I created this image using a wider format than usual to imply theess of the ocean seen at image right. The geometry of the image's composition is intended to lead the eye out into thespace by positioning the objects to create a visual triangle whose apex ends in thespace. The colors were chosen to convey frigid temperature. I added the polar bear as a point of visual interest and for textural contrast. The bear also brings life into this otherwise stark and hostile place.

I originally rendered the image using an even wider aspect ratio, but cropped it back in the final version for aesthetic reasons. You can view a larger version (1024x384) that preserves the aspect of the original rendering. Click here.

The base image was modeled and rendered using Bryce 4. I made color adjustments and slightly softened the edges in Photoshop. I then hand painted the polar bear into the landscape using Painter Classic. The original rendering was done at 1600x600. That large size was needed to get a clean brush resolution for painting the bear in Painter Classic. Otherwise, the smallest Painter Classic brush was still too large to paint a realistic looking bear in the small size needed for this work. After painting, I used Photoshop to shrink the image to the size seen here. After Photoshop reduction, the bear retains more detail than I could have painted at the resolution shown above.

As an additional point of interest to people interested in 2D painting, in the normal version of Painter (not Painter Classic, which is a cost & feature reduced version of Painter) I could have painted the bear at a larger scale on a different layer from the Bryce rendering, then reduced it down to fit into the scene. That would have preserved the detail of the bear painted at the ;larger scale and made the job easier. Such a reduction would have also needed a little softening (blurring) after reduction to make it look natural against the background.