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I don't really know how to use whatever program you are using, but I know that all of these things can be done on GIMP, which is another free program.
Background
- Make sure to slightly blur the sky and top half of the background (not the ground) as it gives it the focused on the horse effect, and makes the images look much nicer
- Splashes where the horses are need to be added. You can find plenty of pre cut splashes on deviantart that are ready to use
- Relflections of the horses on the water needs to be added. All you have to do is double the horse layer, position it on the water, and then smudge, blur, and lower the opacity until it looks natural.
Horses
Lighting
- I would reccomend choosing your stock images according to your background or the their way around, especially when you are just starting out. The lighting in his image is coming from the top right corner, which would mean that shine on the brown horse would be mostly on the side that's not showing, on the top of its butt, and a little bit on his belly from the reflection on the water. The paint horse should then have more shine on the side that's showing, where in this image, he has no shine there. If you were more experienced, I might give you a way to paint shine on, but since you are a beginner, I'd stick to simply choosing images wisely.
Horse Bodies
I would do a teeney but if smudging in these horses bodies, to give them a more painted look. PLEASE don't succumb to the newbie tendency to over smudge ( I try to save people from that phase, as I myself went through that for a long while)
You also want to make sure that the horse looks like it fits in the image. Currently it looks like two horses were cut out of an image and pasted on another. To change that, you should work on hue changing, and stuff like that. I'm sure you can find a tutorial on how to do that online. :)
I would also recommend painting in the horses eyes, to do this, zoom in, take a color, use a 1px brush, and paint a curved line along the bottom of the eye, then take a white 1px brush, and put a little dot on the top corner.
Manes and Tails
-Mane and tail on the paint look pretty okay, but the black one needs some work. Go for a 1px brush one 100% smudge mode, and paint the mane that way. Thing about direction of the wind, and make sure to give the hairs movement.
There's a few other things that could be fixed, but that should be the basis of it. Good for you for asking for critiques by the way. It's the only way to learn! Good luck! <3
Overcast and Calm
