A third character that bumps its head out from the top should help to further influence a more pleasing sense of weight to this unexpected cluster of characters.

As the final stages come into play, my decision-making seems to become more cautious and “mother-like”. In the left image (above), I clean up the background and prepare for the extraction of the characters (since everything has been worked on one, flat layer up to this point) using the Polygonal Lasso tool in Photoshop. In the middle image (above), the characters have been removed from the background and placed on their own dedicated layer for easy, future editing. Highlights are also added to the silhouette of the characters to enhance lighting conditions. To the right (above), you can see the final results to this piece. All kinds of post-effects have been painted in, like the snow and the ghostly, illuminated tree branches, along with many other little touches which all work to tie everything together.

This piece, as many others that I have previously worked on, has its share of successes and failures. Saturation of colour and lighting were true failures that were thankfully taken under closer observation, and corrected towards the end. The contrast gives me a neutral feeling because I think the art came out with an OK ‘punch’, but it could have been pushed further. The perspective was predictable and underwhelming for me. As the title suggests, “Rejuvenator of the Human Flame”, upon the completion of this piece I have regained my passionate flame to do more art, as I was having a rather malfunctioning art block so to speak... I have therefore learned by studying others, and by brainstorming a great amount too. I have hopefully become a little wiser in preparation for whatever I may work on next.

Most of my concept art works develop their stories towards the final stages of their creation. Now, here is a little treat to give you the story behind what this painting is all about, now that everything is all said and done:

There’s a greenhouse engulfed by a forest around Adeline Vaillant’s mansion grounds, where all of her passion and dedication takes place. She possesses a special talent of utilising the proteins that run through the veiny streams of plant life to reanimate the deceased back into the living world. These perfectly rendered humans with such unique qualities make the trees turn stark white, and the plants sway wildly, as these doppelganger beings walk past them. The skin of these rejuvenated spirits bounce back with a pale, twilight quality, with no presence of blood flowing through their veins; just soft, plush, doll-like cheeks which easily give away their inhuman camouflage...