@Naroth-Cow Sleepless nights are the worst (even when they spark creativity!) I wish I had a big snuggly shleep too.

@Jeszika-Lee Wow! This is such a cool concept, and your rendering is gorgeous as always. I've learned a ton just reading through the replies on this thread!

One thought, since you don't want to repaint the girl. You could eliminate the crossed arms be removing her right arm and painting so that it looks like the eel is obscuring it. Not sure if that would work, or if it would just look like the shark had bit off her arm!

@Steve-Young indeed 🙂

@Maile-McCarthy Thanks I look forward to her class!

@Steve-Young thanks 🙂

@Thrace-Shirley-Mears said:

Such a big difference from where you started. I know you have to feel good about where it is now and all the great advice along the way!

I do! I'm so grateful to be a part of these forums.

@Ben-Rudnicki142 @Craig-Babin and @DanetteDraws Thank you! 🙂 I really appreciate all the positive feedback!

@Kimberli-Johnson Thank you! That is so encouraging to hear! To be fair, I have been an oil painter for well over ten years, and I just decided to begin learning digital a few months ago - so I have a lot of experience that helped the process

@Maile-McCarthy Wow - thank you so much!

@Lee-White Thank you so much for taking the time to give feedback and do a paint over and everything! I really appreciate the time and willingness to help! For this piece, my initial plan was actually to have the wheat around the girl lit up by fireflies in a more teal range - so I think it is interesting that you added a blue green glow to this. But as I painted it, I actually really fell in love with the more austere cold desaturated colors. Because the piece is about the death of a child, or the loss of a child, I felt like it fit much more with the mood I felt when painting it. Also, my goal as an artist is to really focus on realism, but also be a scifi/fantasy painter - so the intensity of those colors loses some of that realism I really tried to create with this image (though I don't know how well I succeeded at it).

But I went back into it tonight, and I did try to add some mist and some fireflies into it, and everything I did felt like it moved farther away from my direction and mood. Also, I know I do have a tendency to be biased against bright colors - esp. if they are on the warm end of the spectrum, so that might be part of the problem as well lol. Either way, thanks for looking over it and offering feedback! It made me really think about the choices I made and why.

@Javier-Diaz Thanks for the feedback as well. 🙂 Yeah, I tried tonight to add some more stuff like that in, and I just kept mourning the loss of the stark cold feeling I had to the piece before. It's funny, I had initially wanted to do that as well, but the piece kind of came alive to me emotionally and went in another direction.

So I went back in tonight and tried working on all the suggestions I received, and even though I didn't add more glowing or mist effects to it, I did add more detail to the dress which I thought might help tie it together better. And thanks again to everyone who left feedback or advice. It is so encouraging to not just get the silent internet in reply! 🙂

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Nice! seems like you had a lot of fun. I might get some of his watercolor later.

I would ruffle his fur a little, it would make him sweeter..

@Craig-Babin said:

@Maile-McCarthy Thanks Maile. The original title for this piece was "When Peter Pan comes to your house and the power is out and you've killed all of the flashlight batteries in your Game Boy, so you have to carry around one of your mom's old candles". But I felt it was a little wordy, so I settled on "A Childhood Friend". lol

Yes, a bit! LOL

Yay that's it, wonderful.

@Rowan-Ferguson, @Javier-Diaz, @Steve-Young, @Leontine-Gaasenbeek Thanks everyone for your thoughts, comments, and critique. I really appreciate you all!

@Katrina-Fowler I love the composition and the rendering. Riding looks really afraid! Like your style!

@Rob-Smith Marvelous. I love the color, texture and edge quality, especially in your background. The victim definitely grabbed my eye. I agree with Carey, that it might work well to have him further from the corner. Great piece.

@Naroth-Cow I love the dog. I didn't notice her until you pointed her out. I wonder if you could hit her with some of the same highlights you have where her boat meets the water.

Haha, the scared animal behind the tree! Classic!

I love the detail in him. Great work!

I love the painterly look to this piece. A technique I've yet to master. Great work!

Thanks so much everyone for all the helpful and encouraging comments and the redraw! I do plan to make a color version, maybe in watercolor and ink. I will give more leaves a try. I will try to make the boy pop more, maybe he can be larger/more lit. Good idea to make the book larger. I think I will work on also making the branches less parallel and more dimensional. Yes he's reading a book and fairy tale characters are coming to life. I may change up some of them for a multicultural image. Thanks again!

I love your sense of humor and nicely done!