i didnt think that this thread would recieve many replies so as to make the thread worthwhile make it something for everyone. If you have any artwork that you feel is lacking something or if you think it could do with improvements. place them here and people will give their opinions on what its like and how you could improve it etc if thats what your looking for.

ok ive got a fantasy project in college where i have to design a character and place them in a fantasy style background. its really fun and it has to be done in photoshop. now so far i am designing my scenery but it is extremely empty. what should i add to it to make it better. a castle on the cliffs etc. something needs to be in the background in the far distance i feel

i think that that is awesome but yah it would look cool with a castle in the backround. I would post some of my stuff because i think things need work but i dont have a scanner to put my drawing on the computer........And i dont have photoshop---Its alot of money..........

*can spy PS grass brush* Hehe ~

I think that you're lacking a sense of depth and perspective. One thing is that you've used the preset brush from PS for the grass. It might look nice and effective, but all the grass is of the same length. It seems like you're after a vast area, since there are no hills or trees or anything. At the moment, it seems like you're at the bottom of this mound of grass, and you can't see over the top.
Another thing is the moon/planet thingy. At the moment, it looks like it's in front of the lightning, which.. kinda seems odd, unless this planet is like some comet heading straight for us. X_X You might want to make it a bit smaller and not so dominating (especially when you put your character in the picture). Maybe stick some clouds around it or something with some cool light and shadow ~ Oh, also, that purple glow around it.. is this moon/planet giving off light?
And thirdly (lol, I'm picking on everything here. Hope you don't mind :heh:) the lightning in the background looks cool and stuff, but.. I dunno. X_X Again, I think it's perspective. Look at some lightning in real life (even though this is a fantasy setting):

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lightning/1/picture.jpg
http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/scientst/images/lightlg.jpg
http://www.ozones.com/FTP/Lightning/lightning.jpg

If you look at those pics, you can see that the lightning always connects from top to bottom. So your lightning tongue thingy on the right looks a bit.. er.. fake? X_X (wow, aren't I critical) It's also more defined, and doesn't seem to bend and curve so much. Just some things to think about ~ Oh, and also think about the light created by the lightning strike on objects on the ground.
Hope that helps ~

wow!! colours of the lightning look nice
the moon looks a little out of place though, same with the grass...
also, with the grass, id try not to keep it too straight and plain...

but overall, a pretty good job done ^^

oh and as for spoonpuppet, ya your almost correct that lightning goes down from the sky to the ground...
except there is more than one kind of lightning. there is a type where it will only go through the clouds, it stretches from one cloud to the other, and may last for a few miles. but those type of lightnin is well hidden insde clouds...
therfor the lightning in the picture does look some what suspicious...

but keep up the good work!! show us your next modified results =D

jpg]image 1[/URL]unfortunately my character wasn't to the same standard as my scenery so I was forced to scrap the idea and do something different.

On the other hand I created a gamecube using the software maya. It was so hard I hate using maya but I htought I'd show you all the kind of things im doing at college.

image 1 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/Sephiroth17/Gamecubemayacopy.jpg)

image 2 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/Sephiroth17/gccopy.jpg)