I'd like to proudly present my *coughlongawaitedcough* slightly overdue half of an Art Trade with my good friend, and a tremendously talented artist, This is her extremely beautiful character Carvea! I've been working on this picture for AGEs... and I've probably had the background done for at least 6 months. Unfortunately, my art muse abandoned me for a while.... but was recently rediscover hiding in my re-installed wacom tablet (which is FINALLY working properly with my computer!) What a difference pressure sensitivity makes! *rheall did an absolutely GORGEOUS picture of my character Kaiara some time ago [link] and I'm just glad to finally return the favor! *Glomps the stuffing out of Rheall*

Some notes about this piece: I DID use a reference photo for the BG, but created almost all of this myself. It took about 15 layers. The trees, sadly, are not my own design, but instead a brush. And unfortunately - I lost my info on just who made it due to having to reformat the Harddrive - so if anyone knows who I should credit for those lovely trees - please let me know! The majority of this pic was done in Photoshop 7, using my Wacom tablet. It's the first picture I've ever done using both of those as the primary tools. I did use a bit of Photopaint for a few bits...but only about 10%.

Also - I owe a big part of the creation of this to *Losmios because it was a tutorial that she created that helped me completely revamp this pic! I did the body of Carvea completely in grayscale - before adding color later. And what a difference it made! Lovely Los - you're the best!