It might be more obvious he's on a hill if it sloped down at the sides rather than up. If it's just a cliff edge then no worries.
I'd recommend pushing the contrast more, since you're working with extreme sunset-lighting. the edge of the man facing the sun should have a bright highlight, his cast shadow should be rather long, etc. I think the sun should have a bright reflection in the water too, rather than the purple thing that's there now.

Use colors intelligently!
You are supposed to take the knowledge from the last piece to your next.

I don't see any great difference. And I also would suggest to use more contrast, since it's a sunset which always makes some dark silhouettes. Google for some reference pieces.

Edited by Super17 - 05 January 2012 at 5:45pm

STOP THAT! I am suggesting, helping and guiding you only. You make all final decisions. This is your work not mine. Be strong and believe in yourself or you'll never make progress.
----
Look at your piece and use, change, edit colors in an intelligent way.
Pictures are worlds and worlds are organic so your colors should interact in an organic manner too.
Grass is green but with a golden sun you expect more blues and browns and ochers in grass.
Ocean is blue but water is a reflective thing so the colors in the sky would reflect upon it and have, in this case, plenty of red and purple along with oranges and yellow in the center.
The person's skin is 'skin color' but you have so little of these shades that the colors of the sky should be used here to conserve colors.
The guys pants should have no unique blues. Use whatever is in the water.
The browns in the hair and shoes is whatever reds and browns are reflected in the water.
Shadows should be more intense and graphic.
---
This time I will not make any edits to show you anything. You do it without being sorry or shy... I will only crit till you get it right

It depends on the piece. Generally less contrast and less detail is the rule.

•What is the brown thing?
•The green colors seem off now with these new colors. Bring them closer to purples or desaturate the green ramp a bit.
•What is the green/brown area? Is it sand? If it is sand then this is a bad fishing spot as the water would be shallow. It can be  sand if you add a pier where that brown thing is.
• The sun's reflection should have no angle or perspective. Water just reflect down.
• The arms are messy, thick and over pixelled. Simplify and clean them up.
• The pixelling on the water is too straight and perfect. Water is fluid so either add fluidity by pixelling areas using the farther back less contrast/detail or very little pixelling and depend on the reflection of the sun only.
•Sky will eventually need more work so it reads as a glow.

Now you've changed the sand to grass. It wouldn't make any sense for there to be grass on a beach, would it?

Try reusing the last color in that area as the base and pixel some grainy texture by a little bit of dithering with the new color and maybe a highlight color, but DO NOT go overboard with the dithering. Heavy dithering never looks good in a nature piece, in my opinion.

I changed the water:

 

I agree with the above post. Needs some light introduced.

anatomy is kinda funky. shoulders too narrow for those bulky arms, there is no clean transition between deltoid/trapezious/neck, it's just a box under the head. neck is missing. feet are a bit bulky as well. Can't tell what he's holding on the left, fishing rod could be held more naturally (typically one holds it in fron of them, rather than straight out to the side) and could be a tad thinner. hair goes too far foreward and would be covering the forehead.

Thank you all for the help. Does the anatomy look better?

Edited by Andrew-M - 09 January 2012 at 10:27pm

Edited by Andrew-M - 11 January 2012 at 12:06am

Definitely a better composition.
The sun is huuuuge, you only see it that big in a telescope. Of course it could be a deliberate choice, but I don't think it brings anything to the concept or image.
A realistic size would be just a few pixels wide, with a large highlight area around. Look at refs!

Not a fan of the sky gradient, and the neck+arms would be shaded to black in the middle as well.

I'm impressed by the level of input from the community and the effort put in by you Andrew! Nice work. I hope you get the end result your looking for. Sure looks like you are learning a bunch!

Thanks LordGeneral (:

 

I've tried a few times making the colors like in your references but each time I try it looks even worse. I'll keep trying, it will probably take a while though...

the colors look a thousand times better, kutgw sun is still massive, but you're probably aware. arm seems really thick compared to the torso, I'd reduce its width by a pixel or two and increase the torso's width by a pixel or two.

I'd go for a clearer defined sun.


Have a fairly harsh sun-sky transition, and then a very smooth fade to the sides.

right now the sun blends smoothly into the sky. snader is saying to keep the gradient in the sky smooth (or smoother), and to make the sun contrast more with the sky around it. think about when you actually look at the sun. it's a brilliant white circle, clearly separate from the sky around it (as in the photo he provided)

I think the sun is too wide.  The lighting on the man makes it look as if a red or orange sun is on the horizon, but yours is like an off white peach color.  Are you going to give texture to the sky and water?

Is there anything else I should change? I think this might be done.

Are you sure? In some references I saw it was bright...

Here's an edit, scribblyness kinda makes the reflection seem like it's sticking out. Added a few more colours, could likely definitely be more optimised. Referenced this. Your sun/sky colours are too contrasted, and the sea's purples not contrasted enough.

All your colours are on the red-purple side, but yellow and purple work great together. I'd even prefer this

It is.