My first illustration entry! Done with colour pencil, had to tweak the colours much after scanning it back in, learned that scanning drawings doesn't do it any good, the real one is nicer :-{ This is the lovely original: http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/5546000/5546461_39af.jpg , thanks marymagdalyne...
Win or lose, I figure the only way I'm going to get better is to try. This was definitely a learning experience for me. Lots of layers of curves, levels and color adjustments. Spent hours trying different things to make the eyes look old until I looked in the mirror and realized the eyes don't age, just the face around the eyes. Any and all suggestions on what I did wrong or how to improve are welcome.
Thanks to DerekBurns for the great painting! originalPretty rough colorization, but I think it fits the painting style quite well :)
Thanks to bajazet for I Spay
Thanks to Tygerson for this fantastic art. Guardian
That'll teach me for being new to the site, I edited the crappy lowres JPG image and noth the high quality BMP. This oversight was discovered after I'd completed the entire image - including removal of JPG artifacts. Even though I thought it a little strange that an entry source image would be less than perfect, I was a little page blind when reviewing the rules. So, here it is anyway, from a smaller lowres source because I will not have any time tomorrow to redo my entry.
Many thanks to Tygerson for the wonderful image!!