Great job in terms of texture and color, but compositionally, this piece seems a bit flat. For a thousand year old tree, this doesn't look epic enough, in terms of scale. I understand the focus may be split between Star Bolt and the tree, but, having him on the opposite position to the tree compositionally makes the tree seem even smaller. It looks more as if the tree were placed in an empty spot, rather than everything else grew around it, which i would assume would be the case unless the other trees are older than 1,000 years old. Having Star Bolt look at the tree helps to direct focus to it, but it would better carry the effect of the tree's epic nature if the focal point was looking up at the tree to help it appear even more immense and grand. Also, watch out for anything else that may distract the viewer from the focus, such as that red tree that just screams for attention on the far right with it's direct contrast of the green foliage in the rest of the scene. The warm color of the tree would contrast the bluish green of the zap apple tree nicely if it didn't also contrast the rest of the surroundings, so maybe adding reds here and there throughout the rest of the foliage around the focus would be better than removing the red tree entirely. In terms of what you did right, I love everything else about the zap apple tree, from the diffraction of the beams of light coming above it into rainbows to dreating depth with highlight's rather than shadows, adding to the supernatural feel of the tree, along with the occasional lightning bolts, which mimic branches rather well. The pulsating aura rising from cracks above the roots really help complete the idea that this tree is literally exploding with lifepower. Really fantastic in that aspect.



I know you weren't asking for a critique on this, but I checked your profile and didn't find anything telling me not to, so why not?