i agree, in general, about spicing up background.

but on the subject of "running out of ideas"... oh my God... no... please don't just "add some blobs" because you've run out of ideas, ever. sorry Chris, but personally i hate when when blobs are added just to fill space, or round out a tile's composition... i think jito's interview said it best for me... paraphrasing here... but don't bring any ideas to your tiles. blend your edges logically and let your tile "give" you ideas as you work. basically, play the game we all did when we were little ... look at the shapes in the clouds and let your imagination see things without any preconceived ideas. so in your borders, just let your imagination find things on it's own, and you'll never run out of "ideas".

Thanks for the tips. My main problem is trying to get what's in my mind to the screen, I have this idea in my head and when I start putting some lines down, it's instantly not how I imagined it and I get frustrated... or something. Or the thing I imagined is different, just like clouds, they shift rather quickly.

So, all I see is black... I dunno... I'll try to be a bit more impulsive next time.
You shouldn't have much to worry about me adding some blobs because of idea drought though.

I was quite pleased with how the main orangey part turned out, and the pipe and it's join on the orangey skin. When it comes to working off borders it's kind of helpful because I can imagine where they're going, but the blank borders just give me blank ideas... as of late anyway.

i know what you mean :o)

btw my comments were more directed at the tile's title, than the tile itself. which i think shows plenty of imagination. like it a lot.