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LacedwithEuphoria [2015-12-16 22:04:01 +0000 UTC]

This is absolutely stunning! I will try and give an in depth critique but forgive me if there's not much I can find improvement in, haha. 

Lighting>>

I think the lighting is fantastic! The soft golden colour contrasting with the darkness of the horse creates beautiful effect from the distance, and creates a striking scene. I think that the lighting on the horse would benefit with some more detail in the lighting around the edges of the horse, where the light would naturally hit. The wings demonstrate quite well with how the light should hit the horse; some orange tones and some more detail around the edges. I would do this by simply using the paintbrush and the smudge tool to add some orange tones to the highlights on the legs and face, and perhaps a lighter outline. It's mainly the back legs and the face that seem to lack colour, although all of the horse could benefit from a little more tone and colouring.
The black areas on the horse that are in shadow would benefit from being a smidge lighter, just so you can so see a bit more definition and detail on the horse. This advice could also be applied to the dark areas on the rest of the picture.

Hair>>

The shape of the hair is absolutely gorgeous! You pulled off the difficult feat of getting hair with lots of strands in it to look curly and fluid, rather than like string, haha. If I was being nitpicky(which I always am, who am I kidding), the clump-for want of a better word- of mane that spreads from the front leg to the mid-belly of the horse could benefit from flowing in a slightly more uniform fashion. As a plan for the mane, I normally do a few big strokes with the paintbrush in the general direction I want the hair strands to go in, and then work off this, and have all the curls flow in one general direction. 

With the colours and tones in the hair, I think the tail is beautifully done, especially with the highlights. The strong highlights give the tail depth, and my only suggestions for improvement would be adding just a couple more highlights right on the tail bone at the end of the tail, where the light should hit it, but doesn't seem to at the moment. Also, I'd like to the shadowed parts slightly less black, but I've covered that already. With the mane, I would add a few more 'fluffy' shadows to gain some more depth. By this I mean the shadows that you paint in a really dark colour over the top of your mane and smudge and lower the opacity. It's really hard when your hair is in the shadows to realistically add depth to it, but I've found that those shadows are quite a good way to do it. To reinforce your strong lighting, I would paint some more highlights on the mane that is peeking out beneath the horse's belly. 

Most of this was really nitpicky, I'm afraid, but you've got a good technique and style already, so these were the only things I could see that needed improving!

I would normally do a few more sections on what else could be improved in other aspects of the manipulation, but I can't find anything else major to point out that needs improvement, so I'll just add a final nitpicky comment, haha. To incorporate the yellow colour of the sky into the foreground of your landscape, and to just tie the image together a little but more, you could try subtly outlining some of the rocks in the same yellowy colour. It's something I've done in a few manipulations, and I've found it's really helped (it sounds boring to do, but is actually quite fun!).

I'd like to finish off by saying that this a beautiful photomanipulation that demonstrates a lot of artistic and technical skill. The composition is fantastic, and the stock choices compliment each other wonderfully. I look forward to seeing more of your art in the future! I hope that this critique was helpful to you, and please don't hesitate to let me know if you need further explanation on anything I've said (I'm all too aware that I don't always get my point across in the best way). I'm also really sorry that this was a couple of days later than it should have been, but nevertheless, I hope it can help. 


 

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bellequine [2015-12-11 22:41:46 +0000 UTC]

this is so beautiful! i absolutely love the lighting and composition

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kowshe [2015-12-11 06:44:43 +0000 UTC]

wonderful lovely beautiful amazing gorgeous so dramatic a;;jlkasd i just love it so much. great job!

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TrickshowBanshee [2015-12-10 17:20:21 +0000 UTC]

this is so awesome o:

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avicuiae [2015-12-10 15:44:23 +0000 UTC]

i've told you so many times during the process of this but imma say it again
this is stunning and i'm in love

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Rapid-Star [2015-12-10 13:44:30 +0000 UTC]

That's beautiful!

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