Nice concept!
Maybe try out breaking up that really dominant horizontal bridge (the one that runs along the the very top) with some overlap… and if you decide to keep it make sure to really resolve where and how it’s connecting to each side?
Right now I’m not sure whether it connects beyond the edges of the picture or somewhere right before the edge…
thanks for the feedback guys its helped alot. I think ive found the direction i want to go in the image below. Obviously needs some tweaking but I feel good about the composition, it gives me enough room to give the scene some identity in relation to the steampunk theme and shows the kind of scale im aiming for. really starting to enjoy creating a story for the scene. :buttrock:
The development on this is looking great. Good job on your progression. Looking forward to seeing the next step 
not had a lot of chance for a couple of days due to other commitments but here we go. This IS the final composition as this keeps the scale i want and gives me alot of room for design.
Dear Matt,
That is a really ambitious path you are suggesting. Due to the given perspective restrictions of the plate you might want to re-consider your composition and take into account that every aspect of your final submission has to have the attributes of a successful Matte Painting. Widening the premise only makes your task more difficult, while actually losing the narrow claustrophobic feel of a Tunisian bazaar. If you decide to stick with your current approach, make sure your perspective throughout the image stays true to reality. I’m sure you can achieve the necessary amount of epicness without giving yourself such a hard time. Every competitor in this challenge should strive for photo-realism as their ultimate goal. Keep up the creativity and good work.
Best wishes,
Milan
Hi matt,
It’s nice that you have opened the scene to see the canyons. But you have to keep an eye on the ff:
Perspective -you have to nail this first to avoid further tweakings of every elements.
Light source
Realism - the very aim for every shots
Function of elements - artistic licensing is okay. But as much as possible elements should have sense. And/or should contribute something into the image.
Distribution of details from fg to background - some matte paintings tend to have inconsistent level of details and we should avoid that. Look for high res stocks and as much as possible avoid painting manually, since realism involves realistic details which can’t easily be achieved through painting.
Colors and values (due to the presence of atmosphere)
And since you have opened the scene, you’ll need a lot of time and effort to make every area of this image realistic and convincing. I also have opened my scene and it’s hard. I really intend to make it hard since i love testing my limits just for fun. And i find this kind of approach in my entry more interesting (for my own view). But of course we need to follow instructions as much as possible. Goodluck and hope that helps
hey guys
thanks for the feedback. It certainly is challenging and i do have a habit of biting off more than I can chew :banghead: Think i might have to go back to the first composition which means ill prob leave the road intact and clone out the car. Quick question to milan. Which of the compositions do you think works best ?
I think you were on the right track with your very first concept but then you kept opening it up more and more until I started thinking that you were in for a hell of a time instead of a fun competition. Feel free to blow away the road and extend downward but try to keep the framing from your original idea. Unless you are comfortable tackling a monster-scale DMP all the way through. Both can be amazing but it doesn’t have to be enormous to be impressive. Also take anything I say with a grain of salt because I’m just 1 out of 5 judges! Looking forward to your next WIP. Thank you for the hard work.
ah excellent cheers mate like i say i have a tendency to overreach lol. i will go back to the first and work from there
The high walls of the canyon in the last composition could work really well to push a sense of it being a crowded, busy, bustling city that stills appears to go on endlessly, just into the sky as opposed to down the length of the canyon. Nice work! 
gotta say guys im really enjoying getting to grips with this plate, trying out different ways to present scale and density while trying out stylistic options to present steampunk etc
anyway composition test no erm 12 lol. I quite like the density on this one
right guys got some more stuff for your eye goggles. Would love to hear your thoughts on this
:wip:
I like the depth! Some nice design there.
Maybe double-check the perspective of the upside-down v shape of roof just above the satellite dish.
This is bright and sunny…love it.
Maybe it´s just me, but i feel somewhat distracted by this …er…thingy in the upper-left corner.
hey guys. just a little update. started laying in some photos now but its surprisingly difficult finding decent canyon reference
Hi, I think you instinctually think there is something wrong with this painting. Me its the volcano in the the rear, I have been given advice that you must never place anything symmetrical dead centre of a comp, its unsettling. Also geology is letting it down, canyons are formed in plateau areas with no other geology higher than the plateau itself the volcano is alien to the geology. Also its a massively contrasting colour.
Love everything else have a look on flikr there is a matte painting resource page on there, I think you might find what you are looking for on there.
Looking forward to seeing how your matte goes,
Richie.
the first issue I see in this image is the linear perspective, in the right side you have some straight lines but some other lines at the roof are curved totally but the balcony is still straight, this is wrong, and should be fixed, that deformations mimics maybe an angular lens but on the left side you have straight lines.
other maybe is that the right mountains look different to the left ones, , the right ones have a warm monochrome color in both light and shadow and the left ones are warm/ greenish on the light side and Bluer/greenish on the shadow side with a bit of the warm color of the rock, try to integrate both elements better, is looking good, you have a nice flow in there, good luck !
You were right right rich, something didn’t feel right in my last iteration so I took out the mountain and I do think its opened it up a bit. Jamie your advice too was awesome I’ve tinkered with the right mountains and I think I’ve managed to get some variation between the light and shadow that’s close to the left mountains. At this point I think all that’s left is the fg buildings and the steam punk elements which ive been building on the side 
anyway here’s my latest iteration. as always c&c are very much appreciated
Dear Matt,
I think your sketch is headed the right way.
Maybe you should jump into Matte Painting mode and start laying in some textures/photos.
It might help you define a few more things compositionally, when you’re working out light and dark areas.
Kind Regards,
Milan