Oohs and Aahs over this one. Who doesn't want to live right at the beach?

I'd like to see this without all the flowers in the shrubbery. I think just the red in the right middle, hiding under the shade over there, and the red in the background, would do it. As is, they're too much and turns this into a promtional, "We're amping it up to make us look good so you'll want to come and spend money," ad campaign, rather than just a great place to be and relax.

the blue color in the water is really perfect for this scene-a tropical feel that you want to just "dive" in it. Interesting idea that you came up with those flowers popping up along the steps.

This has become my desktop since you posted it, and it has not moved... nor do I think it will for quite some time. Every so often one of these wallpapers hit the inspiration mark well enough that I simply have no desire to switch to something new because I enjoy it so much. My only wish is that I actually had three monitors to justify viewing the 4800x1200 version, which is a masterpiece. You oughta put that one up on Zazzle.

I love these tropical / ocean view pictures. I'd love to see more shoreline backgrounds.



Keep up the good word.

Looking at this just makes me feel better, and several colleagues have passed by and commented that they with they were there. Nice one Ryan!

Maybe because its because I've just come back from holiday from the marvelous beaches of the North Island in New Zealand (back to the South, by the way which is freezing), but this image to me just looks... way too digital to be really beautiful like some of your others. Sure, the plants, water and trees are technically correct, the overall scene feels too uncanny to be on Planet Earth. I noticed in one other review of some other image, someone noticed that your style was shifting to a more flat, 'distinctly digital' style (Maya, Promise of Spring, Moonshadow, Lone Tree etc) in comparison to last years mystical haunting type design. Your work in the 'Creek' series along with images like Planitia made me get a membership because, they really looked real and transported you there. Others have often remarked that when people looked at their screen, they often asked "Where's that?" There is no way that anyone is going to look at this and say "Wheres that?" (Unless of course its hidden underneath lots of icons which you never happen because from the reviews here everyone loves it). Maybe its because I prefer mountain and wild scenes to tropical beaches, but this image really doesn't do it for me. Please don't get me wrong, I love Ryan's work (I check the site every morning and have even made a widget for my Dashboard telling me of updates), all I can hope is that he just, might, decide to go back to the subtler colours and more imaginary worlds which he has created in the past.

I'm just running two 30"ers, but it will be nice to have some true 1600 high widescreens...

What an interesting piece! You've left behind surrealism here and gone for a realism that is so eye-catching. The shrubbery is fantastic. These are you best plants to date. Plus the amazing dappled-sunlight effect and pristine beach... My dream home will be here. Thank you so much for a spectacular picture to brighten my week. Everyone, get a lifetime membership!



10/10

This is exactly the antidote I needed for our cold and delayed New England spring!! It's up now on this happy double-widescreen users' display!!

I had visited this site for years mooching free backgrounds before I purchased a 1 year membership a few months ago.

When I saw you post: "I just need to go back and re-render some of the older images and then integrate them into the gallery."

I realized that this site is one of things most worth paying for on the internet since you care enough to go back and do that for your fans (and coincidently, customers)!

Joe, You can use the easily use the 7680x1600 version. All you have to do is get a program to resize it to 5760x1200.





Great job on this wallpaper. I've set it as the wallpaper on my laptop. I think a night time version would be great too.

I think the concept is really nice.



However, living in a tropical island (Puerto Rico), for me the water looks kinda odd.. I think the shades of blue may look better inverted, with the darker blue used for deeper waters and the lighter one on the shore, with a slight tone of green.



Try it out if you like!



Anyways, great work as always!

Absolutely beautiful. Thanks.

I would love to see a night time version of this with some tiki torches on the path or the beach. As gorgeous as this is now, imagine it at night! :D PICKLE JAR!!!

I've been using your images for many years. There have been many Wow! moments for me but this one moves to the top. Every couple of years I get the opportunity to visit Hawaii. This piece wants to draw me down to the beach and leave here for a time. Very appealing.

This is spectacular, and so beautiful! I love it! I'm going to the beach in May, and this really gets me in the mood for it! This is one of the best you've done yet! Thanks!

