I glanced at the first try you did. (racking my brain) And I remember the image a bit. I think this is a big improvement. All that seems to be in need adjustment (IMHO) is lighting (for some reason I can't explain). But, the grass seems to be pretty darn natural around the feet and the sitting figure. The beer looks like it could "nestle" a bit. But, it's quite an improvement and makes a nice statement. Only other suggestion I might make would be some sort of "dirty" skyline of a city in the right background. But that's all up to taste, I think. You've spent some time and done some good work with a lot of objects. GOOD job!

I remember this one too...you have done alot of work on this and it paid off. I love your cat sitting there too. Good work. If I could add one thing, I would probably put a high reflection on the globes on the lights to help illuminate them, but that is just me....maybe make them a little more transparent too. Otherwise you did a real fine job. I know how much time is spent on just one scene...Sharen

Nice pic. My nit pick would be to make an effort to pose the hands. I think the flat hand poses really kind of kills the mood of the pic and makes it look 3d. Also play with the guy's legs a bit. No two body parts should ever be parallel unless the person is laying dead in a morgue on a slab. He looks like a big brawly guy but he's sitting like a woman. One thing is to put a body part to use, as is in real life. That right hand is doing nothing so do something with it. Maybe spread his legs and bend him over and change his right arm so he's leaning the arm on his knee and bending toward the girl. I assume he's handing her a soda (or beer if you're in Alabama :). Oh wait. It must be Alabama cause that is a Budweiser. Never mind. Also the lamp post is lost in the trees. you've got open dead area to the right. Maybe fill up that blank space with the post so people can see it. You could also use the post to cover the harsh horizon line where the grass ends. Birds are nice.

I think this new pic definitely improves on some of the technical aspects of the old one. But in my opinion, something seems to have been lost in the general feel of the scene. Let me see if I can describe the general "feel" of the original scene (as I see it). You have a poor, down-on-his-luck homeless guy who's gotten about as low in life as he possibly can get. He abuses drugs, sleeps on a park bench at night, and has no friends in life. He's feeling utterly alone, completely wretched, feeling like life isn't worth living anymore, that there's nothing to live for. But suddenly, in the middle of all his loneliness and despair, he gets a ray of hope where he least expects it. A little girl, playing nearby, has noticed the forlorn man on the bench. She doesn't know him, has absolutely no reason to help him. But she offers him some food anyway, purely out of the goodness of her lil' heart. And suddenly, the poor guy's world doesn't seem so dark anymore. Is that the general "feel" that you were trying to capture in your original picture? If so, I think you definitely succeeded in the original. But this new version just somehow seems to lack that feeling. The only "feel" I get from this new version is that a girl is offering a sandwich to a guy on a bench. That's it. In my opinion, the scene should remain at night; the night atmosphere did a lot to enhance the sense of loneliness that the man was feeling. The man's pose and the props also did a lot to accentuate that feeling, with him lying on a bench under a ragged old blanket, a syringe in his hand, an empty bottle of beer on the ground. Without these things, the scene just seems to lack the underlying emotion of the original. But that's just my opinion :-)

Yes, I was thinking also that this scene didn't depict the desparation in the first.

But, technically, this scene is sooo much better. The lighting on the bench is superb, and emphasizes the main characters, composition so much improved as well. There's richness to it now that wasn't there before.

It's always hard not to lose sight of the meaning when concentrating on technique. You see it in the galleries a lot. Incredible technique with postwork and lighting but very little inside. Or someone who works desparately hard on fingering, but forgets the essence of the phrasing in the Bach piece they play.

I do think you've done a superb job here, though. It's not easy taking opinions from so many people and putting them to use.

