I created this image for the CGArena Haunted challenge and won the second prize. Knowing in advance the theme of the image, I tried to think of what other participants would choose (haunted houses, ghostly encounters, cemeteries...) and tried to go in as different a direction as I could. I vaguely knew my image would contain ruined stone, rusty metal, and water, and elaborating on that is how the idea of a railroad disaster came to be.

For this image I decided to do everything by the books, starting with as many sketches as I could, until I got a good composition, both in terms of forms and colors. The sketching was done mostly during work meetings (I am a software engineer), where I learned the invaluable skill of how drawing and making it look like taking notes. Once I got a sketch finalized, I scanned it into Photoshop and finalized the colors. ...