The Vanquisher of Evil...bushes...

I'm doing another project for a parent.  this time it's for my Mom.  She has been asking me for over a year if I would illustrate a favorite memory.  She likes to laugh about when I was a young tyke I would run around beating bushes with sticks and play swords.  I was really in to He-Man (still am) and I guess I had picked up some curse words on TV or something, and swore at the bush -- much to my Mother's dismay.

at any rate, here are some full sketches after about a million thumbnails.  I emailed them to Bill Carmen, my illustration instructor, and he wasn't amused that I split the composition in half vertically.  When he pointed it out, neither was I.  I'll admit I was pretty embarrassed.  I know better!

I was still hung up on what to do about the extra space as shown here, it is still empty.  I have a new set of compositional sketches that are in the approval process.

Oh and this will be an acrylic painting as well.