Thanks guys....my husband actually prefered the 1st pic I did.....The reason I gave up on the 1st is I could not get the damn blanket to lay properly on him...so I said to hell with it & sat him upright....As far as the lighting goes, the pic looks much better on hubbies monitor. I have run a monitor calibration to no avail...it's just time for a new monitor....siiiiiiiighhhh. Problem is I'd rather spend money on Poser stuff :O, nothing new to anyone here. Thanks again for all your help

As said above, it's hard to take a lot of input from different people and not get frustrated. But, you have a "story" to tell in this piece and I don't want that. So, I'll beat this horse to death....hehe. First: Don't get frustrated! You have people here who have taken time to comment with their opinions. That's a good thing! Why do they do it? Perhaps it's because it's not a NVIATWAS. Perhaps it touches them. One thing for sure, it doesn't take a NVIATWAS to get in the Hot 20 (take a look at SAMS3D gallery). Then: Decide if the picture is conveying the meaning you want. Even with "technical" flaws, people will look beyond to the message you are sending. And, I suspect, lots will be touched. I remember a piece (as will many others, I suspect), where someone posted a picture of a woman getting ready to go off to war (a pilot) and was kneeling with her son to say goodbye. It got lots of suggestions and later, a wonderful image resulted. So, stick with it! I'm looking forward to seeing it here again.

Well, now we can see the sandwich :) Technically, this is a huge improvement but like some others have said, I think some of the feeling is lost. Part of that is just the fact that he's sitting up now instead of laying down. Maybe he could lay down but lose the blanket? In a technical sense, something needs to happen with both characters' hands. She is holding the sandwish as if her hand was a plate, which looks unnatural. Equally with him, the beer bottle doesn't look securely grasped. My tip on hands is to get hold of something yourself and look at your hand holding it. Note whether your hand/wrist are twisted, bent, leaning side-side etc, where are the fingers, where is the thumb? Hands are hard to get right but they make a big difference to a pic. I have to say I'm not sure about that cat but then the Poser Cat is so crap that I get a kind of instant "Nooooo!" feeling whenever I see it, LOL. You've done a lot of work here and it's much improved in many areas. Keep at it! and thanks for sharing the process with us!

(I surely don't know why I have so much interest in this piece, but I just DO) If we are going to "pick" the picture to pieces (and I say this TOTALLY NOT meaning to discourage the artist), then I'll go a bit deeper. So...what the picture means to me: The focus is on the child. The child's innocence. The concern she feels for a complete stranger (and she can see he is down on his luck). This is the innocence and care we lose as adults (when we pass these people by). And, she is in the foreground. So, she is the focus and she needs to be "perfect". (my opinion...and I'm not much of an artist) So, in that vein, as said above, the burger needs to be held better. Also, getting down to details, I'm not sure she would be smiling so much...more like a combination between a smile and sadness. Hard to do, I guess. I don't mind the cat so much. To me, it adds a bit of dimension to the work. Though I can't explain it, it seems to say something like, "Can't we all just get along" sort of thing. After all, there are birds there, and though natural enemies, they don't seem to care. Which makes me think of the girl and the guy...where, under normal circumstances, they would just avoid each other. Not to mention the fact that homeless people seem to gravitate toward having a homeless pet. So...it seems OK with me. Now, the guy. I'd suggest moving his arm down (the one with the beer in it) and have it sitting on the bench. As it is, one might wonder if he is offering a trade (hehe). To me, just my opinion, he should be deciding (in his mind) that a beer isn't what he needs and that the burger is a better item to be having. Finally, not to repeat (but, repeating), the picture seems to cry for something to fill the right-side background. Even faded is fine. In conclusion, take my comments with a grain of salt. Besides, you and ONLY you know what you meant to say with this piece. God only knows the number of opinions people have about art as they stand in front of a picture in a gallery consisting of a white background and a red dot on it....hehe.

Nice job. My question is, is this a well kept park or a dilapidated dump? It seems to me the bench is very crisp, clean, unscratched, and un-weathered. The area around the bench seems overgrown. Why would a clean well kept child be sitting in such a dump? Is there a sidewalk or walkway nearby? Which Poser figures are these. It seems the hands are not posed. His left thumb should be on the other side of the bottle. Her left thumb should be gripping something. Can (Coke) under bench seems rather large. Perhaps she should be wearing sandals?

I had the idea in the first picture, not in this one, that the little girl was an illusion, which is why she might be so pristine in an unkept, dark place. That the man had overdosed and was having a fantasy ... the little girl representing lost youth, lost childhood, loss of innocence or whatever. Probably not at all what you meant, and that feeling isn't there with the second picture. Of course it rather depends on what you wanted, which is much more important than what I saw that didn't exist in the picture.