Gorgeous.

Beautiful Wallpaper

Looks great on my new Eizo screen :-)

Just my $0.02, triple screen for me would be 1920x1200 x 3, or 5760x1200 (3 x 23"). Those folks with 3 x 30" would have 7680x1600. Personally I'd like to see 5760x1200 instead of 7680x1600, of course, you can't please all of the people all of the time...

please, please go back and rerender Tendrils and The Comb as part of this initiative -- i've missed them so much since getting the third screen!

I liked the left side of the triple-screen image so much that I cropped a new 1920x1200 pixel single-screen desktop from the left side! It looks fantastic, and reminds me of a view I once had in St. Martin in the Virgin Islands...

Out of all of them so far, this one is my favorite. Looking forward to the next one.

Good to see more work that is down to earth and not somewhere in space. Thanks a keep up the good work.

Lifetime member here. I've read with intrest all the comments on this GREAT work of art and I'm sorry but there should be NO pickle jar renderings of Island Time. I think all of the neysayers are wrong. I'm partial to Ryan's island/beach scenes and I think this one is flawless. Ryan loves to tweak things though. I think it takes him a long time before he looks at one of his works and says " yeah that's done." And even then he will still come back to it and add or subtract. That's the beauty of his field of art. In the computer world he can tweak all he wants and not damage the original. One of my favorites "Haku" is a prime example of this. But when he goes back to "Island Time" I hope he looks at it and thinks, "yeah it's done."

Another awesome piece of artwork that is a great "mental vacation" for those of us living in offices for most of the day! Really amazing!

Fantastic job on the triple screen version. This has got to be one of your best ever!

Did you mean 5160x1600 dualscreens? I would dearly love wallpapers with more than 1200 vertical pixels, but the 7680 width ones might make the image too zoomed :)

Man thats like my dream backyard :P Keep this work up i might get a itchy donation figure :)



Keep up the good work.

Anthony

(hmmm, can't edit the comment?)



By the way, I see a massive increase of number of comments in recent years. I hardly see any comments until 2006...

I see no problems with water and leaves. They are fine for me.





9/10

This is awesome. It is by far the most beautiful scene you have done so far. I love all your work, but this one takes the cake. It brings me back to Jamacia.

An incredible real looking masterpiece, 10 of 10 in my opinion.



ML: I disagree with the balcony idea. I get the feeling that you are viewing the beach from a beach-house ..

Unlike some others, the water doesn't bother me, it looks detailed enough, and I don't see the trees and flowers as being "cartoon-y" either. It's just that the beach looks too featureless when compared to all the texture and detail in the steps and surrounding foliage. Don't get me wrong, I still like it, and it's currently on my desktop, I'm just saying...

I LOVE the plants, the level of detail and realism is astounding! I'm not so keen on the beach and ocean, however. The coloring of the water looks grainy and kind of cartoonish.

...

Your landscapes are always my favorite. And this one is no exception. While it is not my absolute favorite, it makes me happy to look at stuck in my office at work.



Great job!

Really like this one! By the way, I think the beach is just fine. Being so far away, it would not have much detail anyway.



I give this one a 10!

I gave it a 10. I don't give out many of those. This is photographic quality, and absolutely beautiful.

I can't post my first comment with mentioning how much I love your work. I have your pictures on all PC's that I use at home and work. People at work often see your art on my desktop and wander where I get it. I then tell them site and ask that they sign up to be a member to help fund the wonderful work that you do. The membership fee is a small price to pay for wonderful work like this.

Maybe put a small hut with a balcony overlooking the beach on one side or the other.

Ahhh....reminds me of all the times I've spend on Grand Cayman...



This is my new wallpaper.



Thanks, Ryan!

Wow I really love this one!! This is just a tiny example of your best work! Looks beautiful on my desktop. How could anyone not like this one? I like how it's a combo of scenery with the beach, the flowers and vegatation, palms and the steps. The steps almost look like they lead to a mayan temple or something.

Simply awesome!

You are a true genius.

