Cool feedback! 
Here are my replies…
@ner: thaaaaaaaannnnnnnks!
Usagi: Thank you very much. The first and second render were rather pale, so what I did was up the emit, change the strength and colors of the lights, and played with the blinn values. There’s also a little transparency at play, although it’s still a bit of a mystery to me how that works As far as speed goes, I’ve been overprimed by the intense work on Blossom, I think, which forced me to blend like never before in order to make the deadline (which they wound up extending anyway). If you examine your blender habits, I’m sure you’ll find, as I did, that there are things you can eventually do to speed up the process. I spent a lot of time working with primitive shapes, seeing what could be done with them, and then I worked a long time on experimenting with textures, something I still need work on. The experience is cumulative and helps you move a little quicker through the next project. Also, on the hardware end, a faster computer helps. I don’t have the fastest computers by today’s standards, but it’s a hell of a lot faster than my old Cyrix 150mhz system 2.4ghz is like lightspeed compared to that, which is what I felt before that when I moved up from my old 33mhz 386sx laptop
basse: Thanks! The nose resemblance could be scary :o 
It feels like a blend full time. I try to get in at least two hours a day of blending. Sometimes it goes past midnight well into the early hours if I have something interesting to work on. I actually have a fulltime job and another parttime job, so I’m a workaholic by nature This is going to sound weird now, but what also helps is that I don’t really believe in time 
I do lots of other things than blending - music, writing, art, a lot of reading, and living a seminormal life I’ve consciously stepped up the pace and have focused the majority of my free time on blending lately because it has been somewhat of a successful strategy that I’ve used in the past with other subject areas in order to develop an intense intimacy and proficiency with something I deeply care about. It was like that when I first started out with computer programming, or playing the guitar. I would play and play until my fingers and strumming hand hurt. I wanted to be like Satriani and Vai, versatile, virtuoustic, vibrant. I’m nowhere near them, not even close, but that approach got me to a level where if I can think of music I can play it and, if it’s good, record it on the spot if I’m at home to do that. It’s the same with Blender, where as long as I’m home I can drop what I’m doing and bring up the program (it’s usually open anyway even if I’m not using it at first - it’s there like a blank canvas if I need it). Blender has totally reinvigorated my artistic side. Just the thought that it lets you create anything has set off a supernova of ideas in my mind that I’ve been forced to keep contained all these years of not having a good computer or the software to let me do 3d stuff. So this is why I have a permanent gratitude for the Blender coders and this community, because they helped so many people here - yourself included, I think - tap and expand and express their creative powers as never before and produce new art that’s fresh and exciting. It’s such a great time for Blender and its users like a digital renaissance.
Jerri: Thanks! Don’t be hatin’ I don’t think you want my “free time” - it’s usually hours I should be sleeping A typical day leaves me with about two to three hours of real free time, with some more on the weekend, but the rest of it comes from staying up way past my bedtime or I’ll wake up extra early to do or continue something, whether it’s related to art, music, or writing. I don’t want to consider or treat any of these as a hobby because I want to do something worthwhile and create something people find worthy of their attention or at least something that’s thought provoking, so a lot of work and thought goes into stuff I make, even if it doesn’t look like it You may have more free time than you’re aware of. We don’t usually make the most of each day. There’s stuff we do all the time that wastes hours we could have been more productive. A lot of it is unavoidable, but where adjustments could be made I definitely recommend reviewing your day and seeing where hours and creative energies could be better spent. People do this all the time with their finances, but rarely with their lives. I used to watch a lot of basketball on tv, for example, but then after so many years of doing that, I realized those three or so precious hours, sometimes more (especially during the playoffs), could be better spent on activities that could help me get to a better place, if not physically in life then at least mentally and artistically. This coincided somewhat with my discovery of Blender, so from there Blending was all I wanted to do A blend a day keeps the blues away
emk: Thanks! Flow was definitely what I wanted in this one, because they’re supposed to be windy entities. Thanks for the comments concerning Blossom too! The background in this piece is a subdivided and subsurfed plane with procedural cloud materials with a tiny bit of nor on them.
