@Gil_Ascher @ems
Thank you for your kind words!
Happy to hear that you like it.

Currently working on figuring out how I wish to pose her and present her in context.
It's a bit of a challenge, but I'll probably post a lot of rough sketches soon.

Dumping some of the sketches I've done.
Not all sketches were created equal...

So far I'm leaning towards the ones I put some rough values on.
I like seeing her at an angle, both from slightly above and below.
Personally, I feel like there's more feeling/emotion being conveyed when at an angle, as opposed to being at the same height as her. Paired with a tilted camera angle, it looks very dynamic and interesting to me.

From what I can tell, the strenghts of a wide canvas would be to showcase more movement and things happening, whereas the tall canvas lets me put more focus on just her.

Not quite sure what I want here to be honest.
It'd be cool to show her in combat being all strong and stuff, but I know that I'd enjoy painting a more calm character piece just as much.

I really like the feeling of the 2nd image though....

@Pregium
Yeah, that one really felt badass.
The only thing that kept me from working further on it was how "flat" it felt to me compared to the angled shots. It didn't quite fit my requirements for how dynamic I'd like the final piece to feel. That said, I think everything else you said can be applied to the other ones as well and possible elevate them even further - and I totally did think about it as I kept working on it.

@studio-petercools
Thanks man!
Having some background colors served like a painter's wash for me and helped the colors stay consistent. So far, I've been approaching all the parts in colors in a way similar to that of a traditional painter... not that I have much experience with that, so it's more like that I think it'd be like.

Trying out some of the things I liked in the previous stage, focusing on how the angle of the canvas and character work together. The only one I didn't like was the vertical canvas with an high angle of the character. It made her fill out the canvas way too efficiently, leaving to little room around her than I'd feel comfortable working with. (It wasn't that bad though.)

After putting some very rough values (I lack the patience to take this step seriously unless it's for work) I realized that the high angles didn't let me see the sky (unless reflected in a puddle or something) and I really wanted to show some nice sunrise-ish colors in my painting to come.

Now here it gets a little interesting. I ended up going quite far with this one despite having been quite against the high angles so far. What happened was that I still had a difficult time letting go of the idea, as I thought it was the lack of detail in the previous versions that held them back.

That was not the case. I simply couldnt' think of anything to put in the background that'd support what I wanted the final piece to convey. Be it structures, nature or people - the piece would just feel so heavy, like the mood would be so heavy, with this angle. The details looked nice, but I couldn't quite figure out the legs. Might've been something with the hips.

At last, I landed on something different. I knew what I liked and what I thought worked in the previous ones. Only thing left to do was to put only those things in the final sketch and ditch the rest.

What I really like is the fact that the angle isn't too dramatic and leaves a lot of room for the design to be on full display. Also a little bit excited to make some more one-off designs for the other vikings in the back.

Now, the question is...
Do I want to just try and wing it with paint straight away or will I do more prep-work?
The answer is most likely the latter, but It's very likely that I'll start painting sooner than usual.

Anyways, progress is being made. At this rate, it should be possible to finish in time.

I wonder if I should add in more people later on. Like, in the far back.
It seems like it'd be worth it. They kind of clutter the composition (lol), but if they're far enough from the main stuff, maybe the value difference can make it work. I'll just have to try it out and see for myself.

Mmm yes. I think so to.
Feels a bit like the people in the back needs to be put into context.
She's clearly someone imporant among them and that's her thing, but the rest kind of lacks a purpose. At least, for now.

I initially planned on doing something more akin to a sunrise.

But then I saw the potential to put a hole in the clouds and really create some vertical depth through them, so I switched to putting the sun up there instead.

I've also adjusted the positions and size of all the characters to better match up with the perspective.

Yeah... I totally went for the "paint until it works out" approach.

Thanks!
It's almost funny how I didn't see it until just now, considering how I already knew I wanted to have the clouds go round her like that.

I tried to get as much done with the little time I had available.
Grey is such an amazing "color". One second it's warm, another it's cold. When the colors clash, go grey and now it works. I know the theory behind it, but seeing it in action wlays blows my mind.

I think... as soon as I've gotten far enough, I'll start merging layers and just paint on top.
I want any sharp edges to have been made with a brush, rather than a mask. Makes it look less digital to me.

My tablet (it's one of those screen based ones) doesn't seem to accurately show colors to me, so I have to double check them on a different screen afterwards. Turns out everything was a little bit too green. Way more than I intended to.

The lack of cast shadows makes the characters feel disconnected to the piece, but I'm leaving them for later. If you look at the area around her shoulders and head alone, I think you can get a pretty good feel for the target quality of the piece. I'd say I'm aiming to get it all to a level somewhat above that.

Before I get started on polishing, what's left to do are:
* The two guys next to her
* The ground beneath them
* Cast Shadows
* Bringing all the pieces together (making sure everything feels like it exists together or something like that)
* Final Polishing and fancy effects and whatnot

He looks kind of funny rendered out.

Slow progress. I've been lazy.
I'm not sure why I've slowed down so much.

Anyways, that's the update this time.

@oleg.evglevskyy Thanks man!
I haven't had the time to check out everyone else's work as much as I did previous years, so I'm trying to compensate by leaving stuff for people to engage with, should they come by my page.