Wow, looks a lot better now I bet you feel more comfortable with what you have done so far. I am really looking forward to see how hard you push it now. I will never pamper to someones artistic ideals, as a working photographer you have to listen to the brief. I have had and will have some constructive criticism thrown my way. The best artists are the ones who listen and work on it, I think you are one of those artists.
I am really exicited to see what you can do.
Loads of respect Rich 
This is coming along nicely 
It seems you are exeriencing some of the same difficulties I have been having and that is basically decision making on what to go with.
yeah the second idea is way better to me, great concept so far, maybe you want to show some more background buildings covered in sand or also as ruins
BAM
(Bursts back into the room)
ok.its been ages…far far too long since my last update. and sadly my progress probably doesn’t look like it should’ve taken this long. but other things got in the way and i hit a block.
The kind where no matter what i did it didnt work for me, and i couldn’t pull back and see the picture as a whole.
Anyway i’m now reasonably happy with the sand’s direction, and will try and make some serious headway tomorrow on the building.
The sand still does need fixing up in parts, merging, detailing etc…but the forground part has been the holdup…i just COULDN’T get it right. I think its about 70% there now…but due to the time restraints and i’m sick of working and reworking it i’ll leave it as is.
please tell me what you think. and i’m sorry this update isn’t that “big”
but the pace should start picking up now. I can see the finish line.
Moving along at full steam now.
Here is todays work.
LOTS to do yet, much balencing and adjusting etc etc…
But i think its starting to show the signs of coming together
Let me know what you think, your comments and crits are invaluable :love:
Hi guys
here is todays update.
still milling on this, fair amount to go yet.
but its getting much closer. need to decide on colouring/lighting, add atmospherics, work some more on the building, touch up a little bit more sand
but its getting there
let me know what you think
EDIT, i know the sand is over saturated, i’ll be fixing that up soon.
My point of view the sand is too bright for this scene or the building and backround too dark.
I am waitting the next step.
Hey, welcome back!
This version is definitely working out better than the previous one.
[right]as for my point of view it is not the brightness but the saturation. maybe the light source or direction the light is coming from. try flipping the sky horizontally maybe to change the bg lighting and desaturate the sand a bit. (because unlike MarkyG’s sandy place, your atmosphere is way colder if you decide to go with that sky.)
your sky is quite grey, the building red and that sand yellow right now. it will all come together in your final colour correction and most people i know leave that to the end but sometimes it helps fixing little things like that bit by bit along the way.
[/right]
I agree about colors. Desaturating the sand is going to help you out alot. very dramatic sky … nice.
Thanks for th comments guys
You dont know how much help they are.
here is my proposed final version, if there are no major crits it i’ll post it in the finals thread.
I’ll be getting a higher rez version up very soon as well cause photobucket resizes them and makes them (as you can see) tiny
[size=2]So check back soon for the high res
Also, i just wanted to say a big [size=3]THANKYOU [size=2]to the organisers and all the great people who helped me out with comments and crits. this has been a massively steep learning curve, but i think for a first time shot at matte painting it worked out well, i look forward to doing more. So thanks guys.
[size=3]
EDIT:
new pic in post below.
[/size][/size][/size][/size]
OK
A good friend of mine was kind enough to lend me some hosting so i could show the bigger res
here it is.
and the full size (pretty big)
let me know what you think
some things that have been pointed out to me and that i will try and fix up:
-at the back where the windows/walls meet the sky the edges are too crisp, need to soften them a bit.
-The dune behind the main building needs less grain/sharpness, the slope above and to the right of the pillars in the sand needs some more grain/sharpness.
-add a slight film grain.
…is that good or bad? lol 
here is an updated version. which do you guys prefer?
I’ve desaturated the sand a bit, do you think its better like this or more saturated like in the previous version?
and here is the full res
The building in the BG hs been blurred slightly, you can see it in the full res better, but also where the edges meet the sky.
Sand has been desaturated, though looking at it now i think the dust i’ve added has negated that lol
I might reduce the sandy colour (dust) in the sky…
and the “gap” of sand in the middle has been redone, less grain (seeing as it far away) and the closer slope has had grain added (seeing as its closer)
they are pretty subtle lol…maybe even not noticable…
nice ideea, but I think it is too flat. u can play more with your light. It would be nice to have some highlightened/darkened areas and a less uniform lit sky…maybe some volumeric lights would help here.
thanks bechira
I’ve tried to give it some depth with the increasing density of sand as it gets further away, but perhaps i need to push it.
I will try what you suggested
I would put a light source (sun :D) on the right side of the comp just on the left of the front pillar and sunrays penetrating the windows that are in the center of the comp lighten the statue, so the rays will be from right to the left, guiding the aya more to the center of the comp (the statue)
…just my thoughts on this 
thanks for the feedback, great idea, i will give it a shot.
[EDIT one problem i see as i’m adding a visible sun is that it could make all the light look wrong. cause all the dunes are lit on the sides away from the BG…or do you think it would be ok?]
I did this before reading your reply though so it doesn’t take it into account.
I’ll have a go adding a sun, might have to tweak the light a bit again though.
But let me know what you think of this one in the mean time right direction?
I don’t know for shure how it will look like…but it needs more drama I think. Just try and see.
ok
voila!
I’ll replace this with a higher res version when i friend gets back online and i can get it uploaded to his server. but for now it should be enough to see what it looks like.
I tried to make it more dramatic.
