“Silence was pleased: now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon
Rising in clouded Majesty, at length
Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light,
And o're the dark her Silver Mantle threw.”
— Paradise Lost

I created this picture in Vue to use for a mural on my bedroom wall.

This is a reverse of Pass of Light; I basically just turned the (virtual) camera around. It didn't take nearly as long to render without the glowing translucent castle in the background.

A cold and barren landscape doesn't have to be grim. I did a phoenix-like abstract work before, so I thought an ice phoenix would be an interesting variation. Created in Vue, with the streaming effect done in Paint Shop Pro. The texture on the phoenix is from the background of Waltz of the Snowflakes.

A fantasy winter landscape created in Vue. I wanted a winter scene that focused mainly on the landscape but was obviously fantasy. This was also an experiment in working with snow, getting it to sparkle and reflect the light for an “other-worldly” effect. It was an extremely long render on account of all the lights and reflective and translucent surfaces, but I was able to just run it in stops and starts over about a month.

Not more than one person in five hundred years finds this tiny island. It doesn't stay in one place very long. But anyone who is drawn to these mysterious lanterns, and comes to get a closer look, vanishes into another world, and never comes back. The question is, do they want to?

The celestial orchard where stars and moons are grown. Created entirely in Paint Shop Pro. I'd had the idea for this image in my mind for a while, and finally got around to making it. I got a lot of practice with the pen tool, and these tree shapes might show up again.

“‘Down there,’ said Golg, ‘I could show you real gold, real silver, real diamonds.’

“‘Bosh!’ said Jill rudely. ‘As if we didn't know that we're below the deepest mines even here.’

“‘Yes,’ said Golg. ‘I have heard of those little scratches in the crust that you Topdwellers call mines. But that's where you get dead gold, dead silver, dead gems. Down in Bism we have them alive and growing. There I'll pick you bunches of rubies that you can eat and squeeze you a cup full of diamond-juice. You won't care much about fingering the cold, dead treasures of your shallow mines after you have tasted the live ones of Bism.’”
— C.S.Lewis, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair”, Chapter 14, “The Bottom of the World”

Frodo and his friends are leaving the Shire secretly by going west into the Old Forest, instead of north to the road. The Forest is reached through a break in the Hedge used to keep the unfriendly trees out of the Shire …

“It had walls of brick at the sides, which rose steadily, until suddenly they arched over and formed a tunnel that dived deep under the Hedge and came out in the hollow on the other side.

“It was dark and damp. At the far end it was closed by a gate of thick-set iron bars. On the far side was a faint path leading up on to the floor of the Forest; but it vanished as soon as it brought them under the trees.”
— The Lord of the Rings, Book I, Chapter 6

Someone's up late on this medieval night.

“The blue rose means mystery. An appreciation for the enigmatic, the inexplicable is expressed by the blue rose. A tantalizing vision that cannot be totally pinned down, a mystery that cannot be fully unraveled is the blue rose. A person who receives the blue rose is the subject of much speculation and thought. A complex personality that does not allow easy interpretation is what the blue rose indicates.”
— FlowerMeaning.info

“Due to the absence in nature of blue roses they traditionally signify a mystery, or attaining the impossible, or never ending quest for the impossible. They are believed to be able to grant the owner youth or grant wishes..”
— Wikipedia

This was my first “professional” image created with Vue software. I had tried out the beginner versions of the software (with all the limitations such as size and watermarks that come with that type of software) and decided I wanted to invest in learning this program and making extensive use of it in my future artwork.