Book Cover commish

So, a while ago I agreed to do a book cover for a friend, so here is the final image and some in-process shots...

SO. Yeah. Turne out surprisingly well. The funny thing is the image will be printed about 4 inches tall by 6 inches wide, so most of the detail will be lost. Ah well, was a nice little challenge though. Total work load was probably 10-12 hours, in-photoshop work about 8 hours (lots of fiddly bits)