Work in Progress - ImagineFX cover

The Fantasy and Sci-Fi digital painting magazine has a really awesome contest going on right now for a chance to create a cover for an upcoming issue. Here's a sneak peak at my entry-in-progress. Obviously, I've still got a ways to go. I started painting in black and white, because that makes it so much easier to establish the overall tones of the painting. I would argue that getting your tones right is the most essential part of any painting. Tone is what gives your image the look of being a real object in three dimensional space. Once I have this image fully rendered in black and white, I can go over it with pretty much any color scheme and it will still look good.