How can I improve this?

[Beatnik]

Just hoping to get some feedback on what might make this work better. I wanted to create an atmosphere that looked the the pink guy was sneaking around and the blue guy got a whiff of him or something. I know it needs work and if anyone wouldn't mind taking a moment I would really appreciate the feedback. This is the first thing I've done in painter/ps that wasn't specifically a speed painting so I'm hoping the next one will come a little easier. Still don't really know my way around painter but I'm getting there. I really want to improve so please don't hold back.

http://zmans.com/misc/cave640.jpg

[mos667]

Right now, to me it looks like the pink guy is looking into a crystal (ball) type thing and seeing this guy. I think the main problem is that it looks too fake, unnatural. If you maybe have more cracks in the wall, missing stones and such with light coming through it would make it completely differnt. Also you may want to think of moving the blue guys feet around a little, that could chang eit completly.

I was thinking something like (google search for "tiger" :))
http://www.mad-cow.org/tiger.gif
This one is good, but you would have to comletely change the creature.
http://www.staff.brad.ac.uk/aereiss/images/tiger2.gif
This one I think you could do easily. Cut out the back end, and just change the front leg positions, like the guy is about to pounce. It would make it seem....scarier? Right now the guy just kinda looks goofy. Maybe you could even just have his mouth closed and sort of bent down a little. But again, you would have ot change the whole guy to do that.

Summary: Make him scary. Maybe change his front feet. Make the wall look a little nicer.

Its a good idea, I'm looking forward to seeing the next step of it.

mos.


EDIT: I just realized the pictures are almost exactly the same...

[Beatnik]

Mos I really appreciate your input and found it very helpful. I'm defintately going to try your suggestions and see how it comes out. Thank you for taking the time to offer suggestions.

[Christopher]

overall it looks pretty good. the blue creature is drawn very well. i don't know if i would perhaps angle his body a little more into the background, right now it's a little too much of a purely sideways view. pink guy is also drawn well. his right arm, however, is not similar to his left arm; his right forearm is too short, and it looks like the right shoulder is too high.

everything else looks pretty good. i think there should be a little more variation in the bottom rocks; right now it looks more like a stack of sandbags. as for the lighting, what i think it is is that it's too diffuse. tighten the lighting to a few strong rays, and i think that'll lessen the appearance of "surrealism".