Paint Effects tut resulted in...
 

just downloaded the painteffects tutorial and had a play
about with it... rendered the background, and then used
it as an image plain,
and then continued with the forground.
I think it's 6/10 for the first attempt with the Paint effects

I hope there is an attachment...?

not bad for first attempt but the foreground elements don't really match the lighting in the image plane, maybe adjust a few of the colour settings of the paint effects, otherwise nice work.

still experimenting...
 

yeh, the lighting and shadows are not quite there.

but, I didn't remember the angles, strengths of the lights
etc... but still experimenting with the painteffects, when I have
time. I must admit that I hadn't found a use for them...
until I downloaded the Tutorial.

But, it can only get better: learning from my mistakes.

thanks for the input.

Where did you download this tutorial from?

re: the tutorial...
 

there is a paint effects tutorial for download,
so the image was "started" with it, ie: I had no idea
about the effects, or how to use them in conjunction.

so created some "Nurbs-plains" textured (trees),
displaced an image out of photoshop onto it,
then duplicated the terrain, and "scaled" the newer one
just to offset it, and place a new texture on it, (rock)
so that's the backgound.
rendered it as an image,
that's then used as an image plain on the camera
(just to save time on the overall rendering time)
couple more nurb-plains, textured them
and then "paint" on the grass etc...
converted them to polys
and render the final image.

the hardest bit is trying to get the lighting and shadows
corresponding to the background image...
still working on that, lots-a-trials.