===== From nitro_glis@yahoo.com: I gave you a big fat 20 on art :P very nice looking! ===== From higginsdj@bigpond.com: Where there is smoke there is fire - but where? ===== From philip.chan@home.com: Excellent image. The landscape in the background doesn't really fit in (doesn't look earthlike), but everything is detailed and fairly realistic. ===== From beliaev@utu.fi: What have you used Photoshop 4 for? Hope not for postprocessing? ===== From lrwii@joplin.com: Nice ships. The splashed look out of place. Where are they fired from? ===== From StephenF@whoever.com: The ships look great here... nice work. Overall, the scene looks very good. A few small details could be improved (the water splashes and the land mass), but overall I like this a lot. ===== From gmccarter@hotmail.com: Really fine ship models, including the sailors crawing all over the place! Great sails, with their loose wrinkles and seams. Seems to be far too many holes in the sails -- with no other visible damage such as a broken mast. Smoke is quite good. Sky is ok, but the bland gray terrain and the very intensely blue sea seems unrealistic. Good work, high technical merit. ===== From jrcsurvey@aol.com: A beautifully detailed image. The water seems too bright but its brilliance does add to the effect of the image. ===== From tm-ray@consistent.org: I like the ships, water, clouds, and especially the smoke. The interface between the ships and the water along the edges is not quite right, especially along the sides. The ships are excellent, but the design of the English and French ships look too similar. The English flag is also quite hard to make out. ===== From delfeld@mailcity.com: Nice work with setting a mood. The darkening (muddling) between the ships gets across the notion of chaos of battles, and the cannon marks and splashes indicate the threat. There is a good sense of compulsion and inevitability within this battle with the sense of speed implied (full sails, lean of the ships, bow wake but little aft wake). I keep thinking what a rotten place to be, and my mind immediately started churning out ways to get out of danger. It seems so realistic of warfare, I keep suspending disbelief and thinking, "Those ship captains must have been damn fools - all machismo and no concern for life." A good realistic pic of the topic. The Spanish painter Goya might hold some value for your future work. ===== From peter@table76.demon.co.uk: My favourite image from this round. I can't think of any suggestions.