Looking at the image, I decided that it was too cramped at the top, so I added a bit of (undetailed!) sky to balance it out- this makes the ship more prominent and also (I think) improves the composition.
I’m really surprised at the amount of favorable replies- all I can say is a big ‘THANK YOU’ to Stahlberg for that paintover!
Fixed up the clouds a bit- they looked too artificial in that little circle before!
I’ll send out individual replies tonight- I’m going for a run now!
Maith a Chaileen, Theresa,
Now I see the ship. It’s a great concept. It inspires a sense of wonder as to where everyone is going to end up. Where will the ship take these people? You could do a sieries of pictures of where they go next.
It really looks great.
Tog go bog eh,
*Ed
PS have a look at my entry and tell me what you think. Here’s the link
Enialadam: Yep, only 7 weeks left. Less, actually! Scary, isn’t it?
Beelow: That’s the toughest bit, refinining, refining, refining…what you see before you is one mess of…messiness…and now refining stage begins, afraid so…
snowan: thanks. 
adonihs: I do too actually, I’m rather partial to the weirdly growing trees.
Miah: I really must point at Stahlberg for pushing the curvature of the stairs- before, they weren’t as curvy and cool. I learned so much just from that paintover.
Maladie: Wow. what a great big letter! So nicely written as well. The more I think about what you said, the more I get a feeling for how the painting could be- a sort of predestination feeling pervading it in my mind. I see what you meant about the building and right now I’m working on another one, one that isn’t so …knobbly on the top of the stairs.
I would LOVE to see that pic- see if you can take a pic of it. It’s cool being told my pic reminds them of something hanging up on the wall in a cafe… (the tourist picture is in my portfolio, just in case anyone reading this is wondering what the heck we’re talking about.) I would love to be able to make money from my art, but I want to improve before submitting my work- it has a long way to go…
Brutalmonk: Extreme reaction, hey?
Cyberone: I’m working mightily on the perspective now. Thanks for pointing it out though, I could have missed it (and have had everyone looking like they’re getting smaller as they come closer to us, haha)
Ed: go raibh mile maith agat- ba dheas uait sin! 
Scriobhfaidh me ar ais chugat- in fact, I already did! Go look!
I think what makes this so great for me is that despite the huge number of people depicted, I can still feel some sort of attachment to these characters in the bottom left of the picture. Great composition, very dramatic and powerful image overall. Can’t wait to see the final image
The more I looked at my previous update, the more the two people in the front stood out too much- they were looking away from the main scene, they looked pasted on and…well…they just didn’t really gel. This way it seems a bit more epic- but maybe not ‘personal’ enough? I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
So I did this! I also did some work on the trees in the back. Also on the building, but I doubt I’ll leave it this way.
Looking great, been a while since I visited. The ship is excellent, as are the sky colours. One thing that did stand out is that there’s nothing in the immediate foreground. Also, I’m not sure of why the people on the right are facing front. Shouldn’t they be following the others? If I were you I’d do a family, walking towards the steps, maybe with a child on the father’s shoulders, or at lest something to connect the rest of the image with the viewer. Also - and there’s no easy way of saying this - your building looks like a chicken.
I agree that the people on the left were standing out a little. At the same time, however, they formed a door to the picture for the viewer (if that’s correct English:p). Now it lacks such a door. Immediately I feel more distant towards the whole scene. If I were you, I would create a new focal point in the foreground, like main characters, a family like BaronImpossible suggests, something. Personally I don’t think it’s a bad thing if they stand out a little from the other people (the crowd are, in the end, a sort of token people), but maybe you can find a way to blend them in with the rest. A good idea for that might be if one of them looks away in the direction of the other people, like he sees something that distracts him to the crowd and away from ‘his’ group.
Just my thoughts here, I just got up in fact…
That made me LOL! I didn’t even recognise that when I was painting it, but now I look at it and it looks JUST LIKE A CHICKEN. What the hell! There must be something weird going on in my head…some sort of freudian slip??
Re: the people- I’m going to think about what I can do to make it more accessible to people and not just have a ‘token’ crowd. Argh! Back to the drawing board!
On a side note, I saw this in the CGSociety newsletter:
Where are the 2,000 finished works?? I haven’t seen any finished works yet. I thought you HAD to submit all your steps? Also, these numbers add up to nearly 9,200 entrants. It doesn’t seem like anywhere near that many, does it?
Hi Theresa, your images improves with every update. I like the way you´ve added people to the FG. You can do some nice details with them. Good job 
Much better with those people in, now it’s got some real feeling of “being there”
(cluck cluck)
hehe i like the guy on the right with the long nose
would be cool if the girls bow wouldnt go over his face … but the angle of the peple is good now … it leads you well into the pic.
Erm…Baron, got any tips on detailing pictures?
I never know where to draw the line, where to begin, how detailed to go…
It now looks like we’re all on the journey to the boat and beyond. This angle really helps the whole composition. Those yellow packages seem a bit too bright compared to the rest of the picture, maybe tone them down a bit.
(Thanks again for the stairs photo)
*Ed
Hi Theresa, I like the new additions and changes to your image. I don’t think the new figures are too close and I agree with Vahn…you get a feeling of going into the image. Great job!
Thinking about putting more people in- like this? Or is this too close?
