oooo i like this one....axil, you just rock, theres nuthin else to it...that bg is incredible

That's amazing. I keep staring at it, it really looks like she's floating overtop of the background. That's just so purdy :)

I absolutely love the way she stands out from the background. I wonder how you got it to have such amazing depth... and it looks like sunlight is hitting everything in the back, it isn't in focus, but it's not blurry. It sort of reminds me of those 3-D viewfinder things we had as kids, where you click and the next picture comes up... I can't remember what they were called.

Wow, the background looks like an actual photograph! The girl looks almost like my gr. 9 math teacher lol. nice job on this!

Think they were just called Viewfinders.. lol. Those red binocular things with the lil wheel of pictures you could put in them and click the lil orange lever like a slideshow?

Yes! Were they just called Viewfinders? What a boring name for such a cool toy.

Yup they were great.

Yes, I bopped one of my little brothers in the nose once because he took the little disc/card things that went to mine. Worth fighting over, I guess. lol

I will gladly pay you 50 points on Teusday for more space today. Unless you can move this to advanced. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

behind closed doors she's really into s&m. naughty girl.

I like the background as well.

Awww outta space? I thought this was on advanced to begin with. It needs to be.

That sounded like Wimpy on Popeye, promising to pay for more hamburgers on Tuesday. lol funny Axil.

She's trying to look innocent so no one notices her first editions of Helter Skelter and Mein Kampf.

awesome work!

She looks very sweet. Please tell me how you did the background... the first version of it? (and yes, it should have been in advanced in the first place)

k, I have a question. I see that it's now posted in Advanced (hooray!) but I noticed that the size limit remained at 625kbs. Does the 1mb not show until after he's posted again, or it just doesn't show at all, or what? I've never had a drawing moved up, so I'm not quite sure how that works. Sorry, but I'm just curious and I like to make sure that I know how it works here :D

I was thinking the space should be showing up already, Anna... I'm not sure.

if you were granted space, then it doesn't matter where the image is moved.

Thanks everyone. Still no space but I can live with it the way it is (like I have a choice anyway).
The Background. I did a flood fill of nearly black (I try no to use pure black because you can't burn or dodge it) then I laid down a patch of the sandy color in the foreground at the angle you see, in the right side of the foreground I laid down a patch of violet for the shadow you see. At this point everything is flat blocks of solid color, just laying out the different areas of the BG. Next I turned the brush spacing way down and chose a medium to dark green with the brush size slightly larger than a BB to create the shapes and placement of the "leaves", then repeating that with a yellow/green and then some almost white. At this point it's just a mess of blocked out spaces and dots. In the foreground (where the sandy color is) I laid in some thinner irregular shapes with the violet from the block of shadow on the right, overlapping them with lighter values of the sand color, burning and dodging here and there to produce the shadow shapes on the sandy color part. The wrought iron fence rails were just dark lines with the straight line tool laid over the rest of it (placed to look like a fence of course) Then I chose the filled rectangle tool and the blur tool and pulled a blur across the entire thing repeating several times until I was satisfied with the amount of blur. Then I looked at it, sat and looked, placing more leaf dots where I thought I needed them and then blurring them to match the rest of the previously blurred foliage. Same wit the ground, touching up here and there with lights and darks until I was satisfied and then blurring them. Lastly I turned the opacity of the whole thing down slightly to create a slight illusion of distance. I think what makes version 1 look like it does is the stark contrast between the BG and the sharp flat colors of the girl. Hope that helps DBA. Thanks for all your help with space. I start a new job Sunday night so I probably wont be around much anymore and I'd just like to say that I've had a great time here, so thank you Marcello and all the other mods that put up wit my shit. Thanks to everyone for the kind comments as well as the honest and brutal ones, it helps to grow. I'll try to visit as often as I can. I don't know, maybe I'll be able to visit more than I think, I hope so.

Best wishes,

Dan

Dan's all grown up now. Be carful, it's a jungle out there and don't let anyone push you around. You ARE somebody. We love you. Ohh yeah, don't take wooden nickels!

ps. You BETTER visit as much as possible. This site seriously needs you and I don't care what anybody else thinks because they suck and I rule.

Marcello, I think the image was granted space first and left in Intermediate, (I saw it there with extra space), he used that space, and then it was moved later here to advanced... but there's still the same amount of space showing? Anyway, somebody could please give it the 1mb of space the advanced board has so he can finish it?

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain what you did here. I love your work better than anyone's.

I'm so glad you have a new job, and I hope it works out for you, but I will just be awfully sad if you aren't here very often. I'm going off to pout now. :(

awwww :*( I hope you are still able to come regularly! You'll be missed. Good luck with the new job :)

*superglues Dan to his seat so he can't go and sits on yer feet* noooooo please don't gooooooooo :'(

It still needs space!!! *Catcall Whistles* :)
edit: Wow, that was fast... you guys are great.. thanks. :) Hope he comes back to finish it. *Goes off to pout some more*

I'm not gonna say this isn't GREAT... but I don't like those black lines, glad you have more space... and hey... how can one be good without knowing what it's like to be bad? :)

Omfg, Sorry. It looked like someone already granted you space.. and I granted you additional space after that. Again, sorry. Atleast you can finish this wonderful picture now. >_>;;;

haha... see? so worth it... in advanced, wouldn't the space go up to 1 mb anyway? hmm..

We will miss your stuff around here Dan. I'm glad you have a new job, though. Hope you can find time for this sometimes. BTW..those things were called Viewmasters... I still have a couple..they were great fun.

Yay Hakkai! You guys are really on the job! Now he can over the limit (if he comes back soon... *sob*).

you're amazing Dan, I think I love you.

It's about time you got off your ass and got a job!! (lol) Great pic. I like the way you did it. Ihope it all works out for you, and these new crazy hours work for the best. Good luck son. cul (by the way, spiritdweller thinks she loves you,, I know I do!

I tried to explain that if something is granted space, it doesn't matter what board it's moved to after that... the old limit sticks.

Oh. :)

Awesome stuff Dan :) And thanks Poppa I knew it was somethin like that. Tanx for clearin it up :-D

Lovely pic : )

uber stuff, axil... good luck with your new job! j00 r0x0rz... XD

What cuz she's holding a book? She's on her way to a Chippendales show don't let the outfit fool ya.