chirone: i am sorry. im not sure how to say what i mean. im glad you got my point about the cute. but it was not a bad thing for you to say. i guess at the time, whatever mood i was in, i took it slightly the wrong way. i meant no offence in my reply, and first and foremost i hope you know that. i am greatful of all responses on this forum. i have been pretty stressed out of late, and progress seems to come so slowly while time is going by so quickly. once i get going on a piece, i seem to get so immersed in it, but in the wrong way, i lose sight of the enjoyment factor. i think i put so much pressure on myself it takes alot of the fun out of what i am doing. and having started visiting cg society alot recently, and being so impressed by so much of the work, i come back to my own with that feeling, again, of how much id like to learn and improve but how to make that happen...

.... the name xenosaga rings a bell, but only slightly...im guessing it has a kind of washed out colour scheme following genny's post, and so yes, i didnt fully realise how bleached out it had become. theres a way in photoshop of creating one layer from all your others without actually merging them all. ive seen a four button hot key for it but forgot what it was. it was in a book i have so have to flick through and find it, and, when i do, ill try playing with the saturation levels. i also think maybe playing with the contrast might help?

and genny: this is why a little while ago i was interested in that gamma correction. ive seen your blog on it, i want to go into that further at some point.

jay: got an a2 print out of the picture so far, the 300 dpi worked fine. cheers. its interesting seeing it on a new scale, helped me to see bits for improvement. though some of the blue tones didnt come out at all. perhaps an rgb/cmyk issue?

dave...im learning....slowly....
g-man: thankyou.
oh and genny: if i ever get called cute again, i will be keeping option 2 in mind !