Stone Griffin

[Crostar]

Here's piece I've been working on for a little while. This was done in Photoshop with my laptop trackpad. If you feel that it's a tad stiff you might be right, though that would be the reason why. Anyway, crits and comments, especially as regards color would be appreciated.

EDIT: contrast lightened up for windows viewers. Probably looks worse on Macs now. Help with this platform transfer problem would be cherished.

[wild thing]

With the trackpad? You have the patience of a saint.

I like it, but his left leg seems a bit more simplified, you really only see a general outline and not all the little parts sticking out. And the fire is a bit crude.

[Maestro Andres]

I agree with the last post, the fire would need a little more workout. One cheap trick I learn was to barely paint the color of it in spot shapes and then using the smudge tool to give it that fire shape, then make some parts transparent by using the eraser.
Another thing I see is that the sun is on the back of the figure, but the shadows and lights on the subject doesn't come with that source which is confusing.
A last thing, I am not sure, but somehow the character blends too much with the background, it is just my impression, probably someone else notice it and can point it clearly why. Just wanted to share this thought.
Hope these help some.

By the way, the design of the creatures rocks and I admire your dedication of doing this with the trackball of your mouse, that's impressive.

[Crostar]

In response to your comment about the mystery lightsource, it's the fire from the barrel. This is probably confusing because the fire itself is not nearly brilliant enought to cast such a glare. If you look at the wing on the left you will see orange reflections, which come from the fire, and they can also be found on the stone beak and forehead.

Since two of you have commented on the fire, I'll take that one to heart, though. Additionally, the sun is casting light on the undersides of the wing on the left and a couple of other places. So really, two light sources are being used. The comment about blending with the background is interesting. Partly because I'm not sure why that's a bad thing. One of the reasons for it, though, seems to be the wisp of cloud slipping between the legs, and also, the values on the griffin are similar to those of the clouds with too few hard edges to pull the shapes apart. Also the heavy presence of white appears to pull the two components together.

Thanks a lot to those who have posted so far.