Behold! The Nightmare

This piece was done for CGHub's Illustrated challenge, the topic this time being 'song lyrics. So I chose the Smashing punmpkin's song of the same name, after hearing the song while at work and being struck by a visual.

I've faced the fathoms in your deep
Withstood the suitors quiet siege
Pulled down the heavens just to please you
Appease you
The wind blows and I know

I can't go on, digging roses from your grave
To linger on, beyond the beyond
Where the willows weep
And whirlpools sleep, you'll find me
The coarse tide reflects sky

And the night mare rides on, and the night mare rides on
With a december black psalm
And the night mare rides on
What I fear is lost here
The wind blows and I know


The initial sketch - done with a little ref but mostly out of the head!


Here you can see some of the many refs I had up while painting, including old master paintings that captured the right kind of feeling, or that had cool fabric folds and colours. The girl on the left is from the stock gallery Iardicil on deviantart. I also used an image from Ulvar's stock account for the horse on the left.


From this point on it's just rendering out bit by bit.