...especially the car...because it was done QUICK AND EASY(which equals crappy).

The car being overly sharp compared to the rest is very slight but it IS just enough to make the sharp eyed viewer KNOW you shopped it in.

This long winded post is to reinforce what I have said already...dont bother uploading if you cant link to your sources or permissions and DONT BE IN A HURRY.If you have a deadline,start sooner or scrap it til next year.Sorry,I dont want to see your half finished work.

Karen's zombie critter was pretty good but because it was nearly halloween she stopped working on it an up it went.Not the end of the world but now she will likely move onto a new project.Again,no real big deal but the image only needed a little more work IMO.And...the only reason I say"a little more work" is because Karen's skills are above the average uploader and once you become good at something the critiques get harder and more is expected of you...because we know you are capable.

Its hard to critique the below average artist in the same way you dont yell at fat man for not running the hundred in 10 seconds.

Be your own hardest critic just not to the point you never finish anything...no art is ever finished...