three-dee: Thank you very much I was skeptical about the theme, especially since I think it was done a number of WCs ago. Then I was skeptical about my model, which was originally supposed to be Cupid (I figured a good character to represent “love in the air”). Then I wound up with the windy dude on the right and eventually the windy dudette on the left I hope I can maintain the quality. Just as long as I don’t post my many other crappy models and scenes I’ll be okay I guess Well, sometimes I think it’s important to post something you don’t necessarily consider your “best work” so at least people get to see more sides of your artistic efforts as well as have the opportunity to comment on them and maybe help you improve upon it. I hope this community never changes, because it is definitely conducive to artistic and personal betterment, something I have found nowhere else online, so I’m thankful for that.
elGordo: Wow, thanks!! 
Thanks for such great feedback! I thought I was doing good with the speed models, for example, but then a guy at cgtalk posted some incredibly detailed (I mean, down to the scales) dinosaur that instantly blew all the other entries away. There’s always someone better and faster. One major thing I’m keeping both eyes on is the quality factor: it’s no good to be quick and prolific if the work sucks and the passion doesn’t shine through. I’m working on a number of projects for a while, like a space city animation, Shrek, Pinnochio, and lots of other little things. I’ve also been working, as far as material studies go, on various still life, mainly fruits and vegetables. I think Landis recently mentioned about no longer being able to work on just one thing anymore. I feel the same way! The muse swings us in strange directions at times, so sometimes our works take unexpected turns or lead to something unlike what we envisioned. It’s important to remember to enjoy this too along the way, not to let it become a rote process, which my early blends suffered from I think.
mystery00: Thanks for the feedback. I’ve only posted two projects remotely similar to this style, I think, the other one being Blossom, which I don’t think compares because she has vines and leaves and these are windlike beings. A couple of sculptures I have posted may have that flow to them too. For me this is new and fresh, educational too. I don’t limit myself to any one style or method. I can’t. If you’ve followed my work since when I first started posting you’d know I have tried to go out of my way to vary my styles, subject matter, and modelling techniques. I’ve concentrated heavily on character creation, terrains, mechanical elements, plant life, space scenes, real world objects - the list goes on. I’ve now created well over 1,000 blends. Not bad for less than a year of blending and 3d cg, I think. It’s only recently I’ve posted a few abstract pieces, but the work will continue to vary wildly, I can promise that
BgDM: THANK YOU so much, BgDM! I’m electrified, because I know you’re one of the best blenderheads to ever exist! At first I had the spotlight behind the models, so the volumetric halo could shine through the negative space of the meshes, but then I swung the light down low and pointed it up at a sharp angle and it made SUCH a difference. I adjusted the other lamps to move the highlights and shadows around, and those adjustments saved the image from a more mediocre render I think.
lilo: Thanks, lilo! I love color, but I don’t want to waste it or use it inappropriately, so I do a lot of tweaking with lamps and materials, trying to make elements complemental rather than competitive or clamorous, something I’m increasingly aware of as I try to achieve a consistent quality in my graphics projects. In this piece, I wanted there to be a balance of two main color sets: pinkish hues for the feminine side and blue for the guy. Bringing those colors together in a flowing way, as the mesh design really required, required additional considerations for the lights, which when properly tweaked helped bring all the elements together. Somewhere I think I heard @ndy say “lighting is the most important thing” (or words to that effect), and I would agree with that: you can have the best looking model or scene, but without proper lighting, whatever the image calls for (dark, light, mysterious, glowing, etc.), the image’s potential is never fulfilled.
JD-multi: Thank you very much
Thanks again everyone for the feedback, and good luck to all the other weekend challengers.
RobertT
THANK YOU