suddenly, rising from the smoke …

This beholder piece, commissioned for someone’s dining room (!), was my first completely custom fantasy painting commission, from before The Illustrated Spellbook was a twinkle in my eye. I’m still really fond of it!

I painted this when I was still getting accustomed to working in Procreate on my iPad. Procreate is hands-down the best fit for me as a digital artist, except for one small thing. One small thing that’s sometimes a very big deal.

Procreate/iPads can only handle file sizes that are so big, which means that the larger the final piece will be - this one was 24”x30” - the fewer the number of layers with which an artist can work. This painting, with its landscape, totally inhuman figure, and dynamic lighting was way outside my comfort zone at the time. And I had *checks notes* five layers.

Let’s just say there was a lot of trial and error involved. And while I’ve since found a decent workaround for Procreate’s layer limitations, I hope to someday soon switch to a different work setup and return to my almost-as-beloved Photoshop where I can stack layers on layers on layers, with their infinite individual adjustments.

Maybe someday I’ll take another pass at this adventurer and his surprise encounter, with all the layers I like. Maybe I’ll even hang it in my dining room.