Has me all pumped for an upcoming cruise. :-)

Brilliant as always.

Not really my style for a desktop but awesome none the less. You truly are a genious and will become a legend!

I think it is a bit cartoony, but I know some people will like that, just my preference

This is probably my favorite image to come from this site in at least several months. I went to a place on Kauai last year that was similar to this. You had to walk down a steep old stair way to a beach that was separated off from everything else. Very cool!



One tiny little suggestion. The water is too perfect. Make some dark areas that are coral reefs.

Greg-I have a 17 inch monitor with a 16.1 inch viewing screen. The sand does not look plain to me on the left side, which would be the closest to you if you were on the walkway. The right side, far away, yes, but I would expect that.



The water looks very good to me. I see waves like what a slight breeze would cause. I agree with another person re the leaves. They don't look natural. Otherwise, a very good wallpaper.

And unlike so many others, it wasn't the water. I finally realized that it was the beach itself. It looks too plain and featureless, too smooth. Of course, that could partly be due to the fact that I'm currently viewing it on my tiny 17 inch monitor at work, I may update my comment when I get home.

I usually don't like your landscape scenes because they usually look too "animated", but this looks close to being "real". The only thing I might see that would be better if the water looked more "reflective", if that makes any sense. It would give more contrast to the picture IMHO. Nevertheless, this is very good!

This would be nice as a dreamscene aswell? Animated water and palmtrees, slowly moving in the wind? :)

This is my kind of stuff! :) Can we have a sunset version with some sky aswell? :p

Those of us from the Mediterranean will certainly welcome this new wallpaper. It's making me homesick. It's not the typical seascape angle you see in digital art, maybe that's what makes this wallpaper so special. Nice job Ryan, I'm glad you decided to pause the other render.



I could drink to this wallpaper. Where's my Pinot Grigio?

I like the scene and after reading everyone's comments about the water being flat I seemed to find something to compare it to. When I see a large expanse of water that flat I think of a lake. If it's a protected bay like a lagoon then maybe some cliffs to border it in? otherwise foam and smaller waves or coral reefs to give it depth?

Looking at this image, it really makes me wish I was there right now.



It also looks quite a bit like a map in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter....just something I noticed.

I can't wait to see if Ryan adds a dual screen! PLeeeassseee! The kids are bound to love this one too! As for the other comments, okay, maybe I'm NOT artistic enough, but I think it's very relaxing. Makes me want to escape to the islands. Cheers!

Very different! Its always great to get a completely different kind of wallpaper.



Something seems a bit off about the trees and some of the other details though. Especially the water.



I love the flowers and the plants coming through the cracks of the walkway, really gives it a real feel.

I really like it. It's fresh new, it's like hyper-realistic and at the same time distinctly human work of art. It's impossible to take this as digital photo, and that's really good! :)



Keep on your work, Ryan, express graphically _your_ feelings and how _you_ see different scenes - that's what I like most.



Harry

This picture would look soooo much better if a hippo was on the staircase any chance of that in a pickle jar version?

I think it's gorgeous...butttt....

Something about the leaves just seem flat. Like they're paper. Too stiff and just, ... , well, not organic.



Keep up your work Ryan. I look forward anxiously to each new render to see what wonders you'll come up with next!

Ryan ~ this is beyond georgeous! I cannot wait for your dualscreen version.



I am always thankful I became a lifetime member!!!

Ryan,



Wow. It's stunning. In considering it, I was thinking about how that picture would have looked if it had been a real scene taken by a quality camera. It still wouldn't have been as crystal clear as the digital... colors wouldn't have been as bright - sharpness wouldn't have been as stark.



Would you consider taking this into the pickle jar and trying to render it less perfect?



Lifetime member - Thankful for your professional imagination.



Tim

I think the water is perfect. Having it this calm gives a sense of peaceful relaxation. It just seems so serene. The color adds to this feeling.

I also like the unique perspective- looking from the mountain down towards the beach instead of the traditional view from the water.

