I roughed in their bodies and found that they were both looking at . . . something. But I didn't know what .
... I flipped Scarface so that she was facing Miss Moose. Nah. They looked like they were mad at each other and I had already decided they were friends.
... So I flipped her back and merged the layers so I wouldn't be tempted to go back-- my rule is once the layers are merged you can't cheat and go back! (I break this rule all the time.)
... The question at this point was not how to keep the dynamic light on the lower figure while keeping the taller one out of the light's glare, but what was casting the light?
... It's a fantasy painting! It can be anything, right?
...I scribbled a bodiless, floating head with glowing eyes. Then it's mouth was glowing. Deleted it. Should they be facing a dragon? It's gotta be a small dragon to fit in the frame with the ladies. How about a floating fairy-kind of thing? A Tinkerbell with a flaming sword and a bad attitude! My initial sketch for that was painfully bad. Deleted it.
...A little frustrated, I put the painting away and went on with life. Days later I saw a desk-clock with an illuminated face and I knew I had my antagonist!
...I imagined the clock on the mantel of a fireplace, but my first attempts at expressing that idea showed me it was dull and problematic.
... So, how about a clock hovering magically in the air? Better. But I had to tilt the clock in order to get the light to shine down on Scarface but not on Moose, and it looked very very dull.
...I was stumped again, but instead of quitting I drew a monkey. I like monkeys. They make me laugh. Can't get enough of 'em. And since mechanical monkeys had been my shtick lately I went with it.
...I got about this far (pictured on the right), sat back, and decided that this was, easily, the most boring fantasy painting I'd ever laid eyes on. A heavy set elf-woman, a bare-chested sorceress with a face too hideous to show and a small mechanical monkey standing beneath floating desk clock tilted at a peculiar angle so that it casts light in a certain way-- it made me sleepy when I looked at it.
...Time to start over.
