D-o-H Contest entry

Well finally I got the dang thing done! This one kicked my butt so many times, although it was a great deal of fun making this. I don't think I have done something with so many layers, details and things that I was so anal about.

Nearly 20 layers went into the making of this, from outline to stain glass lines to colors to frame colors to all that jazz. Even if I don't win, I had a great time with it.

I would have been done much sooner (there was a month to complete it), but I got really sick and was out of everything for about a week, then my power was turned off for two days, I had to play 'catch up' in school since the clock keeps ticking even when I'm sick, so I lost about 2 to 2 and a half weeks work time in this, but I'm just really glad I finished and it turned out so well.

One way or the other, the title of this picture is 'The Beginning of the Legend'.
Some of my friends may recognize the setup from the every popular 'Zelda manga'. Yes, I did base the picture off of it, and in fact used it as a template for the outlines so I could get the proportions right.

The forest background behind the window was found on Bing images WAY back when, so credit to photographer on that one. Why did I choose a foresty background for the window in the Temple of Time? Well in TP, Faron has obviously grown around the Temple of Time.
In OoT, there is a small forest behind the Temple of Time, so if this window were in the right place, there'd be a wood behind it, that's why.

Thank you for extending the contest deadline for me. I hope you like the picture.




***edit February 5th***
Well as usual my sister decided to spit on my work... I showed it to her and this is what she said; 'Oh that's cool, I like that. I love the background there. Tree needs to be transparent though. I can't really tell there's a background too. Oh and if you're going for accuracy, they didn't really have brown, just different shades of red. Are you gonna add stone texture?'

._. *sad face*




***edit February 11th***
I shoulda done this on the 6th, but all well. I feel better about my work now, as a nice friend of mine reminded me why I did it and what I was going for in the piece. See, when I was little, I lived in Italy, and had the opportunity to go into an Italian cathedral. I remember the windows in it were beautiful, and you could see outside, but not very well.
I also wanted the tree to be a main focus, which is why I didn't put it semitransparent, because I knew that would take away from what I was trying to bring attention to.
Further more, I only wanted the forest background to be a piece to the whole, like something that's there, and it adds to it, but you can't actively see it.
Same with the stone texture. In my original design, the window frame had a texture and design, light and shadows and was a big part of the overall picture, but since there's so much stone there, when I put the first bit of the stone texture, it distracted my eyes from the window. I'm sitting there thinking "Ok if it distracts me and I'm the one who drew the window, it's going to distract everyone else", so I took the stone out and I just gave it simple stone coloring, and I honestly like it this way a lot more. I want most of the focus on the window, not the holder for it.

So thank you to everyone who helped me out and gave me that little booster I needed.