Okay, real work pays the bills but...

For a coupe of weeks now I had no free time to paint more of the wedding gift madness.  However in a short lull I got a couple of hours to work on more of the detailing.

The central background building is coming along, but still needs finishing.

Of course I could keep on saying that for... well... years.  Knowing when to stop is always tricky.

Although on some sections it is easier to know there is work to be done.

I think the trick is to step away from the canvas for a few days.  Returning to it I tend to see all the bits that need a little more love.

Still working on paying the bills so progress will continue to be sporadic and slow for a while.

Being able to swap between playing with pixels and paint helps to keep me a little bit sane.

Ah now I get to start with the detail. I love the detail. A bit too much really.

Now I am beginning to add details as well as balance colours.

There are a lot more layers than just three, but these give an idea of how I have built a couple of sections up so far.

Everything will need further work to add edge lighting and deeper shadows, except for our lovely fire giant who really does not need so much help with anything at all really.

The zombies are beginning to come to life... They all need at least another dark layer, another look at the blood and gore depth and then light from the right hand explosion.  I was tempted to make them colourful, but the whole painting is pretty colour heavy so I opted for blue/grey zombies who luckily still bleed red.

Everything is lit by some kind of white/blue light emanating from over our right shoulder, without this it would all be too dark to see anything.  Mind you it would be a quicker painting.

I am pretty sure that soon I'll have to start work on our heroic couple.  It's a worry that they are smiling really, but if you ever met them you'd understand...