Funny you would say that because I was just thinking before I signed on just now that the more I look at it and change it the worse it looks to me. I even tried redoing those trees on the far left but they looked worse so went back to where it was. Misunderstood about the land, thought you were saying to connect it to the far horizon.

Ah....that's getting close...

The issue with 3D 'art' is it's actually 2D 'artifice'.

The intent is to fool the eye into accepting/believing the image has a third dimension [maybe even a fourth - a sense of life/movement].

Part of it is 'easy' in that provided the elements are 'familiar' to the viewer within the image their representation is understood...eg ...distant mountains.

But,

Sometimes the eye needs 'help' in your case the grass/foreground lacked a sense of depth that related in perspective with the horizon delineated by the background shoreline/mountains.....something that can be reinforced with a tree/trees in that new background area....with their size reduced in accordance with that perspective.

Don't forget, tho....if the treetops are lower than that horizon they're in a valley [or you're bloody tall]...

I put one tree and one bush. If I add anything else to that corner it will become a blob! I changed the water up a little also.

I have taught people the process of 'design'....that's Architectural design.

First rule I have is never use pencil...it's too easy to rub out...and lose the value of historical, evolutionary thought.

Ink.

Indelible and permanent record of your thought processes that lead to the 'logical' [?] conclusion.

You should go back and look at the sequence of walls that culminate where you are now...and analyze the evolution.

Okay, now I am going to do it how I think it should look and you all can tell me how wrong I am but I have umpteen pictures of lakeviews that do not have a shoreline on either side. Once I tried adding that it looks like a bowl to me. The trees on the left side are a definate problem. The mountains, I think, are too close to the foreground. I have become mentally attached to the project so I will return later with my version!

It is not my intention to ignore your advice, I am just saying that as it is now it does not look right. You are correct in that the foreground looks like a frame (or Bowl). The foreground has become too dark through endless tweaking. If I don't leave it on layers for now it will be impossible to manipulate it. I am sure it has to do with my interpretation of your intent as anything else. The tree area on the left edge has become blobby from the constant manipulation (the original edge trees). All I am saying is that I think it needs some serious reworking to look correct. It is not my intention to throw everything out, just try to refine what is there.

Almost 'perfect'...

Now...have a real, close look at the middle of the image...where the grass 'meets' the water.....is that a hard, continuous 'line' with an overlay of grass fronds overlaid?

That's OK where there's no grass....like where the bare ground is at left...but I'd be penetrating 'transparency'/openings lower into the grass area to hide that 'line' more.

Do that and I'd call it 'perfect'....

[quote who="HG_Eliminator" reply="241" id="2820472"]The dirt path leaves to the imagination an old boat launch from my childhood, it.

Now you know why I ask jafo to critique stuff, hes got a wicked eye for detail, and has no problems being real about it.

 

 
[/quote

I like your new avatar! We used to camp on a lake that had an old dirt boat ramp when I was a kid.

still a bit of hard line dead center but looks good ..

Yes, I think that's good enough...

The 'right' mix of elements with no glaring issues of short-cut-taking.

Whenever a graphic [or anything] goes through a sequence of revisions/changes it's crucial to keep copies along the 'way'.

That aircraft cockpit I posted in the screenshots thread has been backed up regularly as there's a heck of a lot of work in it to 'lose'.  The coding co-ordinates alone for each 'gauge' element would take probably a week to replicate from scratch... and that doesn't take into account the graphics...or the individual gauge coding.  To do it all again would likely be the whole month it took to do it the first time.

Instead, I've started on a second plane... and learning from the first it'll probably be done in half the time...

Oh, trust me, I have more versions of this psd on my computer than any I have ever done before, but when the power went off, I lost all revisions I had done today because I had not saved yet!

Been an interesting experience and hope to do it again sometime when I don't have quite so much work to do. I'll try not to start out with such a poor image next go round! I did learn some important things and did keep notes.

Fishing looks real good there Frankief. Think I'll head on down there and set up house for a day or two. Hard work deserves something special.