A much needed Reap the Earth picture. I went all over the place in this pic, and just let my imagination run in autopilot once I got the soldier done. I really did not understand the mechanics of shading very well but I just wanted to paint, so I jumped in recklessly (this was one of several submissions rendered December 10-20 2011, so I was cranking these out every other day). My amateurish artistry was confirmed by the fact that I used the burn tool for ALL the shading... clipping masks I didn't figure out until later in Spring.

The weapon was also interesting... a plasma 'carbine' that instantly doubles as a 'sword', though its technically a bayonet.