Mildly Sierra-esque background

[Caleb]

It's for a medieval-themed game and as you can see the screen isn't quite finished.
The technique for it came from here http://www.corbydesigns.com/forest/
I would appreciate any critique. Thank you!

[Hudders]

I'm a bit unsure about what I'm looking at. 

[ThreeOhFour]

The leaves need more shadow, the grass should be darker seeing as it is under the trees, and the path ends rather abruptly.

I like the blue on the rocks and tree trunks.

[Nacho]

I think there is a virus or something Now everybody labels their BGs as "sierra"

Not a bad attempt, but I am quite sure that with that use of the bluring tool, the result would be more appealing in low-res.

[Caleb]

Hudders: It's an unofficial "gate" to a forest .

Ben304: Thank you for the suggestions. I'll work on it more when I have time. Like I said, the screen isn't quite finished, and I'm not sure about the perspective on the path, so I left hanging for now.

Nacho: I did say *mildly* sierra-ish. I guess, "forest scene" would have been more accurate. I think I agree, though, about the low-res. Ah, well, too late now. I'm still getting the hang of this stuff, so please bear with me.

[Nacho]

You mustn' t be afraid of reworking something, completelly, if necessary. I can say that many of the things I do (sprites, BGs...) look better if I re-do then completelly better than improving a "doomed" original design. I don' t know why. Maybe it' s because of that "artist' s eye syndrome" that makes everything look better that it is if hou hav been looking to it for  along time.

Specially if those complete re-works can make you save further ahead. Imagine you lose one hour redoing it all to be in low-res, but you gan one week per background with that decission. It' s worth of it.

Hoping to see your edits. 

[Caleb]

How's this?

Or this?

[Andail]

I don't mean to be rude, but what part of this picture did you look at when you decided to label it "mildly sierra-esque"?

I'm sorry to say that I don't think your background works, in any way. It's too complicated and jumbly to achieve any sort of simplistic functionality.
Basically I think you've started in the wrong end here, by throwing in textures and smearing and complicated shading, instead of building up a basic line-art structure. I suggest you start from the beginning, take a photo reference or other and draw out all the shapes and objects you want in your picture, easy and simple.