Thanks for the words of encouragement Manupix.  It's just tough when you spend hours on a peice.  And the size of this one, I would need would need a lot more time which I don't really have.  I think I'm going to have to stick with smaller size challenges so I can put the proper detail, care, etc. into it.

Don't be sorry about being blunt.  You've been more helpful to me than most on here and I do value your opinion.  I don't blame anyone but myself. 

I was actually rather proud of this peice.  Go figure.  And even if I did spend more time on this, I feel it's tainted somehow....maybe by all the negative comments people would look even harder for something wrong.  So I'm pulling the plug on this one.  I have tons of other stuff I've been working for weeks and I'll just focus on those.

I guess all this was just a shock to me.  I'm better now.    Thanks again.

Hey, don't get discouraged! We all learn more from mistakes than success... ;)

Besides, I want to say that I don't find this piece as unfinished as some comments do. Sorry if my previous comment sounded blunt, in fact I was just explaining the persp issues suggested by Hatch. I didn't mean they were fatal!

I think it would just use a little more time to improve: remove/darken some distracting bg elements, remove/clean some unnecessary/jaggy outlines, check the box a little bit. The guy looks good overall.

Cheer up!

@ Nightmare Maker - I more disapointed in my own work.  And discouraged at this point that I didn't see all this.   I can't be upset at anyone's comments at all. 

As I said, don't get me wrong. The problem isn't that you started it, the only "problem" is that you didn't seem to want to finish like you should.

Anyway, I didn't mean to sound rough, and I don't want to cause any problem, I'm just saying that this piece's quality is inferior to many others that don't get accepted in the gallery for no apparent reason.

Geez.  Tough crowd today.  From all the problems, I should have never even started this.

Sorry, but this looks really unfinished. All the outlines are jaggy, and I mean ALL of them. I thought the gallery standarts were way higher, since many of my old works (that had clean outlines and pixel-by-pixel shading - even though with many light source errors and all) were never accepted.

I mean, don't get me wrong, but this is WAY unfinished to even be in the gallery.

If you cleaned the outlines, and got those shadows right, then it would be okay, but for now, this isn't even near being good. ):

Oh, my comment was never published, too bad.

I (planned to) said that I found that you could do far better, and should not submit this. I see it got into the gallery, but this could be cleaned up sooooo much more! Why not bring it into the wip forum? There is as you can see to the comments quite a few things we can help you with, and setup is help worthy.

But there is really no need for all those jaggy lines.

Thanks Manupix for the comments.   I understand now, but technically the background isn't iso (just looks iso).  And the picture is close up...another words...just focusing on the individual.   I see now about the door and window tops.  I guess I thought at the distance almost everything would be visible.  I asked some people I know and they said it looked good, but I bring on here and forget it. 

I really didn't want to do a background, but wanted to get in on the zombie fun.  Just discouraging now.  I enter these challenges for practice so I'm usually pushing myself...so there will always be something wrong.  I've entered too many with no real improvment except in my own eye, which apparently is off. 

Putting more time into this will just aggravate me at this point.  My next peice I will keep in mind what you pointed out.  I wish I knew that before I started.

There's 3 separate problems: the bg is iso => the zomb is a giant (if you don't see that, just imagine or draw the larger scene, down to feet; remember foregrounds don't look larger in iso, which is a parallel projection); the box top is tilted forward compared to bg but the vertical lines shouldn't then be vertical. Additionally the box has a forward vanishing point: this would be impossible in true persp, and there are no vanishing pts in iso (same as above).

Personnally I don't see a reason for iso here. Free yourself! ;)

With this angle of view( which is ok), the door and window tops should not be visible.

It might help you to actually reconstruct the scene (without the axe) in a real room and sketch it! You'll notice you'll have to climb on a chair to see a person under that angle.

The axe might be set deeper into the head, as it is it should fall.

Would it help if I moved the door?

My eye cannot see the perspective issue.  It's supposed to look surprised and happy, so it's kind of leaning back a bit.

I don't think I will ever get this perspective issue solved.  I've heard this in some of my other peices too.  I just can't see it unless someone makes an edit and I can't have that all the time.   

I guess the perspective is kinda warped and fudged deliberately, but the composition is making it seem really weird. It almost looks like the severed hand is on the same depth as the door, which makes the axe handle seem crazy long and bendy, if that makes sense.

Anyhoo, you've got a ton more time before the deadline, why not polish a bit more? Maybe remove as much of the black outlining as you can and work on a bit of AA?

Thanks for the comment.  I cleaned up the gift and nails a bit. 

It still looks kinda WIP-ish, especially the present...cool idea tho :)