I guess you just have to use your imagination here. The water is calm because of the reef just outside the view of the picture. It's a calm day. And you can't see the bottom very well because it's a deep lagoon. Tiki torchs along the path for the night scene wound be great. This reminds me of that Dos XXX comercial. "Take a left and drive until you hear the party."

Water seems far too still to be convincing. Others have said it looks a little "flat" - I'd agree. Adding a little foam would add to the realism :-)

I've always loved your beach scenes and find myself going back to them all the time for my background. I'm sure this one will grace my screen many times in the future. When I win the lottery I'm going to carry this picture with me until I find a house with a back porch view just like it.

I love it, another instant classic, just looking at this makes me feel like I am there.



Superb!

The best ever seen! It's the dream I have of a perfect location for spending wonderful time!

It's stunning, as usual. Sadly, it's too busy to go up on my desktop, but it is gorgeous nonetheless. Almost hyper-real. Looking forward to checking out the multi-screen one to see how you work that out! (I only have one monitor but I like to see the wide versions anyway :) )

I really like the composition of the work, but I think there are a couple of things that are slightly off.



Firstly, I think the water is too rich a blue. Water is transparent, yet we cannot see any sort of sand underneath the shallower water. It should be much lighter and more of a turquoise in my opinion.



Secondly, the detail on the steps is very strange. It's like the pattern has been made pixel by pixel. Like it's too sharp or something.



Anyway, seeing as animated wallpapers are of no use to me, feel free to postpone it while you make another static one :P

Wow, everyone loves this... Makes me wonder why I don't, lol. This is one of the few wallpapers that didn't click with me, I was hoping by the title "Island Time" that it was going to be something like Archipelago (Which I really loved!) but... I don't know, it just doesn't seem right for some reason. :(



Oh well, don't take my criticism to heart. It's just me. :)



I really love your bright, sunny backgrounds though -- waiting on a beautiful ocean scene or something, like Eventide (I LOVED Eventide!)



Anyway... :D

It's brilliantly rendered though!



Keep up the fantastic work, Ryan. :)



(BTW, on your Facebook, I -never- imagined you to look that way. lol)

Ryan,



Great work and another testament to your artistic genius. Though I would suggest you rework the water a little bit. It seems lifeless compared to the greenery next to the sweeping stone staircase. I would love to almost feel the cool wind coming in with a life surf.

Verry nice chunk of scenery....springtime is just ariving here in Michigan and that render makes me wanna get out into the yard

Man you've done it again awesome work man.. Oh is this your backyard?? lol. Jeez i wish it was mine...



Oh well i'll keep dreaming.. :) and keep up the awesome work this year your work has gone to new heights... absolutely stunning work again and again....



Cheers

Looks like a super HD version of a scene from Crysis.

Great piece of work.

I like the vibrant colors and the use of shadow in this. Interesting use of thirds. It's going on my work wallpaper.

I was just thinking the other day wouldnt it be cool if you could do dreamscene on multiples?!!

Hi Ryan,



I've been getting memberships to your site for the past couple of years and I love your work. I especially love your scenes w/ palm trees. This one is awesome, because of the daylight. I think tropic of cancer would look amazing in the daylight. I wish you continued success!

Ryan



You really do exceed my expectations! Usually I am not always taken with landscapes (your abstracts are my favourite) but this image is simply stunning and captivating...



Well done mate.



CT (from sunny Australia)

This picture is amazing and brings back a lot of fond memories of days before "the war" and this economy crisis, when opening a linking book and traveling to another "Age" was a true adventure! *tear* Thank you for this gift! This image alone was worth 4x over what I paid to be a lifetime member!



- Eddie



P.S.: One suggestion for a ver. 2; could we get more than purple flowers maybe some oranges yellows reds and blues? and also if you were to do I night version is it possible to do either tiki torches along the path or perhaps a campfire on the beach?



Food for thought! Thanks again! Keep up the spectacular work!

You need to hurry up and get this one up on zazzle so i can put it in my office.

This is nice. Any chance that you are going to make a nighttime version of this?

This is a wonderful wallpaper, and as an island native, I adore your beach-themed work.

