An End to the Means Process

I just finished a commission for a local indie jazz musician, Andy Mowatt.  He's releasing his new album An End to the Means, so he needed a cover for his cd and vinyl release.  He asked for something in the vein of Runaways, something post-apocalyptic with a similar atmosphere and color scheme. He wanted an image to really show the idea "An end to the means," or in other words, a new beginning from a disastrous end.  Most of these show life growing up out of the rubble.

   
                                            ^ He decided he liked this one.

The reasoning behind this one was to show this wasteland, a radioactive-yellow sky, and the smoking ruins of a once thriving city.  In the foreground, the catalyst for the apocalypse is planted like a seed, a massive, lush forest growing up around it, teeming with life.    
From there, I scanned it in at 600 dpi (dots per inch) and painted over it in photoshop.  I first did a rough painting over it it in greyscale, to get the composition, values and the depth of field to where I wanted it.  In order to accent the subject, I decided that the darkest part should be the forest, and the lightest part, the meteor. 
I then added the color to the rough values, trying to keep the color scheme succinct and unified.
As you can see, it's very rough and its only purpose is to get the general idea of what I'm trying to do. After I finished this rough, I printed it out to full size, 14 x 14 (larger than life, so the detail will shrink down a little tighter than I drew it.) I had to print out the 4 different corners and taped them together to get the full size.  I coated the back of the picture in graphic with a pencil, and transferred the image onto the cold press Bristol board.  I then used the graphite transfer as guidelines and drew over it with a blue col-erase pencil.
I inked over the lines with my #3 sable brush and black Winsor & Newton india ink.  I used the drybrush technique (blotting the first couple of strokes off the brush after dipping it, so the line becomes broken and textured), in an attempt to somewhat imitate the style of Craig Thompson. I then scanned it (again, in 4 parts, due to my smaller scanner) and pieced it back together in photoshop.
I cleaned up the lines before I started painting, but this is just the raw scan of the inks.  You can still see some of the blue lines.  Those will be taken out by using the Black and White adjustment and sliding the cyan setting so that it matches the white of the page.
The hardest part being done (some would say), I painted it in photoshop.  I made the inks in the jungle area deep purple for a little warmth, and the rest,  a dusty brown, so I could fade the background out, making it disappear into the distance, with a thick layer of dust filling the sky and making everything hazy.
The outline was simply to keep the dimensions all intact.  This was a halfway point of being finished, the background being in severe need of cleanup, though the foreground was, for the most part, finished.
This is the final (until further notice), with a slightly brightened up jungle and a mellowed out and tightened up background.  I ultimately decided to paint over the lines on the background, since it hurt the atmosphere more than it helped it.  The typeface is the same color as the jungle lines, so that it ties it all together.  
I hope you dig it!  Contact me if you want something done for you or spread the word to anyone who is looking for an artist! (that didn't come off as desperate, did it?) Stay tuned for some more art things!