I stumbled over 's fantasy landscape contest yesterday and couldn't help participating. It's been quite some while since I painted something for a contest and I hadn't actually planed on participating in any again, but I love both fantasy and landscapes, so this was an easy decision for me
No reference used, but two or three texture-brushes for parts of the background. Photoshop 7 + Aiptek 12000u
You can see a picture illustrating the process of creating this in my scraps section. [link]
-Edit- Incase you're interested in seeing where the ladder leads to:
I see your marvelous deviations and I always wonder about the yellow bird...it kind of reminds me of Max Ernst the Surrealist's symbol of his bird Loo Loo, or something like that, which died when his brother was born...can't remember clearly. Anyways, the bird meant death's marvelous connection with life. What does this bird mean for you? I like him or her a lot by the way