We Are But Falling Leaves

Congrats on winning the contest!
I believe I now owe you a critique on this piece.

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Vision
Originality
Technique
Impact

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Comment:

Alrightyy, to start with, I like your song choice. I'd never heard of the band before but they sound pretty awesome, and the song you chose fits the contest theme really well - autumn and the end of life.
Vision: I like your stock choices. It's obvious that you chose the background based on the lyrics. I think that and the choice of model stock really fit the line "Eventually all paths will lead To the cemetery". Just from her pose, it's like she's come to the end of her road. So like I said, nice stock choice. I don't really like the effect you added to the image because I find it distracting. I like it in the leaves on the trees because it makes it seem as if it's raining or really windy, but I didn't like it as much on the ground of background. That said, I can see why you used it, because I noticed that you edited the models hair and removed the lantern, so that makes the changes a little less obvious, if that makes sense. The last thing I want to touch on (for this section) is her hands. I find them very distracting. I'm not sure if it was intentional or if it just happened when you added the effect to the rest of the image and you didn't notice but they look very unnatural (and kind of creepy..) so I can't stop staring at them. Just thought I'd point them out.
Hard to mark for originality here.. When you're drawing inspiration from a song it's hard to consider something completely original, and graveyards in autumn aren't anything new either, but that's not your fault. Luckily, originality isn't an overly big deal here because you were given instructions and it's hard to take much creative license when you have instructions. Don't know what else to say here..~
Technique.. this is where I have troubles because I'm not as familiar with this art medium (photo-manipulations). I think the two images fit together well and your changes to the brightness/contrast/colours work well in creating a mood. I imagine the texture effect was computer generated, but, correct me if I'm wrong, the hair looks like you drew it yourself. I like the shading and flow of the hair but the end/bottom of her hair just looks a little off - like it's too smooth or something. The texture of the rest of her hair looks good though. Overall, I think you've done better than what I could do, so..
I found this had a very good impact on me. The colours and darkness creates a fitting mood for the song, and the texture gives it a chaotic sort of feel, like a storm (because I really don't think this was meant to give a cheery outlook on death). The silhouette of the girl kind of makes her resemble the two trees which I thought unified it, and also increased the impact it gave me when I noticed it was a girl. The fact that the graves are in the background shows that it's a cemetery and also keeps the foreground from feeling too cluttered. The positioning of the two trees give the impression of gates, which I found really cool. Overall, I think the impact is what won you first prize.
Hope you found this helpful If you have any questions or comments about my critique feel free to ask~
Congrats again
-MishL

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