I have entered the Journey Begins Challenge over on CGTalk, so I’m gonna be posting updates here. Always C&C, don’t afraid to be harsh, but don’t be stupid about it either.
2006.02.28
Here’s my first concept sketch:
And a character concept:
This challange does look like it will be good. If I wasn’t busy with other projects I might enter (not like I have a chance of winning, but it would be fun).
The concept looks good, but I think you should make something a little more original. Having a road leading to a city is probably what a lot of people will make. You will be best off if you really take some time and think up something original. That way, even if the final render isn’t flawless, people will be impressed simply by it’s originality.
Just my 0.02c.
Good luck,
TraceR
ummm… no offense… its kinda hard to lay on some focused critique on some frankly pretty crappy drawings of “generic sunrise-over-small-village” and “dis-proportioned-man-in-a-shirt (possibly an amputee?)”
to summarise:
landscape: loose that horrible brush thing you’re using, perspective is terrible, sun is far too big. it doesnt really show any concept at all, except for layout, but as the drawing is so innacurate it’d be impossible to get a vague idea for what the final will look like from this anyway.
portait: get some references. do so studys of cloth, colour, pattern. give him the rest of his legs. loose the cauliflower hands, and the basketball head. 
if your “style” is the main feature of the final, then that is what you should be refining now.
your first concept art should experiment with composition, lighting and style.
Hey, one more blenderuser in the competition 
good luck to you
I’m in too. My name there is dunderdan, if you don’t mind take a look later.
Thank you. That was exactly what I needed. Thank you for the reality check. I definitly don’t want to start this off badly.
None taken.
I’m gonna be very busy for a few days, but I should be able to work on it this weekend.
I’m considering entering this as well. I doubt I will win but it might be fun. As for yours, I think you need to develop your idea a tad bit more. Also try not to have to much blank sky. It can be boring compositionally.
Good luck with the challenge! Kudos for taking a try at it!
The only real advice I have for you at this point is: The more time you put into this project before you do anything in Blender, the better the result will be. In other words, work out the concept until you have it just the way you want it. Get your drawings close (in 2D) to how you want the 3D model/scene to look. Then, using your reference images, start to model in Blender.
It doesn’t neccessarily have to be done this way to get a good result, but there is a reason why the pros hash out the concepts and then go from there.