Here's a manip that I'm working on for a larger piece, the background will probably change. I think it's just about finished, but it still needs something...

To me the problem is that it's just too difficult understand the image.
You have to look very hard to figure out where the head is, and the tail gets all confused with the legs.
Maybe a couple of shadows to make the image less flat.
A blur on the (more distant) tail might also work.

good luck,

Rô

Ok thanks, I will try what you're suggesting. What about making the tail smaller maybe so it won't be so jumbled?

To clarify though; what exactly do you mean that you have to look hard to see where the head is, because it seems very obvious to me. Do you mean it's actually hard to make out?

I agree with byRo. I think the fire would cast shadows of the head and front claws onto the tail.

Hi there,

This picture has dramtic fantasy look like, great! I agree with Ro, the light here given by the fire so you sholud shade those parts what can't get the light i used a b&w circle gradient, i think the head seems "flat" cause the boosted color, you should try a softlght blended layer panit with balck over the head, one more thing i can tell you it seems to me static a bit so give some move to dragon

saby

Hi Saby thanks for clarifying, do you think it's because I made the dragon all one image before bringing it into the background layer? Maybe I could make the original head image sharper and bring it into the rest of the image, because it seems that the problem has to do with depth of field. And yes it definitly needs motion blur or some other fx.

Can I pm you if I need more help?

....Can I pm you if I need more help?

of course

saby

Hey Dude,

Good idea on the image.

My biggest problem is the clairity of fire. This could be fixed by selecting and using a high feather on the flame. Making the fire more transparent would give a 3-D look. This would require making some adjustments to the wing under the fire then adding a slight glow around the selection. The white Blown out area in the mouth should have some texture along with the glow from the fire.
Adding a graduated blur and some transparency to the Dragon from front to back would help as well. This would give the impression of the dragon comming out of the night. You might also consider a hue & sat color correction on the dragon layer to reduce the color intensity and have the eyes colored differently from the flames. Some shadowing on the head edge would help to separate the wing from the head.

OK will do and thanks much LQQkER originally I just was hoping that none of the parts were out of proportion or askew but this has all been great stuff. And I'm assuming that all parts look like the same creature which is what I was trying to do.

I will post it once I get around to fixing it and see what you guys think.

I was hoping I could get a little more help I want to make the dragon look the same colour as the Golden Beetles in these pictures and I'm not really sure how to do that. Does anyone have any idea how to do this or a link to a tutorial?

http://www.britannica.com/ebc/art/print?id=55923&articleTypeId=0

http://www.dereila.ca/whispers/beetles.html