This is my favorite wallpaper that you have done in the last year. AWESOME!



Thanks!

This picture is absolutely awesome

Ryan, it might be a very close tie with Reverie, but this is my favorite piece of work you have done. I simultaneously got the Hawaii impression and the Riven impression, and either impression alone would have granted a 10.



Amazing detail, and the stairs look just fine to me.



It is just so beautiful and the perfect level of colorfulness to stay on my desktops for a long, long time. I look forward greatly to the multi-screen renders.

This picture is the perfect picture to instantly get anyone out of a bad mood, and after just a few minutes of looking at this, you are sure to get into a good mood. Fantastic work Ryan! Two thumbs up!

I really have been waiting for a something like this, a summer scene with bright colors. It's fabulous!



10*

Gorgeous! Well done. I did not realize how cool this looked until I saved it and looked at it large. The walkway steps moving down through the center make this quite different from many of the tropical beach scenarios I've seen, placing the viewer on the side of the mountain coming out of the vegetation rather than showing a panoramic of the island and water from some unspecified location outside of the scene. I hope to see it in the dual screen format soon.

This is a really nice looking wallpaper, it looks really great on my widescreen laptop.



I think for the dual and tri screen versions, maybe continue out the foliage and water, but make it like a panorama so you get a very wide field of view. It could be cool to see the island as a small, secluded one with this lone path, so that the tri-screen shows the edges of the island surrounded by water. Or if you had a larger island in mind, maybe add a sailboat so the dual/tri screens aren't too "boring" with just plants and water.



In any case, I'm sure you'll make something incredible!



This single-screen version is storming the rating charts!



Keep it up Ryan!

Absolutely beautiful. Reminds me of a vacation to Hawaii.

This will keep me going until June when I go to Jamaica! Thanks!

you could add someone being eaten by a big shark to the left,,, just kidding..



I think it's obvious,,, more foliage, more beach, more ocean,, keeping it simple.

Fantastic job on the graphics, one of the best.



One note on the perspective: Is is just me, or do the steps become very steep after the path turns left? It seems to me that the beach is too close for the steps to continue at this rate.

Living on Oahu, I'm really sad that I missed your trip here... how else could you have totally nailed the scene like you did? :D



Many thanks for yet another fabulous screen!

As always exquisite work. A thought on how to expand it for multiple monitors would be to have the path loop back towards the beach and up as if someone was walking down a mountain path in Hawaii. Just a thought as the path already appears to do just that.



Thanks again for exceeding expectations.

I absolutely love this one! The colors and lighting are brilliant and my favorite kind of tree is the highlight. Excellent job, this should be a great new benchmark for 2008.

I like it, the lighting is excellent.



Figures you'd do this a week after I return to Seattle from Hawaii and it's been snowing here, haha.



Keep it up!

I really like this one. This one may be one of my favorites you have done. It's nice to think of an island paradise when you live in the midwest. I'll be having this one up for a while I'm sure.



Rated: 10/10

It's something different from what I have seen you make before, but I like it. Can't wait to see the animated one, I re-installed Dreamscene just for it.

Wow, how cool is this image? I had just applied it when a housemate of mine said "where's that?" - a testament to your brilliance I reckon.

I feel its a really nice, refreshing addition to your 2008 gallery - I just with the weather hear in England was even close to that in the picture!



Keep up the great work :)



Kyle

...Your best ever! 10 out of 10. Your website post reminds me of someone serving a gourmet meal and saying "oh this is just something I threw together." You've got serious talent.

This scene is exactly what I needed to see this morning!!! Having this insane cold cloudy snowy weather here in Seattle area forever is getting way old! Gazing out over the water in the soft sunlight shifts the perspective immediately! ThankYou!ThankYou!ThankYou! :)

The fifth or sixth step down looks weird where the light hits it, it looks like 2 steps are blended into 1 wide step, but it is still my favorite for a long time, puts me in the summer mood

Now I want to go to the beach! This is gorgeous, Ryan. I can't find any constructive criticism to offer; this one is perfect as far as I can tell. Well done, sir!