The Gates of Hell

I can't believe this is the first drawing I have done in two years.  Thankfully, during those two years I looked at a lot of tutorials, so I wasn't as rusty as I thought I'd be.  I did this piece as a commission for a Catholic magazine, to use as their cover.  It's supposed to be C.S. Lewis' Aslan confronting J.R.R. Tolkien's Smaug, as well as an allegory for Christ's descent into Hell.  I was going to totally geek out and have Dante's "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" written in Dwarfish somewhere in the picture, but I couldn't fit it in.  Ah well.  I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, and with the fact that my skills actually seem to have improved during my two year hiatus (see my latest journal entry: x-silverwing-x.deviantart.com/… ).

Aslan and Smaug (c) their estates
Artwork (c) me

Stock used:
Arches:  uttermost.deviantart.com/art/F…
Stone Platform:  a-stock.deviantart.com/art/Pas…
Steps:  malleni-stock.deviantart.com/a…
Texture 1:  sirius-sdz.deviantart.com/art/…
Texture 2:  umerr2000.deviantart.com/art/T…