I did the render for the splash screen contest, but liked it enough that I figured I put a full size up here.
I know the cloud aren’t the most realistic, but the point was to use the new internal painting tools to make them, which is what I did.
Edited: redid the background to hopefully enhance the composition. Original is still here if you want to see it.
Nice image - especially the sides. Sad they’re not the focus of the image actually.
Sure you mean “whole” and not “hole” btw?
//Mathias
Great image, one of the best blender render I’ve seen. Five stars from me, this is forum gallery material !
From the name, one of the points of the image is the open space. Visual narrative was supposed to go something like this:
That’s weird, there’s only stuff on the sides. Hey, birds! Boy that one’s really hanging out there. Oh, he’s looking across the space at a nest. Hey, more birds! Holy frack, this is a shocking surprise! Ah, the poor little fellows would probably like to get together – see how they’re looking at each other. Awww, poor birds. Oh wait. They’re birds. They can fly. Duh. OMG, another bird! Will the jubilation never end!?
Okay, maybe that’s pushing it as far as visual narrative goes, but you get the point.
As for the title using “whole”, well, there are several holes in the image, but at the same time, the bird family is whole, because gaps in space are nothing to them. 
Wow, Harkyman, always quite impressed by your works!! If you don’t mind me asking, are your clouds meshes, or are they painted-in?
I don’t normally ask magicians to reveal their secrets, but I found myself in the predicament where I wanted to create moving clouds for a film bumper and resorted to meshes and it only looked sorta… ok…
Anyway, great pic, again. And I totally dig your use of negative space!!!
To make the clouds, I added a new image in the UV/Image Editor window, then painted it directly in Blender with the updated painting tools. I had it node-composited into the background, with a view node on display in another window, so all I had to do to check how it fit the 3D part was to have it update the final composite.
Nice idea the composition looks a little forced to me (art critique;)) I would move the walls and birds further off to the sides and rework the clouds some. The thing that bothers me the most with this is the walls and birds look so great but the sky is sort of plain and it should be the main focus. I hope you work on it some more those great rocks are going to waste. Maybe Blender paint isn’t the best tool for this.
I really like the stones and the birds, but as you said the sky isn’t right. Looks like it was poorly added and wasnt thought out. If you insist on using the painting tools for the splash screen, then so be it. But I really would like to see some realistic clouds in this piece.
As for Cipix
Obviously you haven’t seen project Orange and some of @ndy’s other works.
Anyway. I don’t think this is a completed image.
Just my opinion, take it if you want.
Fliberty
I’ve rarely heard a good critique of my work that I hadn’t already secretly thought to myself. You’re right – that sky needs to be better. I’m going to go for greater realism in the clouds using Blender’s paint tools alone. Compositionally it is forced: into the aspect ratio and size of the splash screen.
As for Orange, some of that stuff was mine.
You could try a really dense mesh sculpted into the shape of some clouds and try vertex paint.
wow, that light reminds me of the summer mornings, the rocks look great, but the sky, well it could have been better. Good work
cheers
Yes, I’ve seen them all and I like them but somehow I dig this image more. I like the colors and the mood of this image. I think is very good as it stands now.
Updated sky in first post.
I like your work, the birds &stone are so good as if they are alive.
I like the clouds now but the change seems to affect the colours in the rest of the image (the stone and birds). In the last image the clouds were darker, foreground colours were a bit more prominent. Now they seem washed out a little bit because of too much light/white colours in the background. If I’m talking nonsense, please ignore this
I still love this piece; 5 stars from me 
I really like the stones and the all the vegatation and details. Very nice.
very nice work on the textures and modeling
the original clouds deffinately look a bit cartoony, although you can see the “hole in the sky” more clearly in that version
keep up the good stuff
IMHO the original looks better!
Can you tell me, please, what was the influence of the irregular shadows?
very well done… Good luck on the contest
Simply beautiful. I think I like the new version much better. The sky is so much brighter and draws your eyes. I love the unnerving feeling where you keep trying to tear your eyes away to look at the birds, but they automatically keep looking back at the sky (I think I might go as far as that it gives you a headache trying to focus on the birds). That patch of blue just draws you in.
Anyways, it’s a beautiful peice. coughgallerycough
