Even the longest day of the year eventually turns to dusk, and the fireflies come out.

“Silence was pleased: now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon
Rising in clouded Majesty, at length
Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light,
And o're the dark her Silver Mantle threw.”
— Paradise Lost

I created this picture in Vue to use for a mural on my bedroom wall.

This is a Christmas version of Wind in the Pines. It was inspired by a visit to my grandfather's timber farm, which is why the pines are in rows. It's almost like being out in the forest, just a little more orderly!

This is a reverse of Pass of Light; I basically just turned the (virtual) camera around. It didn't take nearly as long to render without the glowing translucent castle in the background.

I wanted to do something with lots of jewel tones. Created entirely in Paint Shop Pro.

A fantasy winter landscape created in Vue. I wanted a winter scene that focused mainly on the landscape but was obviously fantasy. This was also an experiment in working with snow, getting it to sparkle and reflect the light for an “other-worldly” effect. It was an extremely long render on account of all the lights and reflective and translucent surfaces, but I was able to just run it in stops and starts over about a month.

A simple Christmas desktop made in Vue. I like to reuse my abstract designs as textures, so the sky texture comes from Chaos Tie-Dyed, and the red and gold balls from Rubies & Gold.

The celestial orchard where stars and moons are grown. Created entirely in Paint Shop Pro. I'd had the idea for this image in my mind for a while, and finally got around to making it. I got a lot of practice with the pen tool, and these tree shapes might show up again.

This was the result of playing around with gradient overlays and an old Apophysis render that had been calling for me to find a use for it. The jewel is actually the first one I ever designed in 2008 following a tutorial, but for some reason I missed the part about how to add the shine and couldn't figure out why it looked so flat . Three years later I finally revisited it and came up with this.

“The blue rose means mystery. An appreciation for the enigmatic, the inexplicable is expressed by the blue rose. A tantalizing vision that cannot be totally pinned down, a mystery that cannot be fully unraveled is the blue rose. A person who receives the blue rose is the subject of much speculation and thought. A complex personality that does not allow easy interpretation is what the blue rose indicates.”
— FlowerMeaning.info

“Due to the absence in nature of blue roses they traditionally signify a mystery, or attaining the impossible, or never ending quest for the impossible. They are believed to be able to grant the owner youth or grant wishes..”
— Wikipedia

This was my first “professional” image created with Vue software. I had tried out the beginner versions of the software (with all the limitations such as size and watermarks that come with that type of software) and decided I wanted to invest in learning this program and making extensive use of it in my future artwork.