Hi,

Hopefully I'm posting in the right forum, If not then a friendly shove in the right direction won't hurt

Just joined on the recommendation of a friend and I'm hoping to expand my skill set to include a more realistic style.  The linked art is previous work which is quite obviously stylised and lends itself to the sci-fi etc end of the spectrum.

Interested in opinions and what direction I should be looking in to focus my work. 

https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/35725259
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/35725174

I think they both are quality. I like the horse image more than the steampunk offering, however I would perhaps grunge up some of the textures in the horse and maybe be a little less intricate in the piecing together of the beast (less parts).

Thanks for the compliment, the horse was a trial of patience.  I've got another similar project on the go at the moment and I've definitely learned to scale back on intricacy.

Very interesting work and obviously a lot of time and patience went into producing this. 

From a composition standpoint, I think the second one suffers from not having enough "base" to the image.  I would like to see a little more of the city and definitely little more of the model to better "ground" the image.

I can't even imagine what time you went through in putting the first image together - great work.

Thanks for the constructive comments and I pretty much agree with everything you've said.  I've always thought it looked very flat and adding depth with more of the city is a great idea.  It's a peice that I frequently decide to revisit but never quite get the time to make it happen.

I've got a few more shots of the model from that set so I'll take your advice on board when I start the next one. 

In terms of "The Brass King"  Built over probably a nine month period, up til all hours hunting down source material and a lot of frustration.  Definately a peice I'm very proud of so It's great to hear positive opinions.  Thank you.

Congrats, the 1st image is excellent.

Great skills. Wish I could do that

The compliment is happily returned, you both have some truly fantastic work.

I'm keen to keep my portfolio fresh so I'm quite happy to undertake the odd free project if you have ideas / concepts you want to explore.

Your work is good, I don't see problematic halo edges , blending is nice,compositions are very good , you have nice balance between background and foreground which is the most important thing in composite work.

The only thing which I will suggest you with second file with girl , girl is not in main focus of image, she is on the bottom of image , you did good job with extraction, blending, colors , technically by retoucher's side file is very good, but from photographer's side file is not complete just because model is on the bottom of image.
I see that you have cleaned fence from original file and you had to put model on the bottom of image to look more realistic , try to add instead of fence something else to put model in main focus of image.
First file with horse is great , horse is in main focus .

You have eyes and talent for composites .
Hope this helped,
Best,
ST

Great advice well received thanks, very impressed with your portfolio.  Exactly the kind of pro standard I hope to be achieving at some point in the future.

Beautiful work

Thanks Marky, great shots in your port.  Nice work