Moonrise at Loch Thallen

An elven lord and lady stand upon a stone pier watching the moon rise in the chill air over the gulf of Loch Thallen.

Since Bryce 6 *still* lacks pressure-sensitive tablet support, I created the terrain in 3ds max. The arched pier was made in SketchUp. I then used Bryce to render the scene.

From there, I brought the render into Photoshop where I horizontally flipped a sketch of an elven couple, and painted over them with flat colors to simulate standing behind them. A combination of Inner Shadow, Bevel, and Satin layer blends were used to give the painted outlines depth and to approximate the lighting used in the 3D portion of the scene.

Once I was satisfied with the lighting, I then went about finding suitable textures. The green cape is from an old shot of my Ranger Cloak, while I took a timed picture of the back of my head for the elf lord's hair. The lady's dress is actually a scarf that was folded just-so, while her hair is from a shot of one of my elven cousins.