completed December 2004 created with Painter 8, Photoshop 7 This was the customer's Christmas gift for her longtime best friend. I've never received such a specific description for a commission pic before! It's actually harder the more specific the customer is, so it was a challenge and I tried my best. The description I got pretty much fits this image about 95% exactly. The tree is supposed to be a fictional cross between maple and beech. The more I worked on the picture, the more surreal and dreamy it looked to me, so I kind of aimed for that by the end.