The Clover Patch

Well this is actually a piece I have had sitting on my computer for well over a month now. I made the mistake of starting with the lion before figuring out a background for the piece....so it turned into nothing short of one hurdle after another. The initial idea I actually got while browsing google for pictures of something (what I don't even recall precisely). But I came across this photo of a moth and for whatever reason the second I saw its wings I thought "LION Eyes!"...and the sketch went on from there. The actual moth species is called Polyphemus and hails from somewhere in Virginia (correct me if I am wrong). What got the idea going even more was realizing that both moths and Lion's have one similarity..they are both predominantly nocturnal. And for that matter I always thought moths to be underappreciated, unlike cousin butterfly. I have always thought them extremely beautiful, even the common ones that we have around here. I have several ideas along this line for future pieces (ie white tiger, black tiger, red panda(as per my friend's request).

Now to explain the background and choice of colors. At first I was going with a color scheme of predominantly reds oranges and the like which matched the moth nicely. But what I didn't like and what several of my friends pointed out was it made the critter blend far too much in the background and distracted from him too much. I agreed and decided the background had to contrast from the moth lion in order for the cub to stand out. After much tinkering around I went with soft pale blues( I think I stumbled across a daily dev here on deviant of a butterfly against a pale blue/white backdrop and it just clicked!). As for the clover patch, though very subtle and blurred..it was intended to give the scene some sense of scale, ie the cub being life size to a real moth. As for the sparkles, after I finished the rest of the piece, it just seemed a tiny bit lacking..so I threw those in, but if folks prefer the piece without them, I can subtitute the version without.

I think that is all, enjoy folks! Oh and critique is discouraged because I don't want to work on this piece anymore...any small constructive suggestions are of course welcome.

Tools: mechanical pencil for original sketch, photoshop for final version
Size: zpprox 5000 x 5000 pixels at 250 dpi.
Time taken: your guess is as good as mine. At leaaasssst 20-30 hours.
Print availability: yes, limited edition signed large prints to be available at a future date.

*** Please respect the work and time put into the piece and FULL VIEW! Thanks in advance ***

Edit: well looks like I had to start watermarking, I really did not want it to come to this but I had no choice, I am tired of folks ripping my stuff.